Earlier today, a Red Kite swooped from the woodlands on the farm and glided up to perch on the lamppost – it’s wingspan must have been just under a metre, a mature male who was circling the hay field to spot some food.
If you’ve travelled around Wales, you’ll know that seeing a Red Kite these days are much more of a common site than they used to be.
Only 70 years ago this species of bird began to make a recovery after intense human persecution, from the mid 1800s until the early 1900s.
So, in 1871 the bird became extinct in England, and 1879 in Scotland. This is due to a variety of reasons - from a disease which killed off their main food source, habitat conditions and lack of females.
According to the RSPB, by 1903 there were only a handful of pairs left in Mid- Wales. Even then, the Red Kite population lacked females so the population remained critical until the 1960s.
The issue became apparent, and a mixture of breeding programmes and factors of birds starting to breed at lower altitudes, by 1995 there were more than 100 breeding pairs in Wales.
Top Tip: If you want to see around 500 Red Kites all in one go once lockdown is over, visit a feeding station. A great one is Gigrin Farm in Rhayader which has been supporting red kites for decades. Just check their opening times before you travel due to the lockdown in Wales.
Whenever I saw one as a child in the 90s I was told that they were rare.
Thankfully, since then, they’ve been on the rise, with 350 – 400 pairs by 2003, and a hair raising statistic that from 1995 – 2014, the breeding species increased by 1020%.
It’s great news for England and Scotland too - populations have recovered thanks to a successful re-introduction programme by the RSPB, which shows the numbers slowly expanding.
So, next time you see a Red kite, remember, it wasn’t such a common site 100 years ago!
To find out more details about the conservation programme, here's a link to case studies from the RSPB: https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/conservation-and-sustainability/safeguarding-species/case-studies/red-kite/