Milvus milvus

[GREENGRASS]

From sometime back, just deleting old images to free up my H.D.

GG      Full size images Flickr:- GREENGRASS   F1

CODE 6

CODE 4

Edited January 18, 2021 by GREENGRASS

[rapid rich]

Beautiful 

[old man]

Superb,

[Jim Neal]

Cracking images.  Red kites are common as seagulls round here!  Honestly if people come from an area where seeing a raptor is a rarity, you'd wet yourself at the sight of 50 or more red kites in a vortex swirling up and down over a field.

[London Best]

11 hours ago, Jim Neal said:

Cracking images.  Red kites are common as seagulls round here!  Honestly if people come from an area where seeing a raptor is a rarity, you'd wet yourself at the sight of 50 or more red kites in a vortex swirling up and down over a field.

In the Chilterns I hung a gralloched Fallow up a tree to drain whilst I went to look for another one. When I returned an hour later there were 27 Kites sitting in the tree.

[Jim Neal]

10 hours ago, London Best said:

In the Chilterns I hung a gralloched Fallow up a tree to drain whilst I went to look for another one. When I returned an hour later there were 27 Kites sitting in the tree.

Wow.  They certainly don't miss a trick do they!  Had they tucked in already or were they just putting their napkins around their necks?!

I'm fairly convinced round here they've learned to go and check it out when they hear a shotgun popping away.  Whether it's roost shooting, decoying or driven game they come flocking in and circle overhead, often getting very brave and swooping quite low.  I think they've learned that there's always a bird or two that never gets picked.  Smart creatures, opportunists!

I've had to pull away on a few shots when roost shooting because there's been a kite above the pigeon.  They also seem to home in on lofted decoys, which is a nuisance because it's very distracting having the kites circling around constantly drawing your eyesight to them 😅

A few seasons ago on our shoot, a pheasant was shot off a game cover and the bird dropped way back into the wood which we were shooting a couple of drives later.  We decided not to risk disturbing the wood until we beat it through but little more than an hour after the bird fell we retrieved just a carcass with some stringy bits hanging off it!

 

[London Best]

I have seen the long dropper pheasant scenario only three weeks ago, with visual proof that, in this case, the culprit was a Buzzard.  
Again, in the Chilterns, my stalking partner had a hanging Muntjac carcass ruined by Kites.  I was luckier with the Fallow.
Nearly thirty years ago I used to stalk goats in Snowdonia. Barely a Raven in sight until the rifle went off, when they would appear like vultures. Clever birds!  
Kites always appear during the partridge drives on a large estate in Leicestershire where I used to be a loader.

Edited January 25, 2021 by London Best