Red Kite

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Well yesterday was a big day! For the first time in the 13 years we have lived at this house I saw a red kite flying over the garden! It was all  over too fast for a photograph but I am showing a couple of images from the archive!



The story oaf red kites in the UK is a successful one. In the early 1900s red kite numbers were threatened, Egg collecting and persecution by gamekeepers had seriously reduced numbers. By the 1980's red kites were only found in areas of Wales near the Severn valley and the birds were extinct in England and Scotland. A re introduction programme was instituted with birds brought in from Sweden ( and later Germany). The programme has been so successful that there are now an estimated 4600 breeding pairs in the UK and this is increasing. The nearest population to us was in the Grizedale forest in the Lake District but the odd bird has been seen near Shap recently. I really hope that the one bird I saw yesterday might mean that one day they will be breeding here.

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