‘Triumphant comeback’ for red kites after three decades
Raptors’ revival thanks to conservation efforts
THE RETURN of red kites has been hailed as a “triumphant comeback” 30 years on from the start of the scheme to reintroduce the bird to England’s skies.
In what environmental experts said may be the biggest species success story in UK conservation history, the once-vanished bird is now soaring over countryside, gardens and towns across swathes of England.
In three decades, the species has gone from a small number of breeding pairs in Wales, to thousands of birds across the UK, thanks to a reintroduction scheme seen as “radical” at the time, conservationists said.
Natural England’s chairman, Tony Juniper, said: ““Persecuted to near-extinction, they have made a triumphant comeback in England over the past three decades.”
Once a common sight in the medieval era, the birds’ fortunes declined in the face of persecution and also egg collecting, and by the 20th century they were extinct in both England and Scotland.
Thirteen 13 young red kites were brought from Spain and released in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in July 1990.
There are now more than 10,000 of the birds nationally and red kites are often spotted across the South-East of England, Yorkshire and the Midlands.
RED KITES can be seen regularly by keen-eyed nature lovers at the Harewood Estate near Leeds and the Yorkshire Wolds, an experience which had almost vanished from the landscape three decades ago.
It is 30 years this month since the majestic bird of prey was reintroduced to the wild in England.
In July 1990, they were saved from national extinction in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, when 13 young red kites, brought over from the Navarra region in Spain, took to the skies in their maiden flight.
Persecution over a 200-year period meant numbers had fallen as they increasingly became a target for egg collectors, reducing them to a few breeding pairs in central Wales. By the 1980s, the red kite was one of only three globally threatened species in the UK.
Natural England’s chairman Tony Juniper, said: “Red kites are one of our most majestic birds of prey with a beautiful plumage, and are easily recognisable thanks to their soaring flight and mewing call.
“Persecuted to near-extinction, they have made a triumphant comeback in England over the past three decades. Thanks to this pioneering reintroduction programme in the Chilterns, increased legal protection and collaboration amongst partners, the red kite stands out as a true conservation success story.”
The Nature Conservancy Council, now Natural England, joined forces with the RSPB, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee Zoological Society London
It took us by surprise, just how well they did take to Yorkshire. Doug Simpson, who was the programme officer who brought the birds to Harewood.
and British Airways to release the birds 30 years ago in an area on the Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire border. The UK had only a few dozen red kites, but now there are more than 10,000.
In 1999, they were released at the Harewood Estate, unexpectedly proving a success and quickly spreading to the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding.
Doug Simpson, from Harrogate, was the programme officer
who brought the birds to Harewood that year, and now helps to monitor numbers of the birds with the Yorkshire Red Kites group.
During a count last year, about 450 birds were detected at roosts in the region, but Mr Simpson, 78, said not all the kites would have gone to those locations.
Others would have resting sites unknown to the group, and estimated that more than 1,000 of the species could be in Yorkshire.
Mr Simpson said: “It took us by surprise, just how well they did take to Yorkshire.
“Most of us, myself included, had the initial perception that you had to get into remote places in Wales to see kites and it was in a number of sparsely populated areas where kites would subsist.
“In reality, they are not birds of those remote areas, they’re actually birds of farmland, the sort of territory we’ve got lots of in Yorkshire.”
Jeff Knott, an RSPB operations director, said it had been a “fantastic example of conservation in action”.
He said: “In a few short decades we have taken a species from the brink of extinction, to the UK being home to almost 10 per cent of the entire world population.
“It might be the biggest species success story in UK conservation history.”