I’m keeping a note of whether I see Red Kites on each day through the year – in April the tally was 20 days out of 30. The grotty weather and spending a few days in London are probably the reason for the lower strike rate in April than in other months.
January: 22 days out of 31.
February: 24 days out of 28.
March: 26 days out of 31.
That makes 92 out of 120 overall. That’s a higher strike rate than I expected and goes to show that the Red Kite is a familiar bird again in east Northants.
I gave a talk to 6th formers doing Biology at a local school last week and they knew what Red Kites were and were animated when talking about them. Kites would have been a rare sighting for their parents and an unknown species locally for their grandparents, but these young people will see Red Kites most days if they look up and not down at their ‘phones. I hope their children, eventually, will be able to be quite blasé about Red Kites overhead. But I still get a thrill each time I see them because they represent how my baselines have shifted for the good.
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Jan – 0/31
Feb – 0/28
Mar – 1/31
Apr – 1/30
In March I had to go to the passport office in Peterborough. Saw 1 to the north of P’boro and a few to the south. In April I saw 1 as I went through Northants on my way to Southport for the NUJ conference.
Moral: Norfolk still ain’t great for kites. 🙁
Action plan: Move to Stokenchurch or something. 🙂
John – good plan! I saw one at Titchwell last time I was there though.
My best count was 11from the office window during a departmental meeting when I worked in Princes Risborough.
Lyn – very good! You were paying attention though weren’t you?
None in Bristol yet, but my mum, near Oxford, sees them nearly every day over the house and is continually astonished about it. On one visit I saw one actually fly down the street.
None in County Durham to my knowledge, but I have seen a pair as far north as Scotch Corner more than once. Fingers crossed
Still live in envy when it comes to red kites, just 2 days in April out of a possible 21. Others, BZ 20 out of 21, EA 7, K 9, PE 5, HH 5, OP 6, GI 2, SH 8, ML 2, WE 1
Dave – you’re not doing too badly!
But Mark, the fact that I see hardly any kites is most definitely something to grouse about!