"Darkside" wrote in message ...
All the above is true but red kites don't spread very fast - only a few
kilometres a year. OTOH they're not hard to identify: if Mike saw three
huge birds with forked tails doing aerobatics and whistling to each
other they were almost certainly red kites.
If they were wedge-tailed, soaring or silent they probably weren't.

Oh, I'm utterly confident in my identification! I see them far more often,
these days, than buzzards. Tails and calls very distinct. The RK's warble
reminds me of the wobbulator (official name) we had at college. The varying
frequency prevents standing waves building up when making acoustic
measurements. Much more exaggerated than any musical vibrato!

Mike.