VAL BOURNE’S GARDEN WILDLIFE
Val praises the return of a beloved bird – the red kite
IT’S not all doom and gloom in the natural world. Some things do come back from the brink of extinction, with our help, and the red kite (Milvus milvus) is one of them. Every time I see one wheeling over Spring Cottage I’m reminded of a trip I made in the early 1970s. In those days I was a bit of a twitcher, so I took myself off to Radnorshire in Wales, where the last 20 breeding pairs of red kites were surviving. I sat in the car, I walked about, I moved the car, I ate lunch, I sat in a hedge and then I finally gave up and decided to head home, just as the light was fading. In the distance I saw one red kite, with its unmistakable forked tail and wheeling flight. Eureka!
I still remember the euphoria because in the 1970s everyone thought that these handsome birds would disappear forever. That changed in 1989, when red kites were released on the Wormsley Estate in Buckinghamshire, which had been acquired by the late Sir Paul Getty KBE in 1986. The original release site was going to be Windsor Great Park in Berkshire, and Sir Paul Getty stepped in following unspecified problems.
I was lucky enough to visit the Wormsley Estate last September and it’s an idyllic spot on top of the Chilterns. The cricket ground, a reconstruction of The Oval, and the Walled Garden full of flowers, made for a memorable day. Many of the Midsomer Murders take place here, apparently (for more details visit wormsleyestate.com).
The climate of the Chilterns provided plenty of food for the kites, so many bred after just one year. In comparison, a Welsh red kite took three years, on average. By the mid-1990s you could see up to 20 red kites, catching the thermals, right by the M40. They were slow to disperse and rumour has it that they were being fed raw chicken on a daily basis. However, they did move eventually, progressing along the A40 and the motorway. They often feed on road kill.
We had a close-up view of a red kite a couple of summers ago. Our entire family, all three generations, were out walking and we spotted one circling overhead, making plaintive noises. On investigation we found another injured kite on the ground. We think it had been hit by a vehicle on the nearby Fosse Way. The Best Beloved raced back for a large cardboard box, as instructed by the grandchildren. It was surprising how light this bird was when we lifted it into the box. The RSPB picked our red kite up, but sadly couldn’t save it.
“You could see up to 20 red kites right by the M40”