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[CLKD]

Off to feed ours ……. it's frosty and cold out there.

[Taz2]

   You must have tuned in somehow and got a message through!  Beautiful birds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBS3txGqo6U

Taz x

[Hurdity]

Great to hear about lots of lovely birds - even some of ours have started coming to the bird-table again and now I've taken the hanging basket away from the fat-balls (to stop the jackdaws last year from demolishing them so fast the small birds didn't get a look in) - the black-birds have started eating them and it's so funny to watch the female today trying to hover and perch sideways and peck away in an ungainly fashion!

Our siskins have arrived this week too and there is a different finch in amongst the flock - looks a bit like a Twite but difficult to see with all of the chattering and fluttering going on. How the goldfinches hate them!!
 
Taz x

I know you know your birds Taz but could it be a Brambling? On the winterwatch a few weeks ago it said they have been flocking with chaffinches so we should take a closer look - but I expect you know that already!! My husband thought he saw one in our orchard but wasn't sure.

Hurdity x

[CLKD]

The yellow hammer was back this morning.  A sign of colder weather on it's way!  A red kite flew over the house during the week quite low, will need to warn the neighbours not to let their elderly cat sleep on the lawn!

[Taz2]

No it wasn't a brambling but thanks for the suggestion! It was smaller than that. It did look a bit like a linnet. It's not there today. Lots of chaffinches with the foot virus thingy. Most uncomfy looking.

I shouldn't worry CLKD. All of my cats sleep on the lawn and have never been taken by our red kites. I think they have to be really hungry to take live prey anyway and their beaks and talons are really too weak to open up a carcass. This is from the Red Kite forum " In fact, although Red Kites are a very big bird (4.5' - 5.5' wing span) they have very weak talons and a quite small body meaning that they can't lift anything heavier than a small mammal or bird and they rely on bigger more powerful birds to rip open dead animals (carrion) before they can feed on them."

Taz x 

[CLKD]

A friend's sleeping kitten was lifted from the patio by a kite  - the kitten was 9 weeks old.  [not far from Oxford].  Kitten was never seen again.

The site still makes my heart leap with pleasure - 2-day I saw 2 crows mobbing a kite as well as 3 kites on the air ……. how does one distinguish a male from female, I note that some tails are forked ………..

[Taz2]

All red kites have forked tails. Quite often buzzards and kites soar together. The buzzards have blunt wings and blunt tails. Males and females have the same colouring - the only difference being in the size. The females are usually heavier and larger than the males.

Interesting facts here about the Red Kite's diet http://www.redkites.net/section72403_17684.html

Taz x

[CLKD]

Oh no they don't Taz  …….. I watch several over head these days and there are some with forked tails and others more rounded.  Buzzards are smaller and shaped differently ……. occasionally we see both in the air at the same time.  I wonder then if younger birds have to moult to gain the forked tail?

[limpy]

CLKD - Red Kites have forked tails.
Your "rounded" tail kites ain't kites, could be buzzards perhaps?
Or a new species 

[CLKD]

   nope.  Buzzards are different to red kites.  Some kites don't have the fork in the tail.  I've been watching both sine 1975  when we lived in Wales.  I have followed them across the UK ………

[limpy]

  nope.  Buzzards are different to red kites.  Some kites don't have the fork in the tail.  I've been watching both sine 1975  when we lived in Wales.  I have followed them across the UK ………

You'd best tell the RSPB.................

"This magnificently graceful bird of prey is unmistakable with its reddish-brown body, angled wings and deeply forked tail."
http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/r/redkite/

[CLKD]

http://www.yorkshireredkites.net/index.php/red-kite-info/is-it-a-red-kite-or-is-it-a-buzzard

[Hurdity]

.....the info on the web says that the juveniles have a less deeply forked tail than the adults but still forked - perhaps these are what you are seeing and contrasting them with the adults?

CLKD I presume you meant to link to this page which gives the difference between the juveniles and the adults?
http://www.yorkshireredkites.net/index.php/2014-03-31-19-47-33/faqs

"How can I tell the difference between an adult and a juvenile Red Kite?
Adult birds have a silver/grey head and a pronounced fork in the tail. Close inspection will show black tips to the tail.
Juveniles are generally paler in colour with their head more brown and the tail is noticeably less forked and in flight do not seem as steady as the adult"

Still forked though!!

Sadly I have only ever seen one red kite fairly close (Dorset/Hampshire - or maybe it was Wilts) and possibly a few in the distance around Stonehenge along the A303. They are rarely seen here in this part of SW England.

Hurdity x

[limpy]

http://www.yorkshireredkites.net/index.php/red-kite-info/is-it-a-red-kite-or-is-it-a-buzzard

Hm - The 2 pictures of the tails do look a bit different,
In one, the fork was very obvious the other a bit less so, more "filled in"

[CLKD]

     They will reach you eventually if there's enough to scavenge.  They are moving into most parts of the UK slowly but surely.

So I am correct - the young do not have 'forked' tails ………. in fact, looking at some photos taken in the Chilterns: http://www.redkites.net/ :

'filled in' - good description!  but not in the same way as buzzards' tails.  Off to look further …….

there are some 'swooping' and only 1 has the truely forked tail I would expect.  If I was good with a camera I would be out and about a lot …….. sadly, photography ain't one of my skills >sigh<