Someone has been down to my hives ...other than me

[user 6228]

We only have sparrow hawka.
Sat in my kitchen a few years ago with the council's wildlife officer asking about local wildlife on the planned allotment site when I pointed out the window at it ripping a pigeon up.

had an "eats shoots and leaves" moment reading that

imagining your sparrow hawk sat in your kitchen with the council's wildlife officer

 

[drstitson]

"Pretty sure that Red Kites are scavengers"

back in the dim and distant they were even common in London.

 

[BeeJayBee]

"Pretty sure that Red Kites are scavengers"

back in the dim and distant they were even common in London.

They probably will be again within a very few years, the rate they're spreading along the motorway corridors.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

They probably will be again within a very few years, the rate they're spreading along the motorway corridors.

plenty of carrion in London nowadays

 

[alldigging]

had an "eats shoots and leaves" moment reading that

imagining your sparrow hawk sat in your kitchen with the council's wildlife officer

LOL It wasn't very far away so almost!

Not as close as the big crow who came to see what I'd put on the bird table yesterday afternoon whilst I was still out there.

 

[REDWOOD]

We only have sparrow hawka.
Sat in my kitchen a few years ago with the council's wildlife officer asking about local wildlife on the planned allotment site when I pointed out the window at it ripping a pigeon up.

One less to worry about

 

[alanf]

They probably will be again within a very few years, the rate they're spreading along the motorway corridors.

Last couple of years they have been appearing in the winter in N&W London suburbs, Uxbridge, Ruislip, Harrow. Breeding as close as Beaconsfield for a few years, should be some inside the M25 by now.

"I should have fatted all the region kites - With this slave's offal". Hamlet's in Denmark but written for Tudor London where kites scavenging must be familiar. There's birder speculation that they might have been black kites, since they're the species in Indian and Middle Eastern cities.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

There's birder speculation that they might have been black kites, since they're the species in Indian and Middle Eastern cities.

I'm sure I read somewhere that we actually introduced a lot of kites to India to try and sort out the urban waste problem many centuries ago

 

[Erichalfbee]

kites to India

Isn't it Vultures they need?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Nowadays yes - isn't there some kind of mystery malady knocking them off?