I spotted this a couple of days ago and wondered if our boy Binners had a new hobby (pun duly noted).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2g290ve2vo
According to the biopic, he's been doing it since he was a lad
I found his holiday snaps too.
Knew exactly what the story would be when I saw the thread title, but the Kes reply is superb.
To be honest, we’ve stayed in mid-wales near the breeding centre for the red kites for the last couple of years. I was feeding them all sorts. They seemed to be quite partial to bacon, but I can’t honestlysay that Greggs sausage rolls weren’t involved
As an inside, my P7 has just had a fresh powder coat job and the custom-made Greggs graphics have just gone on 😃
I was just showing Mrs Binners this thread while we’re sat outside and as she was reading it a bird shat on her. I don’t know if it was a kite or not but it makes you think…
Just when you thought you were having a bad day…
And yes, it’s a genuine photo, a white tailed kite, carrying a vole, the photographer only realised what he’d got checking the photos afterwards.
Thing is, kites, and buzzards, are scavengers, kites much more than buzzards are; during the Middle Ages, because of all the offal thrown into the streets in London, ravens and kites were there in big flocks, kites were called shite hawks! They aren’t fussy, they’re happy to eat anything.
Just don’t get shitfaced on a nighttime bender and fall asleep on a bench somewhere; it won’t be leopards eating your face…
There's often lots of them circling overhead at my parent's place, just about at the edge of the Chiltern Hills, and some in the village have left chicken or bacon out for them to be able to get photos, but for a big bird apparently they can swoop down, pick up and be gone in a blink, so still difficult to photo.
I may have told my kids when they were little that they are scavengers and only take dead things, and so if they're in the garden they need to keep moving so the kites realise they are alive and don't come for them. I don't remember if I ever have reappraised them of this.
I've just dug out this video filmed by Mrs Binner of feeding the red kite last summer. She left her iphone filming out of the kitchen window as we put stuff out for them. This one had sussed out it could do a loop and swoop down between the lodges and have a good feed. They really are beautiful, majestic things, aren't they?
https://youtube.com/shorts/TWhHhyFamk4?si=rEYaxTucIeWrbcP0