Nature Notes


Nature Notes for the May/June T


he red Kite is a medium to large, long-winged and long-tailed bird of prey that is, thanks to re-introductions, spreading across the country. its very distinctive deeply forked tail, bright colours and slow and lazy flight make it instantly recognisable from all other raptors except its close bur rarer cousin, the black Kite. However it was not always thus.


A common bird in tudor times it Fast Rabbit Farm


Garden created in sheltered valley with natural stream. Several ponds and lake, partially wooded, rockery, extensively planted, extends to 12 acres plus new woodland planting and walks. Car park. Some level walks


was well known for scavenging refuse from all big city streets, including the centre of london, where it was protected by statute for its valuable cleansing job removing refuse and offal. However with the clean up of the streets, the general persecution of birds of prey over the centuries and inadvertent poisoning, the population declined to almost extinction. indeed at the beginning of the 20th century, a once common bird had declined to just 5 breeding birds in the wilds of central wales. thanks to the efforts of the british


Open Sundays 11am-5pm March to November Bank Holiday Mondays


Admission £3.50, Children 50p


Parties welcome by appointment. Disabled: Please phone prior to visit www.fastrabbitfarm.co.uk


PLANTS FOR SALE


Ash Cross, Dartmouth Tel: 07813 504490


BTD033


Ornithologists’ Club working against various odds, including the insidious egg collectors, the bird hung on. its fortunes slowly increased after the Second world war and it became synonymous with the deep valleys around tregaron, Mid wales. the slow population increase occasionally got a welcome boost to the gene pool by incoming birds from germany or Spain taking up residence. this slowly brought the population up to around 100 pairs in the 1980s. However, the red Kite is not inherently a bird of remote hills and is very at home in lowland areas and this helped in the decisions to re-introduce the bird in different areas of britain. the introduction programme using Spanish and Swedish birds has been an unqualified success. Started in 1989 with releases into the Chilterns, subsequent releases using english reared birds have occurred in northamptonshire and Yorkshire, with further introductions taking place in 3 locations in Scotland. this has taken the british population to around 3000 birds. However it is the Chilterns where the introduction has been most successful and the slow spread of these birds is populating the south of the country. in Devon, the red Kite is still relatively scarce but it is becoming more common and the end of May/beginning of June is an excellent time to see them in the west Country. A recent phenomenon


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