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Here you can find advice on camping, outdoor activities and walking in the UK and abroad.

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Here you can find advice on camping, outdoor activities and walking in the UK and abroad.

The great outdoors

I am sure I saw a red kite this morning

98 replies

OwlLady · 04/12/2012 13:56

It was massive. I saw it from the back and it was flying through the woods near my house. I have never seen a bird with a wing span SO big I thought it was an owl to begin with... but it's body was too small

could it have been a red kite? I live in Beds

If anyone is bored enough, please advise :o

OP posts:

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MiddleAgeMiddleEngland · 25/10/2013 13:25

They are really common here, and so beautiful. A few years ago if we saw one, we'd point it out - 'oh, look, there's a red kite!' Nowadays we see them all the time, I'd be more likely to point out a sparrow.

They swoop over the house and garden, and are very welcome, although their loud whistling sound is enough to wake me up early in the summer when we have the windows open.

A fantastic conservation success story.

Godlessdomestic · 19/10/2013 14:46

We live in west Berkshire (nr Greenham Common) and often see Red Kites. They are the most magnificent birds.

meglet · 15/06/2013 15:14

There's 1-3 kites regularly above us, we're North Hampshire.

They're often lurking over the school playing field. I've not seen them swoop down and catch anything yet.

Stivian62 · 15/06/2013 15:02

Hi I also live in Cambridgeshire. The red kites appeared in large numbers here along the a1 corridor in the summer of July 2011. Flying over our garden. I was lucky enough to get a video. This video is available on you tube, type in red kite Cambridgeshire in google and select video. It is hosted by suffolkowls. They are now in Girton and other parts of Cambridgeshire. There are also buzzards in Wennington. I am still trying to get a photo in sunshine of the kites, but I keep missing them lol. Enjoy

faketandisaster · 16/03/2013 22:24

Loads here (Chilterns).

They're about as common as starlings...

EauRougelyNight · 29/12/2012 18:55

Wow, that must have been a tough kite! I quite regularly see them getting beaten up by crows near me. I think they fight over roadkill.

Loshad · 28/12/2012 23:28

There are loads on my commute to work, (past Harewood) I love watching them and one day i will probably swerve into a ditch watching them hunt.
We have kingfishers near my house, the village mag reported them missing this summer, I know better having seen them out hacking, but i reckoned if they had taken the bother to relocate then they didn't want to receive visitors

lidlqueen · 28/12/2012 23:13

they are quite savage - one time there was one flying low ahead of us in the lane and it had a crow in its talons - the poor fucker was squirming and wriggling but had no chance at all.

cutegorilla · 28/12/2012 23:12

I see them a lot here but I get excited every single time. They are so big and so beautiful

LAlady · 28/12/2012 23:09

We have loads of Red Kites round us - on the border of Berks/Bucks. In fact someone appears to leave food out for them everyday behind our house, and we have up to 10 of them swooping down. It actually can be a bit intimidating.

There was an article about how a Red Kite had tried to take a small dog in one of the fields near to us, in the local newspaper.

GrimmaTheNome · 08/12/2012 17:55

We don't have cranes in my neck of the woods yet, but masses of geese and swans at Martin Mere, some in flight (and all the usual wildfowl - hundreds of widgeon)

I also had an eider duck and a shelduck eating out of my hand - usually its only the nenes that dare do that. The eider was really enthusiastic - I'm glad they don't have teeth!

Overreactionoftheweek · 08/12/2012 15:58

I live in Berkshire and had to go to John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford for lots of scans during pregnancy...we felt like we were adopted by the red kites as we always saw them on the way to and from our appts - we took it as a good omen and indeed all turned out well!

Superstitious nonsense I'm sure but we now think of them as our family mascot and whenever we see one, we think that they're checking up on the baby!

FryingNemo · 08/12/2012 15:53

Another 150 cranes in a perfect V in the gloaming. Beautiful and noisy!

GrimmaTheNome · 07/12/2012 18:45

I had a gang of bumbarrels on my fatball feeder this afternoon (if you don't know what I mean, Google ).

FryingNemo · 07/12/2012 17:01

I saw three flights of cranes heading back down south today - it was one of those perfect nature spots. I was outside shovelling snow and I heard them. I looked up and saw three Vs against the snow clouds.

OwlLady · 06/12/2012 12:21

oh, it's because I am not a bird :o

OP posts:

SilverSky · 05/12/2012 23:54

We had a robin lay eggs and they hatched in our shed. All four. Then one day they'd all fledged. Not a thank you or anything. Talk about ungrateful.

ArtfulAardvark · 05/12/2012 19:45

No owl lady the Robins are feisty with other birds, after watching for a while I had a look in DHs bird book and it said they are very territorial. They tolerate the Dunnocks but are real thugs to the blue tits.

OwlLady · 05/12/2012 18:34

I have had a munjac die in my garden :( god knows what from

I can't bear the foxes as they worry me (sorry) I can smell them when i am outside, especially of an evening (the cubs are cute but I will keep that to myself )

OP posts:

EauRougelyNight · 05/12/2012 18:09

Ah right, I know where you are. The kites are gradually spreading, a couple of years ago they never used to fly over the village; they would just stick to the farmland west of where I live. Now you can see them flying over the A1M so they are going further east and there are definitely more of them.

hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman · 05/12/2012 16:28

EauRougelyNight - East Cambs, I live backing on to the National Trust's first ever nature reserve it's still going strong some 100+ years later.

greenhill · 05/12/2012 14:50

The magpies must have known the fur would keep their nests warm!

I had a white rabbit when I was little and used to groom it in the garden, my DM used to tell me that the birds used to gather it up for their nests too.

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SmallIWantForXmasIsA6ft2Dwarf · 05/12/2012 14:41

True greenhill (actually that's all they do here too!) it was more the combination of wildlife tbh.

The magpies attack the muntjac in our garden, they started pulling its fur off it's back the big meanies!

Frontpaw · 05/12/2012 13:56

We have foxes here. I watch them sauntering along the wall at the back! The buggers do go after the bin bags too! I think they live in Hyde Park as I have seen them next to the Royal Albert Hall and Gloucester Road too.

greenhill · 05/12/2012 13:52

Surely you had plenty of foxes in London, ripping the bin bags open?! small

We have foxes, badgers and muntjacs visiting our garden. One year a female muntjac deer ate every single head off the tulips in our back garden, before they had opened. Because of her limp, I had been too kind to open the window and frighten her off.

It is a real privilege to see the new cubs/ fauns visiting every year

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