canberrabirds

And more about B-s Ks

To: "chat line" <>
Subject: And more about B-s Ks
From: "John Layton" <>
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 18:53:40 +1000
Hi everyone
 
Benj and a couple of others note there seems to be a bit of a plague of mice at present which, no doubt, may well be reason for the upsurge in sightings of Black-shouldered Kites.
 
I've hardly ever seen a mouse around our place, but this may be due to the omnipresence of the F-words i.e. Flea Farm and Fur Ball, the neighbours' cats.
 
Sometimes, it's on the cards that there may not be a plague of mice in the actual local area. The presence of numbers of Black-shouldered Kites may indicate that a mice population, which lead to a build-up of kite numbers in another district, has suddenly crashed causing a mass dispersal of kites as they spread out searching for new sources of prey. Perhaps, many of these pilgrims perish as, I'm led to believe, do Letter-Winged Kites and Barn Owls, under similar conditions.
 
But, I guess, if the kites are breeding, that must rule out they're still searching for a sustainable source of prey.
 
John K. Layton.
p.s. when I described the dispersing kites as "pilgrims" I was tempted to write "peregrine kites" to see the reaction, if any.
JKL
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