Red Kites, a Conservation Success Story - by Dale

We were very lucky to see several red kites, impressive birds of prey, soaring overhead in the midst of flocks of black-backed gulls, crows, and ravens. The private Tollie Red Kite Centre has only been open for little over a year and is not that easy to find or get to. 

We took a bus to the tiny community of Maryburgh ("marybura") and walked several miles to get to the Centre, including missed turns and steep hills on narrow county roads. Several other groups drove in. The rain showers and icy winds did not spoil our experience in the least. There is a blind and visitor area to watch from and road-killed meat is put out each day to entice these birds to remain in the area and increase their reproductive potential. Artificial feeding is not necessary to recover the species but is a tool commonly used with red kites to produce more young and expand populations by relocating young birds to areas formerly occupied by the species.  

We earned our views of Red Kites at Tollie yesterday
 

Red Kites have been written about and loved or hated going back in the records for a thousand years or more. At some point it seems that hate won out and these majestic raptors with a wingspan of nearly 2 meters were driven to extinction in most of the Western European countries where they are native. They are not hunters as much as the clean-up crew that kept areas in the cities and countryside clear of death and decay. Apparently there was confusion and people believed they preyed on domestic animals and were somehow filthy and the cause of disease. Bounties and other methods decimated the populations of this once very common and majestic bird. Today, poisoning meant for other species, habitat conversion, shooting and similar problems still take a toll but the very impressive and widespread recovery efforts seem to be having much positive effect.

The red kite is an elegant bird, soaring on long wings, with a long forked tail, and twisting as it changes direction. Watching these very large birds soar effortlessly in the hard winds and heavy bird traffic made an even bigger impression. The Red Kite's diet consists mainly of small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, young hares and rabbits. It feeds on a wide variety of carrion including sheep carcasses and dead game birds. Live birds are also taken and occasionally reptiles and amphibians. Earthworms form an important part of their diet, especially in spring. As scavengers, Red Kites are particularly susceptible to poisoning.

We got the last two red kite pins for our effort and interest.

In the United Kingdom, Red Kites were ubiquitous scavengers that lived on carrion and garbage. Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote "when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen" in reference to their habit of stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season. In the mid-15th century King James II of Scotland decreed that they should be "killed wherever possible", but they remained protected in England and Wales for the next 100 years as they kept the streets free of carrion and rotting food. Under Tudor "vermin laws" many creatures were seen as competitors for the produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses.

By the 20th century the Red Kite breeding population was restricted to a handful of pairs in South Wales, but recently the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland. In 1999 the Red Kite was named 'Bird of the Century' by the British Trust for Ornithology. It has been unofficially adopted as the National Bird of Wales.  The protection and re-introduction efforts for this species have been widespread and successful making for a great conservation success story that is ongoing and still has challenges to overcome.  It's not clear what lies ahead for this species as habitat conversion, poisoning and other negative impacts continue. It isn't known what side effects could result from populations in other countries given the changes that are resulting from climate change either. I intend to follow this story that continues to unfold.