Idle Thoughts

It started as a bit of an experiment about ten or fifteen years ago, but has spread out into the surrounding areas. At first people were discouraged from saying too much or disclosing their whereabouts, for fear that the foothold the birds had created would be threatened.

Nowadays, the sight of a Red Kite soaring through the air is quite common over Marlow. For a typical townie
like myself, who is used to never seeing a bird bigger than a pigeon, the size of these birds of prey, flying wild, is quite remarkable. Apart from the fact of their existence, the grace the birds have: catchng thermals and the ease at which they glide, is just spectacular.

Since they don’t appear to have any fears about people, they can get quite close. When they do, it’s interesting to watch the way they use their V-shaped tails to give fine control over their glide direction.

I’m told that their diet is mainly carrion and whatever small furry creatures they come across. There have been reports in the local press about householders putting out food for them - and that this is discouraged. Personally I’m not sure what food you could use to attract these birds, or whether you’d want something with predatory instincts circling your house, waiting for you to come out with the possibility of a tasty snack about your person. Maybe I’ve seen The Birds too many times.

From casual observation, we seem to have 2 pairs in the local area. Although I don’t have a great interest in their mating habits, while most of the time they appear solitary, there are times when two birds seem to pair-up. So far I have seen two distinct pairs of birds flying at the same time. One particular bird, or pair, seems to have taken up residence in my neighbourhood, to the extent where it flies around

just over the rooftops. Just after I took the photo above, it occured to me that making eye contact with a bird of prey that literally has the drop on you,may not be the wisest course of action.

As it turns out, the birds do,occasionally, get tired of just flying around and sometimes come in to land, gather their wits, have a bit of think and generally collect themselves before taking off again. as you would expect from a top predator, when they do select a perch it’s the highest, most prestigous place around.

This one came in for a little break and stayed for about 45 minutes. The fir tree rises above the rooftop of the house opposite me and is the highest perch in the surrounding area with a view into all the neighbouring gardens.

It didn’t have it all it’s own way though.

	Fortunately, the Kite wasn’t feeling peckish at the time. I wonder if the magpies have their own version of “chicken”, or if these species just manage to live together in harmony.

Before I go, a short note about the photos. It would be easy to think you could just point your camera at the birds and snap away. In fact for the photos here, I used my 8M pixel DSLR with a 300mm lens. In all I took over 150 photos and then used Photoshop to bring out the detail and frame them to show here. The photography took 2 days (waiting for suitable weather conditions, and for the birds to appear took much longer) and the digital development work took another half day.