There has been a news item on BBC Oxfordshire about Kites bothering young children and flying off with full sized poultry.I was unable to get the link to post but I found it through the Bird Forum Birds of Prey thread if anyone can get the link up.I looks like a lot more bad PR for our raptor friends again.If anyone con find the item and post a link it could lead to an interesting discussion,sorry I could not manage to do it.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
Most likely trying to snatch food, from the heron.
some stats
Grey heron wingspan 6.56 ft - 2m 3.5-4lb in weight
red kite wingspan 5.5ft - 1.56m 2-3lb in weight
bit of a mismatch, quite well armed with a dagger beak!!!
It's both what you do and the way that you do it!
You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren. William Henry Hudson (1841 - 1922)
Germain,I can understand either a Marsh or Hen Harrier taking bantam sized live poultry,they are much heavier built birds and in the wild capable of catching reasonable weight prey.On the otherhand a Red Kite is a lightweight feeder and from the ones I have observed are mainly scavengers,feeding mostly on carrion or worms and beetles
Mpiekp,an interesting theory may be a lot in it,you would have to be hungry to tackle a Heron with that beak,I had scars on my arm for ages after handling a Heron to disentangle it from fishing tackle many years ago.
They are pirates!!! Their basic fair is carrion(including stolen kills), small mammals and birds.
see here www.gigrin.co.uk/red_kites_feeding_habits.html
and here for evidence, btw nice gallery here too www.pbase.com/.../kites
That second link has some great photos,Yes I suppose they are pirates,still no excuse for a cull or as they do in our area,indiscriminate poisoning and shooting
Oh I fully agree, they are only just spreading out, any poisening etc must be dealt with as strictly as possible. There is no need or excuse for a cull, but this is a side effect of the success of gigren et al that feed them, these places understand the bird perfectly, but people get the idea that they can replicate this.....
then demand a cull when it goes wrong
mpiekp said:There is no need or excuse for a cull
We made them all but extinct in the UK once, surely we couldn't possibly make the same mistake again
Best wishes Chris
Click Here to see my photos
Hmm lessons learned is not a strong human trait, more's the pity
Suggest Gigrins information does not mean much as they feed half a ton of food a week I understand so those Kites never get to Dorset and certainly would not need to feed on what Kites feed on away from that area,as relevant as what animals eat in zoos.
What understandably started as a good help to establish them has now turned into keeping massive numbers and stopping them colonising other areas.
Sooty, the Gigrin link states what the natural diet is, that's the only context it's been posted in.
TBH I think they would be foolish to stop yet, especially in light of recent events. I think it is good to have a strong core population, especially when scaremongering and gun whoring are starting already.
unfortunately as I have asked before feeding stations are causing the birds to rely on humans to feed them and I don't believe its the right thing to do. The trouble is if the feeding stops lots of birds will die
Ray
a good laugh is better than a tonic