Recent recoveries
of ringed Welsh kites

Since the production of the last newsletter the following kites have been reported as dead or injured;

(1) Ring number HT48650. Ringed as a single female chick in 1993 from a nest near Aberaeron. She was seen several times in her first winter at a roost near Llanybydder and was present in a winter roost very near her subsequent nesting site during Nov - Dec 1994. She was almost certainly the pioneering female at a new site in 1996 and bred there until 2000. She was found dead in early April. The autopsy report showed that she was well muscled with some fat deposits. There were no fractures. There was a large amount of clotted and fluid blood in the body cavity. The bird was in lay with several large ovules in the ovary. The autopsy suggests that this bird died from haemorrhaging from the ovary possibly as a result of poisoning by anticoagulant rodenticide. However, further investigation on a range of rodenticides failed to detect any residues and this bird joins a growing list of unresolved and suspicious deaths in that area.

The male at this nest actually succeeded in attracting a new female late on but although eggs were laid they didn't manage to rear any young.

(2) Ring number GF52973. Originally ringed as the younger chick from a brood of two in a nest near Lampeter in June 1995. This bird was found grounded and in poor condition near Tregaron in mid May. Despite receiving treatment it died later the next day. A post mortem revealed the bird to be a female weighing only 600g (about half the weight it should have been). It had no fat reserves and considerable wasting of musculature. There was a heavy infestation of chewing lice and intestinal nematodes and she almost certainly died of starvation.

(3) Ring number GF52971. Ringed as the younger chick from a brood of two in 1995 at a nest near Lampeter. This bird was not tagged and there are no records of it until it turned up dead under a nest near Sennybridge with GF89734 at the end of April 2000. Both birds were pretty well decomposed when found and little could be determined on autopsy other than that this was the female and that she was in lay. The shell of at least one egg was found below the nest. Tissue samples from both birds were sent off for toxicological tests.

(4) Ring number GF89734. Ringed as a chick from a brood of two (both identical size and weight) in a nest near Llandovery in June 1997. This was presumably the male at the same nest near Sennybridge as the female above. There were no prior records for this bird either.

(5) Ring number GF99205. Ringed as the younger chick (female) in a brood of two at a nest near Llanybydder in June 1999. She was found grounded in Llandre near Borth and reported to the RSPCA. They took her to a Bird Hospital in South Wales were she was later put down. The cause of her injuries are unknown.

(6) Ring number GN20816. This bird was the elder of a brood of two chicks fledged this year from a nest on the extreme SW limit of the kites present distribution in Wales, near Newcastle Emlyn. It was found dead shortly after fledging not far from the nest. The bird was in a fairly advanced state of decomposition so little was found on autopsy. Tissues have been sent off for toxicological tests.

(7) Ring number GN20785. Ringed as the younger of a brood of two chicks from a nest near Builth Wells. This was rather an unhappy tale. Shortly after fledging the landowner, Ms. Williams, reported finding this chick on the ground near the nest. I went over to have a look and found it deep in tall bracken into which it had flapped when she had approached it. I could find nothing wrong with it - it was a good weight and in perfect feather condition.
As young kites taken by surprise whilst on the ground occasionally "play dead" even after they can fly well I thought it was worth trying to "launch" this bird. It flew off strongly, circled around a nearby tree and perched in the top. When I approached it flew again, circled up high and at this point was joined by the adults and its elder sibling which had until now been absent. There was a lot of calling and they all went off together. A good job well done! Unfortunately that was not the happy conclusion to the story.
Shortly afterwards Ms.Williams found the same bird on the floor again and did exactly as she had seen me do - again the bird flew away strongly. Some weeks later she telephoned to say she had found it dead. There was obviously something wrong with this chick which was not immediately apparent by looking at it. Unfortunately it was quite badly decomposed when found and was not therefore submitted for autopsy. The cause of death remains unknown.