Birds of Prey....Your Pictures Wanted!

After superlative photos, some not so superlative action shots.

When I debone whole chickens, I save carcass bits in our freezer. After a while I end up with several frozen chicken bits, so fish them out to make stock, which is then made into delicious mixed pea soup.

Chicken bones and skin are not thrown into bin. Oh, no. They go onto a large (16") plant pot tray, and then the whole lot put onto a table positioned in the middle of our smallish garden.

Red Kites (and Magpies, Carrion Crows, Wood pigeons) all know that there is good eating to be had at chez Angus.  It is a dramatic sight to see Red Kites swoop down into our garden to grab as much as they can. Three chicken carcasses of bones and skin can disappear in an hour or two.

They generally approach over the front of the house, drop down the roof line, swoop onto the table with a touch and go, then have to swerve and flap like crazy to avoid the oak and birch trees at the back boundary. The agility and flying skills of the Red Kites is extraordinary.

Or so I thought.

A couple of days back, I noticed a Red Kite swoop down and pick up a bone. A few moments later I heard a ruckus out front. It appeared that some Carrion Crows had mobbed the Red Kite. Said kite then swooped down into our front garden to retrieve its bone.

Their agility is astounding. As you look at these photos you have to bear in mind that the bone is about 10 feet from our house. Somehow, the Kite had dropped down a two story house, to grab the bone. Amazing. It must have made like a Harrier jump jet, dropping vertically, with a bit of side slip.

As for the photographer. Well, I legged it into our dining room to grab my camera. I then just pointed my Canon 80D out of our front window and hoped for the best. One eye against view finder, and the other eye open to, hopefully, spot the Kite as it descended. The whole sequence was over in about 1 1/2 seconds.