Red Kite's sitting

Nanny and Grampy have a pair of Red Kite's (Kenny and Katrina) that have adopted them for the last few years. Last year they managed to raise 2 chicks so we all have high hopes for more chicks this year. They've built a new nest (the last one fell down in the winter storms) in the garden and appear to be sitting on eggs. You can see this nest from the kitchen window, so hopefully we'll get a good view of the chicks this year.

They are funny things - their nest is full of all sorts of treasure, like baler twine, kitchen roll, socks and plastic bags. If you look at the picture below you can see the orange baler twine on the right of the nest. They also drop all sorts of rubbish all over the garden, but they seem very keen on kitchen roll this year - maybe they're lining the nest to make it more comfy. Anyway, there is a lot of paper all over the garden, where they've brought it back to the nest and dropped it.

Red Kites nest - you can see the tail sticking out of the nest towards the camera

Both parents seem to sit on the nest, but you can tell if it's Katrina up there because she peeks over the nest to see who's looking at her. Here she is in the picture below, just above the green branch in the centre. You can just make out a white head and yellow eye.


Katrina sitting on the nest and peeking out to see who's looking at her

Kenny is never far away. Here he is sitting in a tree in the next door garden.