Thursday 11 March 2010

Kite Helicopters

At a site south of Rhayader today I watched three pairs of kites fighting over a group of trees and knocking the stuffing out of each other for well over an hour. At least twice during the proceedings two birds grabbed hold of each other by the talons and spiraled out of the sky like giant sycamore helicopters, once to crash into the tops of some nearby hawthorns. They both emerged soon after seemingly undamaged.

The (apparently) resident pair consisted a white-tagged female from a nest near Rhandirmwyn in 2002 and a male with a BTO ring only.

1 comment:

  1. I observed a similar occurrence two years ago, I tried to find the date but I obviously did not make a record it! The main difference with my incident was that there was not and still is not a nest within a mile from where the birds were scrapping. The noise from the four birds caused by a combination of calls, wing beats and contact of feathers was almost a spectacular as the visual display.

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