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Beware of red kites when you stop for a snack! That’s the warning from CWW’s Janice Gilder, whose finger was slashed by a kite swooping on her lunch.
We’ve all admired the majestic raptors as they circle over the Chilterns, but Janice says it’s a different story when a bird of prey with a six-foot wingspan and needle-sharp claws is bearing down on you.
“Honestly,” she said. “It was like a pterodactyl! From a distance they look quite small and innocuous but when they are suddenly on you they really are imposing and immense.”
Janice was settling down to enjoy a picnic outside St Mary’s Church in Radnage during a CWW walk in May 2024 when the kite spotted her bread roll and made its move.
“It was a huge shock. The bird that attacked me seemed to come directly from my left and hammered into my lap. I think it was the kite’s claw which not only broke the skin on the end of my finger but it also went under my nail. It was very, very painful. There was a lot of blood which was stemmed by tissue and eventually plasters."
Janice’s finger is now on the mend after a tetanus injection, but she says the incident has changed her view of red kites.
“I have very quickly gone from loving watching them circle around overhead, to having no interest in them at all. It’s a shame because they are such elegant, majestic creatures when admired from a distance.”
And she has this warning for walkers: “If you don’t see them straight away, never assume they won’t suddenly appear as they can come from nowhere. Now when I am eating my sandwich I make sure I fold the foil wrapping over my hand so the hand is covered. Try not to leave food lying around to encourage them to come down and feed and keep your lunchbox or bag as best protected as you can while eating your lunch.”
Despite the ferocity of the attack at Radnage, the kite failed to make off with Janice's roll filled with Edam cheese. Instead, it swooped on a sandwich which fellow walker Lenore Kent was about to eat. "I was about to take a bite when the kite raced in from behind and plucked the sandwich straight out of my hand," she said. "It all happened in an instant. I was lucky not to have been injured. I suppose the lesson is never to hold food out where the kites can see it."
It's not the first time a red kite has caused problems on a walk. CWW chair Tim Axten had a narrow escape from serious injury during a hike with friends in 2023. He said: "We were on the benches at Maharajah's Well having our sandwiches when I was suddenly was hit on the back of the head. It was such a shock. I wasn't sure what had struck me until I saw a red kite flying off into the distance. It knocked my glasses off and they landed some distance in front of me. I was lucky I didn’t have a wound. I often hold my walking pole in the air if I see red kites circling now."
In April 2025 Amanda Gatehouse was among CWW walkers enjoying a picnic by the Thames near Bourne End when a kite swooped on her ham and beetroot sandwich. She said: "It happened really fast and without warning. Luckily my hand was down and not near my face and I was just holding the corner of the sandwich so I wasn't hurt. The sandwich was too big for the kite to manage and it was dropped nearby. The kite flew off and crows moved in. I'll certainly be more wary and alert now as I didn't think kites went for human food just dead animals."
In recent years the local media have reported on a string of red kite attacks.
In June 2011 students at Icknield Community College in Watlington were banned from having lunch in their playground after a series of attacks.
In Marlow in 2019 a mother described a red kite swooping to steal sandwiches from the hands of her two children, leaving one child with a scratch on the head.
In May 2021 a Henley mother told how a kite wounded her two-year-old son’s hand when it snatched his custard cream biscuit.
In August 2022 a family enjoying a picnic in Henley’s Mill Meadows were attacked by a red kite which made off with a slice of pizza.
Also in Henley in May 2023 a kite stole a croissant from a three-year-old boy outside Gail’s Bakery.
In November 2023 a woman having lunch in Mill Meadows narrowly escaped injury when a kite snatched her ham and cheese sandwich. She likened it to a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Red kites were driven to the verge of extinction in the Tudor period thanks to laws that offered a bounty to anyone who killed an animal "causing a nuisance". Centuries later the birds were reintroduced to the Chilterns with a series of releases from the Wormsley Estate in 1989. There are now 500-600 breeding pairs in the area.
Their growing numbers are forcing them to compete harder for food, but much of the blame for the birds’ increasingly fearless behaviour is being pinned on those who feed them.
A Reading University study in 2015 found that five per cent of households were leaving food out for the raptors.
In Buckinghamshire the county council is now so concerned by the problem that it has launched a social media campaign urging residents not to feed kites.
A spokesman for the Chilterns National Landscape warned: “If kites become a nuisance, it could change public support for their welfare, perhaps leading us back down the road towards their persecution.”
CWW’s keenest birdwatcher Sean Moore said: “Let’s not demonise or fear red kites. There’s plenty of natural food around for them so supplementary feeding isn’t necessary. They have a varied diet – mostly earthworms and insects, but also carrion such as roadkill. They’ve also been known to fish like an osprey does, which is pretty amazing. If birds are around while you’re eating, don’t wave your food around. Put it away. They’ll only swoop if they think they can get a meal.”
Sean’s top tip for anyone wanting a red kite spectacle is to find a roost. “Hambleden village has an excellent one with more than 100 birds in winter, which can often be seen in the air at the same time."
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