Kite Cam 2
A milestone in growing up as a young White-tailed Kite is that you have to cut up your own food. Mom or Dad aren’t going to do it for you any more. Just a few days ago, whenever a parent brought food to the nest, he or she stayed and ripped it to little bits for the chicks, like human mothers do for babies. See earlier Kite Cam video. This time, the parent air dropped the meal into the nest and hopped onto a higher branch to watch what the chicks did with it. When they didn’t finish their food on time, the parent seized it in her beak and flew off with it. That’s a lesson to you kids! The chicks on the left seemed a bit slow on figuring it out. The chick on the right, however, got the memo. It set about tearing up the meal, just as it had seen the parent do, and it definitely was not into sharing with its nearest nestmate. It managed to swallow at least half a vole all by itself, in one piece, headfirst, with the tail and hind legs going in last.
that nest is getting quite crowded!
not a good time of year to be a vole…
🙁