Soaring Black Kites

One of Prof. Ewans. His camera is better than mine!

Went on a day trip to Kamakura with the family last weekend. For those of you who've never heard of the place, Kamakura is a cultural center of Japan and was at one time the capital of the Tokyo shogunate. It has a lot of temples and a very large Buddha as well as being blessed with a large amount of nature. It's a beautiful area and I would move there tomorrow if it wasn't one of the most expensive places to live in Japan!

It is also right on the sea and the bay has several beaches frequented by surfers, beachcombers and in summer the Tokyo crowds. It was warm so we spent a couple of hours there to assist Prof. Ewan in his quest for shells, in which he was very successful. We also had lunch on the beach during which we noticed an increasing number of 'tobi' (black kites) circling and soaring over our heads. These are fairly big raptors and they seem to have evicted the seagulls as there were none around. I was getting a little uneasy as they were slowly coming lower and closing in, obviously with their eyes on our food. It's one thing throwing scraps to pigeons, quite another having one of these dive at you, so I was relieved to finish eating and get everything packed away. I then settled down with the video and got some fairly good footage of them fighting and playing in the sky. (see video at end) I packed the camera away and put all the picnic stuff, towels on top in my bag. It was then that 'Sod's Law' came into play. A man was throwing a stick for his dog when suddenly one of the kites swooped down and plucked it from the snapping jaws of the shocked canine. It didn't stop there. For about a minute three of the kites passed the meter long stick to each other, either tossing it through the air or literally passing it between each others talons. One turning upside down to grab it from another. During this time I was open mouthed searching blindly for the video camera, tossing out everything I'd carefully packed in an increasing frenzy, much to my wife's disgust! I found it just as the kites dropped the stick and flew away........ dreams of a YouTube hit receding into the sunset :(