According to the RSPB, the kites in those parts have plenty of natural food sources and need no supplementary feeding, so don’t do it.ĭo say: “Red kite at morning, get under the awning!”ĭon’t say: “Red kite at regatta, talons off my piccata.” Well I think it’s great that these birds can once again thrive by preying upon the citizens of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. There may now be up to 1,000 breeding pairs in the area. The white primary flight feathers contrast with the black wing tips and dark secondaries. The body, upper tail and wing coverts are rufous. A number were released on John Paul Getty’s estate in the Chilterns, close to Henley. The Red Kite ( Milvus milvus) is a medium-sized raptor (L 60 cm), bigger and paler than Black Kite ( Milvus migrans) with deeply forked tail.
Then what happened? In the early 90s red kites were reintroduced to England and Scotland from Spain and Sweden. How come we haven’t heard about these attacks until now? There have been reports of red kites raiding picnics going back a few years, and the birds were well known as opportunistic thieves in Shakespeare’s time, but in between they were hunted to near extinction. If it wants your sausage roll, you should probably give it up. That also happens, but it’s worth remembering that a kite is a raptor with sharp talons and a wingspan of up to 1.5 metres. It reminds me of gulls fighting tourists for ice-creams on seaside piers. The suspicion is that people are feeding them so that they can get close-up pictures, and that this behaviour has sparked a free-for-all. There have also been local reports of stolen sausage rolls and hot cross buns, and even steaks lifted off barbecues. That’s quite a Henley-on-Thames story, if you don’t mind me saying. Ouch! And local resident Anna Howell was eating a salad in her back garden when a kite swooped down and helped itself to a bit of smoked mackerel. Only recently, a child in a pram suffered nasty cuts after a kite snatched a custard cream from his hand. Home of the regatta, and that thing where they count all the swans? The very same.īut why? Are these birds avenging something? Mostly they’re scavenging something. Where is this happening? In the remote desert wastes of some faraway land? No, in Henley-on-Thames. We’re talking about the red kite – a bird of prey from the same family as buzzards and harriers – attacking people. Appearance: From above, as if out of nowhere.Īre people getting tangled up in the strings, or what? Kite as in bird, not as in kite.
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