Despite local problems with coverage in 1999, due mainly to pressure of other work upon some of our watchers, we believe that the population census was comparable with earlier years, even if some of the details are lacking.

A few areas were in fact covered rather more thoroughly than had been possible in 1998. In the outcome, we recorded a very healthy 14% increase in the number of known kite pairs in Wales, from a revised figure of exactly 200 pairs in 1998 to 228 in 1999. Of these, 181 pairs are accepted as having bred, 14 more than in 1998, and it is very probable that some of the remaining 47 pairs either laid eggs and quickly failed, or that we did not locate their active nests.

One pair recycled successfully after an early failure, and one male evidently bred twice, remating quickly after his first mate died on eggs, and rearing a very late chick with the new female in the same nest. Besides the mated pairs, about 155 'spare birds' were recorded, so the April population was at least 610 birds, and it may have been a good deal higher.

The outcome at four of the 182 known nests with eggs is not recorded. Of the remaining 178, 118 were successful, and from these at least 165 young were reared. Of the 60 recorded nest failures, an unprecedently large number, at least eight, were due to the collapse of the nest; four in the heavy snowfall of mid-April, the rest in late April or early May. Four nests were apparently predated by crows, three failed after non-deliberate human disturbance, at least one was robbed by egg collectors, and two clutches failed to hatch after full term. Three nests were deserted after one of the pair died. The others had no obvious cause of failure, though as usual wet weather was probably the main culprit. Seven failed with eggs, 21 around or soon after hatching time, and five certainly lost small young. For six, the cause and timing of failure is unknown.


Weather conditions through most of the breeding season were distinctly patchy, with short dry periods alternating with less favourable conditions, notably the late blizzard of 14-16 April. There were several very wet days around the main hatching time in early May, but the latter part of the season proved mainly dry. The Kites had a protracted laying season during 1999, with some getting away to an early start in late March, most producing eggs in early April, a few not until late April. At least two clutches, the recycle and the one from the widowed male and his new mate, did not appear until early May; indeed the latter was among the latest nests ever recorded. Both successfully reared single chicks which did not fly until August. After the rush of twins in 1998 we were back to normal, with a single chick as the typical final brood. We recorded 77 broods of one, 35 broods of two, and six of three young. The total of 165 fledged young was nine fewer than the amended figure for 1998.


The area occupied by territorial kite pairs in Wales showed several very satisfactory extensions, to the south-west, south-east, and east, as well as the more customary infilling. There was however little sign of any expansion to the north or north-east. Indeed there has been some rather worrying loss of ground in the north-east (mainly Montgomery) in recent years, affecting both breeding birds and records of single kites. We hope that this is not due to persecution.

Nine Welsh kites were reported dead or permanently injured during the breeding season, at least four of them members of territorial pairs. An eighth-year female became entangled in a wire fence near her nest in early April, probably before she could lay, and she sustained a wing injury which made it impossible to release her back into the wild. She is being cared-for at the Cilgerran Bird-of-prey Centre.

Another breeding bird, sex and age unknown, died at the nest later in April, but was not found until June. A breeding third-year male found dead under his nest near Aberystwyth on 26 April had been poisoned with Fenthion, the discontinued warble-fly treatment which has commonly been used on illicit baits in Wales. Some 19 ravens, several crows, a buzzard and a fox all died in this same incident. On the same day, but more than 20 miles away, a breeding third-year female was picked up dead near her nest. There was extensive haemorrhage into the body cavity, and although no chemicals were found in the post mortem tests, a rodenticide was suspected. This suspicion was reinforced later, when two first-year immatures were reported dead within a mile or so of this same nest. Both had also died at the end of April, but unfortunately the reports did not come through from the ringing office until it was too late for analysis. This incident, if it did result from rat poison, was of course an unfortunate side-effect of a perfectly legal activity.


On 6 June another breeding male, a fourth year bird, was found grounded near his nest, which contained a sizeable chick. He died the following day, apparently from a cancerous tumour in the thorax. Happily his hard-working female, with a little help from her human neighbours successfully reared the chick. A second-year male, probably not a breeder, was killed by a road vehicle on 20 July, presumably while taking some dead animal from the road. A recently-fledged juvenile died near its birthplace in late July. On a happier note, two other kites were successfully released after being grounded and taken into care; an unringed bird near Llandovery in early May and a nine-year-old female (so presumably a local breeder) near Aberystwyth in late July.


After the breeding season, an unringed adult found freshly dead in NW Breconshire in late September proved to have been poisoned with Carbofuran. This carbomate compound, used legitimately as an insecticide on root crops, has recently been widely misused on poison baits in Scotland (where it has accounted for several kites) and N England, but this is its first appearance in a Welsh kite, a most disturbing development. In late October three more dead kites were found in the Tregaron area, and detailed post mortem reports are awaited.


Same 142 of the 1999 chicks were ringed at the nest. There are no reports so far this year of Welsh ringed kites found outside Wales, but one Scottish-reared bird was reported in Radnorshire during the winter and early spring.


Revised figures for the known Welsh kite population for the past five years are given in the table below.

Peter Davies, at the autumn 1999 meeting of the Welsh Kite Watchers' Group, announced his decision to step down as Kite Recorder after some 20 years of sterling service. He, more than perhaps anyone else, is to be thanked for the major role he has, and continues to play in saving the Red Kite from extinction in Britain. We are extremely grateful for all the hard work and enthusiasm he has put into his recorder duties.

On Peter's recommendation to this same meeting the Welsh Kite Watchers' Group agreed that the Recorders responsibilities should be handed to me, and so, as the new Recorder, I will do my best to maintain his high standard of accuracy and attention to detail. We are delighted that he remains an active nest-watcher and trustee of the Welsh Kite Trust.