Birds vs. Kite #2
In the early 1950s, my father had a huge cone of seine twine (thin, strong, cotton cord) and had an idea. He went to the dime-store and bought a bunch of cheap paper diamond kites. He flew the first one out over the water on the seine twine and let out line until the weight of the line caused it to sag nearly horizontal. Then he attached another kite on a leader and let out more line until the seine twine was again horizontal. Repeat until out of kites. He tied the twine to a piling, about 5 feet above the water.
We went out in the boat, tracking the kites until we found the lead kite, nearly 4 miles away, probably no more than a couple of hundred feet up. Still visible to the naked eye, at any rate.
Back to the cottage where we found about a dozen Terns (Common Terns) sitting on the line, looking down at the water (waiting for minnows to rise near the surface). As more arrived, the line sagged lower and lower until it hit the water, at which point the birds all took flight. Slowly, the line lifted until it was about horizontal again. One by one, the Terns returned to the line. Slowly, it sagged back down to the water. Repeat. This went on most of the day. A full cycle took about 15 or 20 minutes.
Eventually dad reeled the line back in, retrieving the kites one by one. I still have bits of that seine twine around on home-made winders cut from wooden shingles. The kites lasted my cousins and I for several summers. The Terns still wheel and dive around the cottage (presumably different ones). Dad has been gone for seven years. And I still remember this sixty years later.