With a welcome change in the weather for a sunny morning without wind, we went to check on the young carpark Kite of Madeline and Mike.
They are now old enough to fend for themselves, so we didn’t expect to see them in the old hometree.
A little searching found them in the air about 700m down the paddock. So we trudged on down. Trudged of course is a euphemism for went with high expectations and we weren’t disappointed.
As we began to count Kites in the air and on the fence posts, it became apparent that there were two families of Kites working in the paddock as we could see at any one time, six young either sitting or flying about. There was also just one adult, and its likely that this one was not Mike and he is now kept busy further afield suppling the incubating Madeline.
The six seemed to get on together pretty well, and it gave them plenty of chances for hunting as well as mock aerial battles. The young fence sitters seemed to do a lot of tail-lifting, which is a sign of territory ownership, so each one was aware of the presence of the others.
Unsure where the other three would have come from as suitable trees are a bit of a rarity in the long paddocks.
They were all happy to work from the fence posts, and allow either close approaches, or fly in close on their own. A main access track and walking trail is about a chain (about 20m) from the fences on both sides and the track are well used by walker and bicycle riders so the young were quite human tolerant.
And in the warm sunshine, with plenty of action, time just drifted by and two hours later we did trudged back to IamGrey for a spot of the Earl’s best.
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST 
A wonderful discovery to find the second family, David!
And a terrific series of images! Great to view!
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Hello.
Bit unusual to find so many young together. They have been busy keeping up the numbers
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That’s a real bird photographer’s feast. Thanks David!
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Yes. It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a profitable session
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That’s a real bird photographer’s feast. Thanks David!
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Yes. It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a profitable session
Thanks Adam. When I first started seriously photographing raptors my mentor at the time would tuell me how difficult it was to get near to Black-shouldered Kites. It was several years before I discovered that sitting with them quietly was a much better option. Once they figure I’m part of the paddock. They relax a then it time for the camera.
I don’t do sneaking up on, feeding, bird calls nor hides. If the bird relaxes it’s a bonus. If not. Well it was never bought to be
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A glorious collection of shots of the youngsters doing their stuff.
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Hello Eleanor.
Many a long while since we had this much fit with a bunch of young kites
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I think I commented for this post on a previous post, David having some problems using WordPress. Great shots of young kites playing together. To see so many is a real blessing. Enjoy your week, and hope you are having better weather now, it is like summer here.
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Hello Ashley. I figured it out.
We live on the open plains so falcons and kites are regulars. Don’t get much in the way of forest birds but
And I think we were owed a couple if sunny days. 🥹
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Another beautiful selection of photos thanks David…! These young Kites are such handsome birds; your photos have highlighted their “handsomeness”…! A pleasure to view thanks…!
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Hmmm… It would appear that The System isn’t working too well this evening! (You appear to have a lot of “Anonymous” writers…! So just for the record, “Lance – 2009” wrote the last Comment…! :-))
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