Hi Goldfinch
Where I live (Chilterns area, South Bucks) we see two or more but their visits are sporadic - maybe two or three times a week. Apparently they "commute" between here and where they originated from - being Gigrin Farm in Wales (as featured on Springwatch). As it happens I haven't seen "ours" for a couple of weeks or so and I wonder, as it is the moulting season, assuming they do moult, whether they are staying closer to home for the moment.
Squirrel
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
It probably is moulting time for the kites. After all, the parents have had a hard job bringing up the youngsters, so they need to relax and unwind. Any parents out there may empathise! :)
On an aside, I'm not sure you can say that the Chiltern kites came from Gigrin Farm. More likely the other way around! The Chiltern birds originally came from Spain, but with the success of the population there some birds have been relocated to other areas (including Wales, if memory serves, where there was already a remnant population of kites). As I recall, kites tend not to 'commute' too much, preferring to stay close to home, although some individuals do go on a bit of a touring holiday every now and again!
Reedbed, freshwater scrapes, saltmarsh and wet meadow. Frampton Marsh has it all! Come and pay us a visit soon.
Ah! I was only repeating what the chap from Gigrin Farm said on Springwatch when Simon King visited. He referred to birds from the Chilterns being there and, as I understood it, it was something to do with them being identified by the rings and that they had been relocated to the Chilterns from that farm. Obviously not. Sorry for any confusion.
Thanks for the reply. Am more sure now that it is probable that they're 'having a moult', due to the single one that i have seen had two very promenent tail feathers hanging by a thread! My daughter has seen a few over the college a couple of miles from here, so I am confident the Kites are about. Am planning on a trip this weekend to an obolisk on one of the highest points here in Aylesbury, so hope to have a positive count.
Incidently, Kites are not the only birds having a moult at present. Every thing in my garden appears to have been moulting this week, especially the woodpigeons. Any denser with feathers and it may look like it's been snowing!
One of my own photos taken with a very basic camera in June this year!