Kites?

[Jdsk]

Very common birds indeed now in the area I usually trundle about on my bike, with no gap between the Chiltern release population and the population that I think started with a release at Rockingham in Northants. They’re so common across Bucks and Northants, and the bits of Beds and Oxon that I get to that you can almost rely on seeing one somewhere in the sky if you’ve got a good field of view, and I wonder if they are displacing other birds.

I don't know of any evidence that they are. And it is often remarked that other raptors are more common than they were before the explosion of red kites.

We're in south Oxfordshire and certainly see more buzzards than previously.

I found one study with numbers:
https://www.hawk-conservancy.org/conser ... opulation/

Jonathan

[al_yrpal]

When I lived in S Oxon there was a particular wooded lane where there was a buzzards nest. The buzzards regularly swooped on you as you cycled past. One time a buzzard actually scrammed my head fortunately protected by my helmet. Once I counted 23 kites overhead because a near neighbour was feeding them.

Al

[Bonefishblues]

When I lived in S Oxon there was a particular wooded lane where there was a buzzards nest. The buzzards regularly swooped on you as you cycled past. One time a buzzard actually scrammed my head fortunately protected by my helmet. Once I counted 23 kites overhead because a near neighbour was feeding them.

Al

I'm sure that research in Chile illustrated very clearly that helmets were likely to increase, not decrease the chances of injury in case of attack from birds of prey, didn't it?

[Cugel]

When I lived in S Oxon there was a particular wooded lane where there was a buzzards nest. The buzzards regularly swooped on you as you cycled past. One time a buzzard actually scrammed my head fortunately protected by my helmet. Once I counted 23 kites overhead because a near neighbour was feeding them.

Al

I'm sure that research in Chile illustrated very clearly that helmets were likely to increase, not decrease the chances of injury in case of attack from birds of prey, didn't it?

Yes, the Chilean birds are very sensible, even rational, so do their helmet research and then become exasperated by silly humans adding even more unnecessary plastic to their domains by buying polystyrene in huge quantities for no apparent reason. However, what those justifiably annoyed birds have not realised is that shredding a plastic bonce-bonnet will only accelerate the polystyrene pollution 'cos the idiot human will just go out and buy another one. Doh!

Just wait 'til they find out about all those gel wrappers!

Cugel, wishing I could fly.