Our garden ends in a sheer cliff over the River Ouvèze, some 12 meters below. The Ouvèze is unusually high, as we had some 5 days of rain, hailstones, thunder & lightning, only relenting 2 days ago.
The far bank is much lower, so we have a splendid vantage point to watch Red Kites nesting in the tops of the tall trees opposite.
It's all a bit confusing, as at times there are 4 or 5 kites swooping around, but there seems to be a nucleus of 3! With their forked tails acting as a very flexible rudder, they have an easy mastery of the air, whether performing just over the trees, or as this afternoon, the second of two lovely sunny days, up so high as to be difficult to see.
Red Kites were common birds in Kenya, still scavenging around Nairobi in large flocks as they did, by all accounts, around London in the time of Elizabeth 1st. We lived on the outskirts of Nairobi and a game we would often play was to throw small pieces of meat in the air and in no time there would be 20 or more kites swooping down. Our children both went to school in Nairobi, where kites would dive and steal food from the children's hands if they were careless.
We were delighted to find that when we eventually returned to the UK in 1996, Red Kites had been re-introduced. Groups of over 12 could be seen on the Chiltern ridge when using the M40 and we've seen them further north-east in south Northamptonshire.
It's reassuring to know that there is now a large breeding population in Britain, as numbers have fallen steeply in France & Germany.
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