After ringing and/or colour-marking well over 1300 young Red Kites in Wales since the first one in 1968 we have just been notified of the first ever recovery of a Welsh reared Red Kite overseas (excluding a wing-tagged juvenile reported sitting on a gas rig 40 miles off the Norfolk coast in July 1992).

The bird in question was ringed in a nest near Llandovery in 1995 and was found dead at Ballyvaldon, Blackwater, Wexford, EIRE on 20th October 1999. It was found on the bank of a river and reported to Chris Wilson who is the Warden for the Wexford Slobs and also happens to be a subscribing "Friend of the Welsh Kite". Chris's brother Mark lives in Wales and is involved with the annual monitoring carried out by the Trust. Unfortunately it is not known whether it had recently arrived or had been in Eire for some time.

There have been a greatly increased number of records of Red Kites in Ireland in recent years. Most of these were either known or assumed to be birds originating from the Scottish reintroductions.

This surprising recovery shows that the natural colonisation of Ireland by kites of Welsh origin, or of mixed Welsh and Scottish origin is possible, especially if the growth in the UK Red Kite population continues to increase at its present rate.