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The Red Kite has been more
commonly seen in West Wales over the last few years. We have
frequently seen a Kite from the garden of Rosemary Cottage, soaring high
over the hills that surround Gilfachreda, or holding station above the sea
cliffs on the coast road between Aberaeron and Llanon. Ten years ago, they were
established further inland around the hills of Tregaron and Llandewi Brefi, but
they seldom ventured to the Ceredigion coast.
Most of us who have seen a Red Kite
will have observed from afar. We probably watched it soaring and gliding over a
hillside as a dark silhouette, sometimes little more than a speck in the sky. We
can't see much, little colour and hardly any movement of the wings. That aside,
we are usually delighted to have seen this rare bird. Close up, the Red
Kite's distinctive colours can be clearly seen. The bird is a chestnut red with
distinctive white patches under the wings and a lighter coloured head. The legs
and feet are yellow.
The Red Kite spends long hours soaring on the rising air
currents above a hillside, often without flapping its slender wings for many
minutes. The bird is superbly adapted as a glider, with a wing span of almost
two metres, but with a body mass of only one kilo. Its long forked tail provides the perfect balance and control required to take advantage of the
slightest up draught. Only when it sees prey or encounters a challenger is there
a change in its routine.
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Historical
The Red Kite has been in Britain for a very long time. Red
Kite bones dating back 120,000 years have been found in the caves of the Gower
peninsula in South Wales along with the remains of straight-tusked elephant, hippopotamus, mammoth, soft-nosed rhinoceros, cave bear, wolf and lion.
At that time, the English channel did not exist and
Britain was part of the European mainland. South Wales was joined to Somerset
and Devon by a deep wooded valley and the birds and animals were untroubled by
Mankind - he had not arrived in Britain then.
Mesolithic hunter-gatherers arrived some ten thousand
years ago and set about changing the natural landscape. Farming began about six
thousand years ago and for the first time Mankind found himself in competition
with various wildlife species.
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There is no doubt that in medieval times, the Red Kite was
a common and familiar bird throughout Britain. The Red Kite is mentioned by
Chaucer in the Knight's Tale (c 1390) and London was described by Shakespeare as
a 'city of Kites and Crows'.
A rare leucistic Red
Kite
This kite is a rare colour variation, and has survived probably because of
the various Red Kite feeding stations that have been established. Although
mainly white, this kite has blue eyes and some darker colouration in its
plumage. It is not an albino, which would be completely white with pink eyes.
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William Turner - born 1508 - wrote about the Red
Kite in Avium praecipuarum historia, 1544. He noted that they would dare
to 'snatch bread from children, fish from women and handkerchiefs from hedges'.
In 1457, James the second of Scotland decreed that the
Kite should be killed wherever possible, but it remained protected in England
and Wales along with the Raven for another hundred years, as it served the
purpose of cleaning the streets of carrion.
A law was passed in 1566 in which a number of birds and
mammals thought to be in competition with the rural community were encouraged to
be killed. A bounty was established that offered 'one penney for the head of
every Woodwall (Woodpecker), Pye, Jaye, Raven or Kyte.' Over the next two
hundred years, a virtual war was waged by the rural community on a number of
birds and mammals, including the Red Kite, which were trapped and killed to near
if not total extinction. The hobby of egg collecting did much to reduce numbers
as they became even less common.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, there were only a
dozen or less Red Kites in Britain, their last refuge in these islands being
central Wales. In recent years, the Red Kite has increased in numbers -
particularly in Wales and around the Chiltern Hills in England and is not now
the rarity that it was just a few years ago. |
The Life cycle of the Red Kite
The Red Kite mates for life and forms a relationship with
its mate at between two to four years of age. They nest early, beginning nest
building as early as February with the two to four eggs being laid in March or
April. The nests are untidy structures in trees - usually Oak trees and are up
to one metre in diameter. They are often decorated with sheep's wool,
plastic bags and other collected items, while the nest lining is made from
sheep's wool. In medieval London, the Kite would take handkerchiefs and small
items of clothing from washing lines - so much so that Shakespeare wrote: 'When
the Kite builds, look to lesser linen'. In 1871, J. E. Harting wrote that a
nest was decorated with 'small pieces of linen, part of a saddle girth, a bit
of harvest glove, part of a straw bonnet, pieces of paper and a worsted garter.'
The eggs are incubated mainly by the female Kite for
thirty one or thirty two days. After hatching, the male brings food back
to the nest for the female, who tears it into smaller pieces to feed the young
birds. The young Kites remain in the nest for about eight weeks until they
are fully fledged and ready for their first flight.
The Red Kite has very keen eyesight and can detect the
minute movements of small animals from high in the air. Its diet is varied,
ranging from invertebrates to small mammals and birds and carrion. However, it
will not kill a lamb or sheep although it will feed from the carcass of a dead
sheep after stronger scavengers have exposed the entrails.
A Red Kite Encounter
Crows are commonly seen mobbing buzzards,
less commonly Red kites. However, one such encounter this Easter gave me
an insight into the grace, beauty and skill of the Kite. The combatants on
this occasion first appeared from out of the distance as no more than dots
against the bluest of April skies. Only as they came closer, jousting low
over a deep valley could they be identified. The crow flapping away
continuously and lunging at the Kite with its beak whenever the
opportunity arose. In contrast the kite scarcely moved its wings, folding
and turning them only to change direction as it tried to grab the crow
with momentarily outstretched talons.
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The Kite circled the Oak tree once, then,
folding its wings close to its body plunged down towards the Crow and its
nest just as a Peregrine would stoop to its prey. As the Kite turned, the
sunlight reflected from the feathers, clearly showing the russet and white
pattern atop the wings. The dark silhouette had become transformed at once
into an object of beauty.
Somehow the Kite passed through the
bare branches of the Oak without catching the Crow or hitting any
branches. The Kite was persistent, repeatedly diving on the hapless Crow
but without success.
Each swooping dive brought raucous cries of
protestation from the smaller bird. The Crow took to the air again and the fight
was rejoined, the birds circling the Oak tree and the Crow taking occasional
refuge in its branches. We watched the birds for a good ten minutes as the Kite
became more aggressive and the Crow became at the same time more defensive. They
flew lower and lower as the duel continued, the birds descending into the valley
below the meadow. We waited for some time, expecting to see the birds appear
again
Some hours later the Crow and its mate were
back at the nest in the Oak tree and the Kite was circling high above the
valley, once more a dot in the sky. Only later did we discover that the Kite was
also nesting close by. This explained its aggressive behaviour toward the Crow
as it too came close to its nest! Later we saw this aerial jousting repeated a
number of times, but only when the Kite flew low over the fields near the crow's
nest. Much of the time the Kite would soar high above the valley where it seemed
the crow did not wish to venture. Despite their close proximity, both the Kite
and Crow families successfully raised their young.
I will always regard my observations that day
as special. They certainly gave me new insights into the grace, beauty and
aerial skill of the Red Kite. I watched it executing complex aerial manoeuvres
from both below and from above as it swooped down into the valley and feel
privileged to have shared these moments with one of Britain's rarest species. all
photos by Rod Attrill
©2006 Rod Attrill
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