Forum Topic

Red Kites

Did I see a group of these birds flying over Chiswick today? They were some distance away from where I was standing and may have been a different type of bird, but that’s what they looked like.

Michael Brown ● 3697d24 Comments

Any strings attached to this story MB.

Julian Pavey ● 3697d

Who knows? Did you, or didn't you? Impossible to tell without a photo.

Jill Merrett ● 3697d

I just wondered if anyone else saw any birds that they identified as being kites, or any other unusual birds that may have been the ones I saw. There was a group of about 6 to 8 and quite well spread out, although they were all behaving in a similar way – circling, soaring and I thought they looked reddish; then they all suddenly disappeared. They may not have been kites at all. I just wondered.

Michael Brown ● 3697d

I have  seen red kites at Uxbridge and Windsor so it is entirely possible you saw them over W4.A few weeks back I saw an individual up high which I thought was a kite but could have been a buzzard.I have definitely seen a buzzard earlier this year flying overhead.Flock of seagulls now circling my house.

Adrian Irving ● 3697d

Strangely enough, I was working at a house yesterday near Strand-On-The-Green, which has a garden giving a broad view of the sky. It was calm and clear, and when I looked up I saw a large bird soaring very high at an incredible rate. I thought it was some type of aircraft at first because of the speed it was moving at, and never once did it flap its wings. Then, about half-an-hour later, I saw a similar looking bird flying at a similar rate, but not as high, in the opposite direction; and this bird never flapped its wings either! And now these birds today! It’s all a mystery to me. However, Adrian refers to seagulls – maybe that’s all I saw today..

Michael Brown ● 3697d

"Flock of seagulls now circling my house."Herring for supper?

Ken Munn ● 3697d

Is it a bird, is it a plane? Should have gone to SpecSavers, Michael.

Anne England ● 3697d

Apparently, according to the press yesterday, ISIS is going to kill us all with drones.  Although it could be Russia.  Surely these are drones cleverly disguised as birds, Michael?  Surprised you didn't twig earlier - but you can still tweet #nothingisasitseems

Claire Moran ● 3697d

Loved the Chichester Festival production of The Seagull -  now on at the National..Meanwhile ...Quote clever and insightful Mister Sindall :- "narrow minded, bad tempered, old boot"carry on....:-)

Stuart Kerr ● 3697d

Love red kites - and Loved the Chichester Festival production of The Seagull -  now on at the National..Meanwhile ...Quote clever and insightful Mister Sindall :- "narrow minded, bad tempered, old boot"carry on....:-)

Stuart Kerr ● 3697d

The red kite population on the Chiltern escarpment around Watlington and Lewknor seems to have increased considerably,so it is possible that some might come further east. How will they interact with the parakeets that have become endemic in Chiswick over the past fifty years?

Derek Chambers ● 3697d

Hopefully kill the blighters off......but unlikely as Kites are carrion feeders.... On the other hand Michael are you sure that they were not US Osprey transformers which we have seen recently flying over West London........

Iain Muir ● 3697d

"Flock of seagulls now circling my house"Were they singing 'Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)' ?

Richard Greenhough ● 3697d

I'm pretty sure I spotted red kite/similar pair a few weeks ago screeching away high up at the pumping tower at London Museum of Water and Steam.  They normally nest there each year

Veronica Tuke ● 3695d

I saw a flock of about 10 large birds from my 3rd-floor west-facing kitchen window this morning about 9.30. Couldn't tell what sort they were, but they seemed to be heading eastwards from the direction of the river at Kew, maybe making for Chiswick House Grounds. Quite a striking sight.

Colin Jordan ● 3695d

No, the Byrds were singing Eight Miles High I think.

Adrian Irving ● 3695d

Red kites are quite distinctive - look for the deeply forked tail. How red they look depends rather on the quality and angle of the light. The underwings have distincitve white patches which can help of you are close enough to see. A few have been spotted in London that could be residents or migrating birds.Although they mainly eat carrion, they also take small mammals including, alas, leverets, so the spread of the re-introduced population will put even more pressure on our indigenous brown hare which is suffering because of the huge increases in the number of buzzards.  It is possible that, like other raptors, they will spread along the motorways where there are plenty of small mammals living in the verges and lots of roadkill and where they are relatively undisturbed by people.

Charlotte Kasner ● 3695d

I saw a red kite today over Barnes Common, near Barnes station.

Gail Busza ● 3693d

Was it really 6 years ago when I started this thread?!Well if the kites weren't here then, they are now. Driving into Chiswick on Sunday, I saw a red kite in Brentford from the flyover, and I saw another one over the Thames, close to Chiswick Pier; plus I know what I'm looking at now as I have become an expert! They are regular visitors to the garden of the home where I am currently living at in Northolt. I put sausages out for them, and they swoop down for them. They have a 5ft wingspan - so big birds.P.S. I also saw a pair of buzzards flying over the Thames at the weirs of Penton Hook a week ago.

Michael Brown ● 1460d

https://londonist.com/london/maps/red-kites-london

Andrew Jones ● 1460d

Toulouse, merguez, Wall’s bangers?

Stewart Jones ● 1460d

Mike: Northolt?Beware the secret Aircraft hangers just down the road.. and don't enquire about  their purpose!

Jim Lawes ● 1460d

From 2006:"Shakespeare's red kite returns to London after an absence of 150 years"Once it was as much a London bird as the ravens in the Tower of London. The streets of Shakespeare's capital were full of red kites. "The city of kites and crows," he calls it.Although magnificent in appearance, the birds were scavengers, never short of a meal at a time when people threw their rubbish in the street. They also stole washing off lines for their nests, and Autolycus, the streetsmart conman in A Winter's Tale, warns: "When the kite builds, look to lesser linen."But gradually improving public hygiene and waste-disposal robbed the red kite of its niche in the London ecosystem, and by the end of the 18th century it was extinct as a breeding bird. The last sighting on the streets of the capital was in 1859. Until this week.More here: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/shakespeare-s-red-kite-returns-to-london-after-an-absence-of-150-years-6111922.htmlI remember when I was in Kathmandu, Black Kites were as common as pigeons or crows are in London.

Richard Cathcart ● 1460d

Whilst on the subject of rare sightings my next door neighbour found a Jack Snipe in his East Chiswick garden recently.Sadly it was dead.Where it come from and how it died is somewhat of a mystery.

Adrian Irving ● 1460d