« Irritating "Error" messages | Main | Summer evenings »
July 17, 2006
Aaah - to be a kite ...
Now with the haymaking season in full swing we have "our" kites regularly patrolling the fields around the village. You never know where mice have been stirred up or frightened to come up to the surface.
A magnificent bird gliding effortlessly through the morning sunshine
Near our village live at least three of these birds. As the village is situated on a hill with a valley running below the kites usually do patrols starting along one side of the valley and then coming up along the opposite site. This way they pass our garden several times a day.
We had quite a bit of fun observing them a few years ago when a pair had a young one and was trying to teach it to fly. The parents were circling above the young one shouting commands and the young one was trying its best to stay airborne. You could almost hear the young one crying: "Mummy ..... HELP". This went on for several days but with the parents' coaching the young one turned into a perfect glider in the end.
It has always fascinated me how birds of prey can detect their food far down below. Apart from having a sort of built-in magnifying device in their eyesight, falcons for example can also detect the fluorescence of mouse urine in the ultraviolet. Fancy, catching your food by following piss trails ... yuks! Amazing, isn't it, what Nature comes up with to ensure the survival of her creatures.
Posted by Mausi at July 17, 2006 08:23 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mt3.mu.nu/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4496