Re: Some more birds of prey
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:25 am
The Red Kite is an interesting one - they have no natural predator save man - so what stops them? food? nope they are scavengers - so will scavenge from bins, dead animals, rubbish dumps - anywhere - their range is expanding rapidly - soon to be as common as the other scavenger - the crow!!ovenpaa wrote:Our local Buzzard community has steadily grown over the last ten years and they can be spotted on a virtually daily basis, sadly the Kestrel numbers are down, at least in our area. The Tawny population is doing very well and is slowly moving away from the Church yard, they can be noisy though, especially when one is perched on the chimney pot but regardless they are great to see and hear.
I do have very slight reservations about the Red Kite. It is possible to see up to 60 birds on the wing in some areas of the Cotswolds and they are in our area now. As much as I like to see them I do wonder when saturation will be reached and just how well the environment can sustain them and how well they are greeted by some of the land owners. It is not an exaggeration to say I have seen more Kite's up than Starlings on occasion.
As for the Buzzard 110,000 breeding pairs in the UK apparently - each producing 4-8 young each year!! you do the maths
Mike
- It is just British birds though. I didn't realise the Harris Hawk was an 'import' (googled it...) - If I saw an 'escapee' i'de mistake it for a buzzard (especialy from below). Of all your photos I like the HH best...there's something about it 