A Sky Full of Kites

For several weeks now, I have seen Red Kites every day. Today though the skies have been full of them. While my better half was ironing the top she was planning to wear, I saw one out of the window and pointed it out to her. A nice shared moment and a clear sighting of this magnificent bird. Then as we were going out while at the bus stand, we saw two different Kites. Then as we returned, there was other shared sighting. I know that my partner does not share my fascination for these raptors, but she is amused by my childlike attitude to them.

Then after I had cook us both lunch, and she had departed to meet a friend, I headed into Consett and I saw yet another of the Kites as I waited for the bus. As I watched, I realised that there were two young girls watching me and laughing at the strange man that was watching the skies. I was so absorbed with watching the birds that I nearly missed seeing that the bus was coming. This left two children laughing at the (supposed) adult.

It really is a great conservation success story as Red Kites were absent from the area until reintroduced by the RSPB. Now it is a rare day that I do not see one of them. Yet no matter how often I see them, I am never failed to be impressed by them or their behaviour. An example of this happened just two days ago. I suddenly became aware of the Jackdaws together in a large flock calling and wheeling over the roofs near by. I could not see what they were reacting to, but it was focused on something hidden behind one of the chimney stack. It could have been food that was eliciting this reaction, but it was the numbers that made me doubt that as the flock was about seventy or eighty in number.

I had to wait only a few minutes to see a Red Kite stretch its wings and take to the air. My best guess was that it had stopped to feed, but can not be sure. However, it was actually a real surprise to see the Kite there as while I had suspected it was likely to be a raptor the Jackdaws were mobbing. But as the previous day I had seen a Peregrine Falcon hunting, I had expected to see the Falcon and not the Red Kite.

It had been early in the morning, in the early full light I had been watching the pigeons wheeling and tumbling in the sky. As pigeons have a characteristic way of folding their wings to slow and tumble, it was a rather small dot high in the sky that caught my eye as is was alone. When it folded its wings it looked different and I saw it drop like a stone. It was only experience of observing birds that told me what it was, and remarkably I saw the falcon enter the pigeon flock and emerge with one in its talons. This was not close, about one hundred and fifty yards away but close enough to see the kill and the falcon clearly.

Therefore it was the falcon I had thought that had elicited the wrath of the Jackdaws and not the Red Kite. While Kite prefer to stay airborne and will feed on the wing, as I have oft observed, the will come to the ground occasionally. Thus while on the bus today with my better half, when I saw a Red Kite on the ground, on the golf course, I knew it had found food and was covering it with its wings.

All going to make the day a real Red Kite day.