One of my friends reckons he's seen red kites flying about over the local moors (Rochdale).
I didn't think they'd spread this far, and I've not seen any myself. Anyone else seen them?
Depends how long the string is to the ground.
I've not seen this one, but over the last 10 years I've seen two kites in the Warrington and Northwich areas, so they have periodically turned up
I've heard mentioned that young birds of prey tend to venture quite far from home, check out an area, then move back home. You hear about it with sea eagles on the news quite often.
I'm sure there is someone more knowledgeable on the forum who can answer better.
The number of kites you see in the chilterns always makes me jealous.
Not seen one outside of Wales but hear of occasional sightings here in Rossendale.
Seen and photographed in Kent
There's a successful feeding centre at Harewood near Leeds and the populations are generally increasing across the UK so it's not impossible to see one a little further west.
In England the reintroduced birds can be found in the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire area, Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Gateshead and Grizedale Forest in Cumbria.
from the RSPB website. I expect as above they do wander around quite a bit when they are first kicked out of the nest.
Mrs Binners worked for Lancashire Wildlife Trust
They reintroduced them into the Ribble Valley and they've bred really successfully and have been venturing further south. You regularly see them at Brockholes, south of Preston.
If you like your twitching, the hides at Brockholes are worth a visit. As is the cafe where the ducks have sussed out that if they approach the automatic doors en masse they can open them then mooch about hoovering up any dropped chips 🙂
@tewit We're in Norden so on the Rossendale side, might be those birds.
Is there anything else raptor-y it might be? I've seen the odd sparrowhawk/kestrel about but I'd have thought they were quite hard to mistake for a red kite?
Not seen a kite in Manchester, only a mad ferret.
See them from time to time in Somerset. Definitely spreading gradually.
Very good by the way…..
Buzzards are a similar size and fairly common here. Kites have quite an obvious v shape tail.
Red kites are obvious. The only big bird of prey with a long forked tail.
There are loads in the North Downs and home counties, they spread pretty quickly so it's only a matter of not a very long time before they are everywhere. They are robust and prolific birds, the reason they nearly disappeared was persecution.
They are robust and prolific birds, the reason they nearly disappeared was persecution.
Any that turn up in the Peak District usually end up dead in fairly short order.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/about-the-rspb/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/red-kite-disappears-in-suspicious-circumstances/
https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2018/09/21/climber-witnesses-shooting-of-red-kite-in-peak-district-national-park/
The area is known for it, as always you get the gamekeeper's association solemnly swearing that they protect birds of prey, the landowners denying all knowledge of anything illegal going on on their land and meanwhile the blatant trapping and shooting continues. It got a lot worse in the first lockdown when there were far fewer people around to accidentally stumble on stink pits, bait birds and so on.
There’s a successful feeding centre at Harewood near Leeds and the populations are generally increasing across the UK so it’s not impossible to see one a little further west.
I came here to say that - we live about 6 miles from Harewood and they are everywhere now - still beautiful to see them circling but now very commonplace so no longer a nice surprise to see one.
There's a few knocking around, I've seen them overhead here in South Manchester. I wasn;t aware of the Ribble Valley birds, but I know there's a breeding colony just north of Leeds which isn't that far away in bird terms
I'm pretty sure I watched a red kite on Holcombe Moor in 2012.
I nearly wrote "a couple of years ago" - but it was on the sad day that two police officers were murdered in Mottram, so that dates it to September 2012. How time flies!
There are loads in the North Downs and home counties
You are almost guaranteed to see at least one on a bike ride on the North Downs near Croydon these days.
It doesn't matter how many times I see one it still makes my day to see them soar majestically in the sky.
IIRC the red kite conservation programme is the longest wildlife conservation programme in the world. Over a hundred years it's been going I believe.
We have the same pair of red kites over our garden pretty much every day - beautiful birds.
We're in Hertford, I can drive in any direction and be guaranteed to see 10 over the course of an hour or so.
I understand there is a roost of upto 60 birds in winter
There are around 20 in our local roost
Saw kites at Drumlanrig yesterday.
@binners Not been to Brockholes for aaaaages. Is it all open at the moment?
Saw one on the Cat and Fiddle last week probably won't last long up there and I've seen them in Macclesfield before. They are pretty widespread around Leeds these day I've seen them in the city centre aew times when I've been over.
Just had one flying around outside the house here. Central Bedfordshire.
Couldn't get camera fast enough though
Used to see tonnes (well, you know, relatively) of them in Cirencester, not yet seen one up here (Disley), but I'll keep my eyes peeled if they've been spotted om the Cat and Fiddle and in Macc.
We have a feeding site about a mile away.
They are like Sparrows some days....
In the last decade I've seen them spread southwards from Mid Wales, saw one at my house the other day for the first time. They spread very well.
Couple flying around in West Sussex this weekend too, it’s actually getting pretty common to see them on the South Downs around Harting, Goodwood area.
They spread very well.
Helps 'em fly, dunnit
@ratherbeintobago - all the Wildlife Trusts places are back open again with social distancing rules. Get yourself down to Brockholes
I think there was a pair soaring above the M1/M18 junction an hour ago. Certainly a big bird looking for prey. Was driving so didn't have a very good look. Is there an easy tell to distinguish them from Buzzards etc, I'm nowhere near eagle territory so those would be the likely candidates.
Have seen them in Devon and Cornwall so they are definitely spreading across the country 🙂
Is there an easy tell to distinguish them from Buzzards etc, I’m nowhere near eagle territory so those would be the likely candidates.
By far the easiest way is by the swallow tail of the red kites
Lots in the South Downs.
Even more in the Chilterns, but those ones are big 'uns. Must be the diet - sausage rolls etc:
By far the easiest way is by the swallow tail of the red kites
and the Kites' wings have a bit of a Jones-bars kink in them.
Loads near me (Amersham, Chilterns). It's good to see them circling over the garden or even clearing up roadkill. They also get the young rabbits in the fields - soaring then diving and striking.
Best I ever saw was in High Wycombe - about a dozen "stacked" one above another, circling above a school.
Be afraid, be very afraid. if you're not careful then you too could be selling your story to sky news to help you with the trauma of eating a custard cream.
Seen a few in Notts, not too far as the, er, kite flies.
Used to occassionally see them over Lyme Park - technically East Cheshire but isn't far to Greater Manchester as the crow / kite flies.
What johndoh said. Common as muck around Arrogate & most of North Yorkshire.
Lots around Henley, was surprised to see one just north of Cambridge recently.
common as crows in North Herts
Loads around Hampshire, sometimes see a dozen circling in one place. I remember when they were only seen around the Chilterns. I was wondering what they did to the local buzzard population - seems like there are fewer of those now.
I don't think red kites and buzzards compete, not diet wise anyway.
In my experience buzzards have spread in recent years in the same or very similar areas locally as red kites.
I would have thought that the red kites greatest competitors are crows. Although they both each have their own advantages, what crows lack in high altitude soaring they make up with their truly remarkable intelligence.
On a related note I might have seen a golden eagle yesterday in the Lakes. We were walking from Mosedale to Bowscale Tarn and above the valley were 2 very large birds. They were about 200m up and far too big to be buzzards. The colours under the wings looked yellow not white, they had pronounced feathers like fingers at the edge of the wings too. Interestingly the lower bird had had some v shaped notches mid-wing half way along the trailing edge. The size and colour made me think they were juvenile golden and the notched wings were just strange. Buzzards are so common nobody would mark them in that way
Has anyone seen anything like this in the Northern Fells recently?
