Secret of red kites’ love nests
IN Elizabethan times, the red kite’s reputation for stealing underwear to build nests was enough to warrant a warning from Shakespeare in his play A Winter’s Tale.
Today, their modern descendants in Scottish nesting sites have proved to be even more inventive when sourcing material for a cosy treetop shelter.
RSPB staff checking the raptors’ nests after their breeding season have found objects ranging from the bizarre to the pornographic.
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The bird charity’s staff discovered colourful socks and pants, coloured string and paper, bottle tops and a pair of pink, heart-shaped children’s sunglasses. Among other items including a tea towel and a map of Cornwall, one staff member was taken aback to find a magazine centre-fold pin-up woven into the lining of one inventively built nest.
RSPB Scotland Raptor Monitoring Officer Brian Etheridge said: “The socks and underwear were probably taken from a clothes line. However, cuddly toys are probably mistaken for food. We often find them later with bits of stuffing pulled out. That’s bound to surprise a nest of hungry chicks.”