Name: Kite attacks.
Age: They’re not new, but they’re getting worse.
Appearance: From above, as if out of nowhere.
Are people getting tangled up in the strings, or what? Kite as in bird, not as in kite. We’re talking about the red kite – a bird of prey from the same family as buzzards and harriers – attacking people.
Where is this happening? In the remote desert wastes of some faraway land? No, in Henley-on-Thames.
Home of the regatta, and that thing where they count all the swans? The very same.
But why? Are these birds avenging something? Mostly they’re scavenging something. Only recently, a child in a pram suffered nasty cuts after a kite snatched a custard cream from his hand.
Ouch! And local resident Anna Howell was eating a salad in her back garden when a kite swooped down and helped itself to a bit of smoked mackerel.
That’s quite a Henley-on-Thames story, if you don’t mind me saying. There have also been local reports of stolen sausage rolls and hot cross buns, and even steaks lifted off barbecues.
It sounds as if these birds are hungry. The suspicion is that people are feeding them so that they can get close-up pictures, and that this behaviour has sparked a free-for-all.
It reminds me of gulls fighting tourists for ice-creams on seaside piers. That also happens, but it’s worth remembering that a kite is a raptor with sharp talons and a wingspan of up to 1.5 metres. If it wants your sausage roll, you should probably give it up.
How come we haven’t heard about these attacks until now? There have been reports of red kites raiding picnics going back a few years, and the birds were well known as opportunistic thieves in Shakespeare’s time, but in between they were hunted to near extinction.
Then what happened? In the early 90s red kites were reintroduced to the UK from Spain. A number were released on John Paul Getty’s estate in the Chilterns, close to Henley. There may now be up to 1,000 breeding pairs in the area.
Well I think it’s great that these birds can once again thrive by preying upon the citizens of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. According to the RSPB, the kites in those parts have plenty of natural food sources and need no supplementary feeding, so don’t do it.
Do say: “Red kite at morning, get under the awning!”
Don’t say: “Red kite at regatta, talons off my piccata.”
The Link LonkMay 25, 2021 at 11:58PM
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/25/red-kite-attacks-why-birds-of-prey-are-causing-havoc-on-the-streets-of-henley
Red kite attacks: why birds of prey are causing havoc on the streets of Henley - The Guardian
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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