When I heard high-pitched mewing calls drifting across the ripening wheatfields, I raised my binoculars expecting to see buzzards riding the thermals. But as the distant specks came into focus, there was no mistaking the distinctive forked-tail silhouettes of two red kites, languidly soaring as they scanned the ground for carrion and live prey. Red kites are becoming a more regular sight above West Sussex and Hampshire, but they’re still vastly outnumbered by their buzzard brethren, so it’s always a thrill to spot these elegant raptors.
By the time I’d skirted the fields, the birds had disappeared from view. As I followed an estate road through mixed woodland, a wood pigeon broke cover with a clatter of wings, and up ahead something tumbled through the canopy, landing on the tarmac with a dull thud. Larch trees loomed overhead, and as I gazed up through the branches, I glimpsed the rufous underparts and long, angled wings of a red kite sailing past.
It was the first time that I’d seen one at such close quarters, and I was taken aback by just how big it was, its wingspan approaching 6ft. With a shrill whistle the second bird appeared, and I watched the pair glide in looping circles, their tails twisting like rudders as they navigated the treetops in tandem.
As they drifted away, I wandered over to investigate the mystery projectile and was met with a gruesome sight – a passerine’s flayed sternum and black-feathered legs. There was no sign of the decapitated head, but the tarmac was spattered with viscera – pale coils of intestine, a bloody chunk of liver, and the stomach, which had split open to expose the kite’s victim’s final meal, a porridgy mixture of seeds and berries.
Kites are primarily scavengers, feeding on roadkill or dead livestock, but they will hunt opportunistically, supplementing their diets with a variety of prey, including earthworms, insects, frogs, fish, rodents and birds. With my identification skills pushed to the limit, I whipped out my phone and photographed the carcass, emailing it to the raptor prey remains expert Ed Drewitt who confirmed my suspicions that it was definitely a corvid, most likely a jackdaw.
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