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Red Kites in the English Midlands
Ian Carter, English Nature
Following the disruption to monitoring activity during the 2001 breeding season, as a result of foot and mouth restrictions, the 2002 season was eagerly awaited. The newly formed Rockingham Forest Raptor Group lead by Karl Ivens and Derek Holman now undertakes monitoring of the Red Kite breeding population in the Midlands. They combine the Red Kite work with studies of other raptors, notably Hobby and Common Buzzard, which is continuing its rapid spread into parts of the east Midlands.
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The season started badly with the death of two of the population's most experienced breeding birds, both as a result of secondary poisoning by rodenticides. One of the birds (Grey H) was the only known survivor from the first batch of Spanish birds released in the Midlands back in 1995. It was involved in the very first breeding attempt in the area in 1996 and has remained paired to the same male since then, breeding successfully in most years.
The second death involved a 1997 wild-fledged male (Red C) that was found dead close to its nest in early May. The nest tree was climbed and the nest found to contain three eggs. More in hope than expectation the eggs were transferred to the incubator of local gamekeeper Roy Green. Remarkably, all three eggs hatched and a photograph of the Red Kite chicks sitting amongst Pheasant eggs and newly-hatched chicks in the incubator was printed in Shooting Times (May 23rd) along with a quote from the gamekeeper - 'I took some flak about this - no-one thought that there'd be any pheasant chicks left on that tray of eggs!' The story had a positive ending with the return of two of the three chicks to foster nests in the wild. Although one was later found dead near to the nest, the other fledged successfully.
Later in the season poisoning by rodenticides accounted for another two birds, this time well-grown young from the same nest. One chick was already dead when the nest was visited to fit wing-tags. The other was alive but showed signs of external bleeding and was found dead on a later nest visit.
Despite these setbacks there was a very encouraging increase in the Midlands population with a total of 23 breeding pairs located, eight more than the estimate of 15 pairs in 2001. Of these, 19 were successful and 43 young were reared, almost double the total of 22 from just two years ago. Most of the increase in the population was through infilling within the core breeding area but several nests were found in new areas more than 10km away from the core range.
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