The Return Of The Kite

Red is for ‘go’: GRAHAM WELLSTEAD celebrates one of the century’s most successful conservation stories in this country

- Graham Wellstead

IS REINTRODUCTION the right word to describe the return of the red kite (Milvus milvus) to our skies, for in practice they had never gone away? A small group had held on by the tips of their talons to the wilder parts of West Wales. Constantly being robbed by egg collectors meant that it was only a question of time before we really had lost them, though, and ever-decreasing gene pools would not have helped.

After the successful reintroduction of the white-tailed eagle in Scotland in the 1970s, feasibility studies suggested the process could be repeated with the red kite. The existing population in Wales was too small to allow large numbers of young birds to be relocated to other areas, so the organisers (an initiative involving the RSPB and what was then English Nature) looked to the continent; in particular, Spain. The first kites – young birds – were brought from the thriving population in Spain in 1989 and this continued until 1994, starting in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire.

The birds were kept in large aviaries until old enough to fly free and a slow-release system proved effective. The young birds did well, began to spread naturally, and soon became a common sight for drivers on the M40 motorway near High Wycombe. I travelled that road often during the early 1990s and would be disappointed if I did not see three or four of these graceful birds drifting across the carriageways. Not only did they succeed, but they also bred quite quickly; a first breeding was recorded in 1992, much quicker than the Scottish eagles which took 10 years.