Red Kites: UK's conservation success story
WHILE MUCH OF THE UK’S NATIVE BIRD SPECIES ARE RAPIDLY DECLINING DUE TO HUMAN ACTIVITIES, CHLOE VALERIE CELEBRATES ONE EXAMPLE OF AN OUTSTANDING CONSERVATION SUCCESS – THE REINTRODUCTION OF THE RED KITE.
People who are passionate about nature love all animals, yet nearly everyone has a favourite or two. For me, the red kite (milvus milvus) is one of the most special birds we have in England. Large and majestic, it takes my breath away every time I see it soaring above me. This stunning bird of prey brings a little wildness to my suburban landscape, and excitement into my everyday life. It is for this reason that the red kite features often in my artwork, and is also frequently mentioned in my nature journal.
Despite living within throwing distance of my childhood home, I don’t remember seeing red kites all those years ago. That’s probably because there weren’t any around. As a result of merciless persecution by those who shot them or collected their eggs, these raptors declined rapidly over a 200-year period so that, by the 1980s, they were almost extinct in the UK. Then, in July 1990, 13 red kites from Spain were brought over and released in the Chiltern Hills. 30 years later, they have spread across the country, including to my county of Hertfordshire.
From only a few nesting pairs in Wales, they can now be found in most English counties, with about 1,800 breeding pairs in the UK. It is now considered to be one of the most successful examples of reintroduction in the UK and is also one of the world’s longest-running protection programmes – an undeniable conservation success. As RSPB’s operations director for Central and Eastern England Jeff Knott said, it ‘might be the biggest species success story in UK conservation history’, with the almost extinct species now ‘a daily sight for millions of people’. Furthermore, the UK is currently home to almost 10% of the world’s population of red kites.
According to Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, the red kite reintroduction project also went on to pave the way for further species reintroductions, therefore ‘helping to reverse the historic deterioration of our natural environment and our precious species that inhabit it.’ Examples of these other reintroductions include the establishment of breeding populations of white-tailed eagles and hen harriers in the southern counties. With most bird species in decline due to various human activities, projects such as these are incredibly important in rebuilding the numbers of our precious birds. Not only do these projects right some of our wrongs, but they also educate people regarding the necessity of protecting all of our wildlife, in order to have a sustainable ecosystem.
Despite the significance of this project and the beauty of this bird, it is surprisingly difficult to find books about the red kite. After some research, I bought ‘The Red Kite’s Year’ (Pelagic Publishing, 2019), written by Ian Carter and with gorgeous illustrations by Dan Powell. I adore it. It describes the bird’s history, reveals its habits and breeding cycles, and details the process of the reintroduction. According to Carter, Britain could potentially support ‘in excess of 50,000 pairs’, since there are many sections of countryside that would be suitable for these highly adaptable birds. Foraging mainly for carrion of small birds and mammals, and scouring open fields for earthworms (their favourite food), they will only feed on dead livestock if their preferred food sources are in low supply. Yet some humans are still mistrustful and so illegal shooting and poisoning continues, including on grouse moors in northern Scotland – explaining why their numbers have not increased there as much as in England’s southern counties. As Carter explains, ‘in the years ahead, the fortunes of our most graceful and elegant bird of prey will tell us much about our ability and willingness to coexist with wildlife’. With the Government’s 25-Year Environment Plan hoping to reintroduce several other formerly native species, we can only hope that our society will learn that living side by side with a wide variety of creatures benefits both us and our environment.
As for me, I’m very happy they’re here. I regularly see two, sometimes three, circling the sky above my house or nearby fields (I call them Roger, Rachel and Rebecca), and slightly further away, I recently saw six of them flying low over a farm (I now need to think of more ‘R’ names!), looking for earthworms and carrion. It was three years ago that I first noticed what is now one of my favourite bird, but now my ears are so attuned to their mewing call, that I instinctively scan the sky whenever I hear it. On that initial sighting, I felt as if they were a symbol of luck and hope at a time when I was struggling. Since then, they always seem to appear when I need cheering up, or when I could do with an exhilarating burst of nature. In my opinion, there is nothing more glorious than the sight of their expansive wings, forked tails and eagle-like beak glowing in the sunshine.
During lockdown, it was hard not to feel trapped at times, and so the red kite then began to represent future freedom as well as hope for me. The world was experiencing a very challenging period in its history; but I had to believe that, like the red kite, with care and strength we could recover and could look forward to a brighter future. If the reintroduction project can teach us anything, it’s that we can learn from both our failures and our successes.
Artwork credit: Chloé Valerie Nature Art
Find more infomation about Red Kites in the Chilterns and see Red Kites at Gigrin Farm’s Feeding Centre in Wales.
This is Chloé Valerie’s first piece for Bloom in Doom. She is a passionate nature writer and artist – you can find some of her work at instagram.com/chloevalerienatureart/ and chloevalerienatureart.wordpress.com/writing/