Monday 3 June 2013

RED KITE INFLUX

Every year in Cornwall we have a small influx of Red Kites into the county. Today seems to be the start with ten birds reported across the county (see HERE for details). Ornithologists are unsure as to where the birds suddenly appear from but there are two trains of thought. Firstly, that they are first-year birds that have been displaced from the every growing breeding grounds in middle England or Wales or secondly that they are actually continental birds that leave northern France en-mass when the wind conditions are favourable and end up in the far west of the county, sometimes in large flocks! Fortunatley they are well recieved by humans and we have yet to have any reports of persecution during this phenomenon.
RED KITE over Bartinney Downs, St Just (photo courtesy of S.Sargeant per Cornwall Birding website)