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
