Red kite snatched lunch sandwich from my hand

A WOMAN has told how a red kite snatched her sandwich that she was having for lunch.

Elizabeth Landen, 23, said she was shocked but not hurt in the incident, which happened near the bandstand in Mill Meadows, Henley.

It was the latest in a number of similar incidents which have happened over the years.

Miss Landen, who works in advertising sales for Higgs Group, publisher of the Henley Standard, was on her lunch break and walked down to the meadows to eat her cheese and ham sandwich by the river.

She said: “I was just sitting on a bench right in front of the river eating my sandwich.

“I had taken two bites and was holding it when a massive red kite swept down and stole it out of my hands, then dropped it on the floor and swooped back down to pick it up again.

“It all happened very quickly. Then all these gulls started swarming in and it was quite intense. My heart was racing.

“I felt like I was in a scene from The Birds.

“The bird was massive, like a dog with wings. Luckily, it didn’t scratch me.” Miss Landen, who lives in Farm Road, said she was shaken by what happened and would avoid eating her lunch by the river again.

She said: “It makes you think that all the birds by the river must be very hungry and it’s getting colder. Maybe their food sources are
smaller.

“I do care about the environment and I don’t want the birds to be hungry but I also don’t want people to be attacked while having their lunch by the river.”

In May, a three-year-old boy had a croissant snatched from him by a red kite outside Gail’s café in Market Place.

In August last year, a man was picnicking with his family in Mill Meadows when a large red kite swooped down and snatched some pizza from his hand.

He was left with small cuts and scratches on his right shoulder, which drew blood.

The Chilterns Conservation Board says that since red kites were introduced to the Chilterns more than 30 years ago the population has risen dramatically. In the early years the birds were very wary of people but over the years more and more people have encouraged them into their gardens with food.

As a results, kites have come to expect food from people and have become much bolder around us, causing an increase in “unwelcome interactions”.

The board says the birds are unable to differentiate between food that is deliberately being offered to them and food that is being consumed outdoors by people.

The volume of supplementary food being offered to kites may now be at such a level in parts of the Chilterns that it is encouraging them to breed at unsustainable levels in areas that would otherwise not be able to support them.

It urges people to gradually reduce the amount of food they give red kites and the frequency and eventually cease altogether.

This approach will encourage the birds to spread out into the wider countryside to find alternative sources of food.

Herre de Bondt, a student at the University of Roehampton researching red kite-feeding trends, said: “They will often choose the path of least resistance so it would make perfect sense for them to go for a sandwich.

“They are scavengers and will eat roadkill and dead animals but the degradation of land and development have reduced the areas where they can hunt.

“There is also a lot of monocultures on farms which does not give them a good hunting ground.

“Since their reintroduction in the Nineties their number has increased, causing them to spread out to hunt.

“Before being reintroduced they were nearly extinct. They were hunted a lot in Tudor times and farmers also saw them as a challenge and would leave out poisoned carcasses for them.”

Mr de Bondt, who has worked alongside a team at the University of Reading to study animal feeding patterns, said the debate about leaving food out for red kites was “nuanced”.

He said: “In 2015 in Reading we found that five per cent of households were feeding red kites.

“It’s great. It allows you to enjoy the birds and is a great way of connecting with nature but you must do this responsibly.”