"Sirin" Wildlife Rescue Centre:
/ @-sirin-
The history:
On July 18, Ksenia came, and we released two kites: a wild female that had do be cleaned of fuel oil, and a 2-year-old male who was already tame when he came to the Sirin Wildlife Rescue Centre at the age of 1.
On July 19, the male kite (with a slit down the middle of his tail, where two new feathers were growing) was spotted roughly a kilometre away from the release spot near the woodland, by the creek.
On July 22, one of the kites came to us when we were out in the field as a group, taking pictures of Yoll the eagle-owl. The kite perched on a tree and then flew down to Ksenia after being offered a mouse. Ksenia caught him to check his condition. The kite was well fed and clearly not starving. We gave him some voles and chased him away by scaring him.
On July 24, our neighbours from the other end of the village told us that the kite has been hanging around their property for the past two days, flying away every now and then, annoys the neighbours and tries snatching various objects from their hands. I went there to check, the kite flew to me and, seeing meat, jumped onto my arm. He was then restrained and put in a box.
To make sure the bird doesn't get in trouble with the locals, he was taken to Moscow.
Sirin got this male from people who reared him since he was a chick, until he was about 1 year old. The kite squealed like a chick and was imprinted on humans. Over the course of a year the people at Sirin tried putting a distance between him and humans, didn't interact with him and kept him with other kites and buzzards. After spending a year in the enclosure, it seemed that he was wild again and ready to be released.
He was intentionally released together with the wild female in hopes that he'll stick with her, and that they'll eventually migrate to the wintering grounds together. But as it turned out, the female didn't spark the male's interest, and he preferred to return to humans, despite being able to fly and hunt independently. Having found himself in unfamiliar conditions, the kite remembered that where there are people, there is food and safety, so he tried to stay near the village.
Based on my own experience as well as that of other falconers, it can be said that kites get strongly attached to people when reared from chicks, but are very hard to tame as wild adults. Maybe in this case the same principle works in reverse: it's as hard to make a tame kite wild as it is to tame a wild one.
Now this bird will be handled by falconers. If they manage to get him ready to be released, we will try it again. Otherwise he will remain with people, in the right conditions.
For those who were asking what Sirin has done with the "massive funds" provided by the government, the financial reports have been given to the government and are freely accessible. Anyone can view them here:
www.sirin-wild...