Figures in italics are derived from the tetrad survey. Bold figures represent number of pairs actually located

The figure of 259 breeding pairs for Wales seems a very reasonable figure. We knew of 206 laying pairs, suspected the presence of up to 30 others and have always accepted that we may have been missing between 10 and 20 % of all nests. The figure of 337 "territorial pairs" however, seems far too high. This probably results from the double counting of non-settled pairs or wrongly attributing territorial behaviour to wandering kites.

Defining a breeding pair was fairly clear-cut but establishing whether a kite was or wasn't acting territorially on a particular visit was not so easy. If there was any doubt the birds were recorded as a "possible pair". I suspect that the real figure for the number of territorial pairs in Wales is very much in the lower end of the 95% confidence range given.