The first adult breeding bird that left the country

Kiws39 is a female kite that was caught on the 20th of June last year at her nest. Two chicks fledged. One got predated by a goshawk around the 20th of August, the logger of the other chick stopped sending points on the 4th of August (Probably logger failure).

This female is at the moment of writing the only bird (out of 45 tagged adult breeding birds) that is not in her territory in Switzerland anymore. On the 15th of October she started her migration and arrived on the 3rd of November in Southern Spain between Sevilla and Malaga.

The route that Kiws 39 made to get to her overwintering ground. She left the 15th of October and arrived the 3rd of November at the place where she is stationary now. 

 Kiws 39 bringing a complete cheese to the nest. The straws that come together with it, reveals that the cheese comes from one of the typical dung heaps that most farmers have here. Next to cow dung, there are often food rests dumped on those heaps, making them popular spots for kites. I expect this female to be a rather young bird maybe a 3CY or 4CY noting her very dark, contrasting bill. 30-6-2017.





The remainings of one of the chicks when we found the logger back. Several plucking sites in dense understory made it quite clear that this has been the work of a goshawk. 23-8-2017.



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