Red Kites in trouble again !!!!

Many of our restablished Kites have acquired a propensity to associate humans with free food just as seaside Gulls have, and this isn't a good thing.  Personally I find the prospect of having a Kite snatch titbits from my fingers rather appealing but I can understand why it freaks some people out.

As has already been stated, the answer is to refrain from encouraging them. They'll start ranging further for food and the problem interactions with humans will become less frequent.

I don't really have a problem with showpiece sites like Gigrin Farm. They simply provide alternatives to landfill sites (where continental Black Kites invariably hang out).

JBNTS

I will back up those who say now is the time to stop feeding.  Let them spread out and find their own food.    At the same time I cannot blame Gigrin for achieving an income and diversifying on an upland farm.

This might be quite wrong, I have tried to check it out, but do you not legally require a licence to feed Red kites?

The feeding stations like Gigrin do one thing well and that is help the non birding public to understand the behaviour of raptors.Setting up small non regulated feeding stations may be part of the problem,certainly never heard of this problem in other areas,like ours,where release programmes have taken place.

I hate these stories, as they appear over and over again in the local 'Rag- same format - final thought each and every time are the worst to hear.

The better quality papers do make interesting reading, and the BBC News link does the same.  What worries me most of all is when these stories start to go downhill to the point that the Red Kites are seen as 'devil birds to be erradicated from this planet' - that is my point!

It is more the written, word and the press in how they manage a story such as the one on this thread about the Red Kites - that is the thing I find most disturbing.

Bad press means that that some people might take the law into their own hands.  That is one thing that has been learned already with the near extinction of these wonderful birds to their current success.

In 2003, I lived at Stirlingshire and lived in the open countryside and was lucky to have these beautiful birds flying abovve my head on my doorstep.  I still remember 'Red Kite'  people talking to me about the plight of the Red Kites even at that point of time.  Their exact words to me where 'Please do not give away the area where you see these birds as they are a protected species'.  Funny that we remember such things as this - those words that mean a lot to the species as a whole.

Now what is happening that the birds success is maybe their downfall

We as bird lovers need to take prompt action before the situation worsens into 'Red Kite' mayhem.   IMHO I pray hope that this story might just blow over into space and not be heard of again for a long time into the future.

Wildlife have a right to live, and I think humans make things difficult by littering our streets with takeaways. That is what all birds will take advantage of.our mismanaged habits.

I am not sure if Red Kites prefer live prey as it need more energy to get their meal - or are they more like buzzards who prefer their meals dead like roadkill.  Red kites hang over motorways - is that for roadkill?  That is what I would like to know here?

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Kites are certainly quite happy to eat road kill or dead rabbits etc found in fields or on the moors,it is this feeding habit that I tihnk leads to them been poisoned.I cannot remember seeing them catch "full sized"prey such as rabbits or larger birds but we have watched the on smaller mammals and invertebrates.