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Friends of Red Kites - in the North East of England (1 Viewer)

Wt16


Now this is one you'll be proud of, Mick - beautiful shot!!
I had only today switched your image on the FoRK website, but if you'd like this one on, please send me a high res image and I'll change them over.
I work to a 500 pixel width, so you may prefer to do the resizing yourself.....I'm happy either way. Let me know on my OE line,please.


Mickr said:
I've had another good day at the Derwent, Kites are actually carrying non food items so the change in weather has them thinking about increasing our population. The attached photograph isn't a crop its a full sized image of WT16 which has had the quality reduced to display it on here.
Click to expand...
 
June Atkinson said:

Now this is one you'll be proud of, Mick - beautiful shot!!
I had only today switched your image on the FoRK website, but if you'd like this one on, please send me a high res image and I'll change them over.
I work to a 500 pixel width, so you may prefer to do the resizing yourself.....I'm happy either way. Let me know on my OE line,please.
Click to expand...

I know I'm starting to sound like a Fisherman but again, I missed the best shot. I was watching two Red Kites in the valley while changing batteries in the camera. I turned around to see a Red Kite just about to land on a fence post which was 3 or 4 metres away, it noticed me and flew away before I could get anything.

I'll have a look through all of my photographs which were taken on Saturday and will send you the originals and then you can do what you want with them.
 
Has the Northern Kites website closed down? I haven't been able to access it for a few days now. If it has closed down, would it be possible to put a list of the introduced Red Kites on the FoRK website and have it updated when Red Kites are spotted so that we know where they are?
 
Here's a poor photograph of a Red Kite carrying what looked like a clump of grass or possibly a root.
 

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Northern Kites link

Thanks for alerting us to this, Mick.
I have tried accessing it both from our own FoRK links and independently, and so far - zilch. I'm seeing Ken this morning - going monitoring - so I'll mention it to him. It could just be down for a reason.


Mickr said:
Has the Northern Kites website closed down? I haven't been able to access it for a few days now. If it has closed down, would it be possible to put a list of the introduced Red Kites on the FoRK website and have it updated when Red Kites are spotted so that we know where they are?
Click to expand...
 
Strange behaviour?

Hi June,

living at the centre of red kite country as I do, I thought I’d seen it all, but on going out the back this morning I was greeted by the sight of two kites tumbling out of the sky just beyond the row of houses over the back lane (maybe 30-35 yds in front of me), joined together by the talons as they spun round, disappearing just behind the rooftops in a vertical drop, only to reappear moments later flying upwards and off in opposite directions, both flapping away non-stop ‘til they had disappeared out of sight.

Now I’ve seen talon grappling many times before in the kites, also in buzzards and sparrowhawks locally as a part of the courtship display, but this has always been momentary and more gentle, this behaviour was more akin to the footage I’ve seen on TV of some species of eagle whose name escapes me which take part in these tumbling displays for more aggressive reasons, like a test of nerve with a rival, (a game of chicken so to speak) dropping out of the sky locked together, and in some cases if they refuse to let go in time can result in one or both parties plummeting to their deaths.
I can honestly say I’ve never seen red kites behaving aggressively towards each other but this behaviour seemed more akin to aggression than courtship, with the two involved birds departing the scene quickly and in virtually opposite directions.
Any one reported anything like it? Certainly a new one to me.

cheers

Alan M
 
Aggressive kite behaviour


I have never seen this kind of behaviour myself, but know, from seeing photographs taken by other folk, that this can occur. I suppose it's especially likely at the time they kites are establishing their territory!

June


Mouldy said:
Hi June,

living at the centre of red kite country as I do, I thought I’d seen it all, but on going out the back this morning I was greeted by the sight of two kites tumbling out of the sky just beyond the row of houses over the back lane (maybe 30-35 yds in front of me), joined together by the talons as they spun round, disappearing just behind the rooftops in a vertical drop, only to reappear moments later flying upwards and off in opposite directions, both flapping away non-stop ‘til they had disappeared out of sight.

Now I’ve seen talon grappling many times before in the kites, also in buzzards and sparrowhawks locally as a part of the courtship display, but this has always been momentary and more gentle, this behaviour was more akin to the footage I’ve seen on TV of some species of eagle whose name escapes me which take part in these tumbling displays for more aggressive reasons, like a test of nerve with a rival, (a game of chicken so to speak) dropping out of the sky locked together, and in some cases if they refuse to let go in time can result in one or both parties plummeting to their deaths.
I can honestly say I’ve never seen red kites behaving aggressively towards each other but this behaviour seemed more akin to aggression than courtship, with the two involved birds departing the scene quickly and in virtually opposite directions.
Any one reported anything like it? Certainly a new one to me.

cheers

Alan M
Click to expand...
 
Aggressive kites

Have a look here, Alan.
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/9250994-md.jpg
Mouldy said:
Hi June,

living at the centre of red kite country as I do, I thought I’d seen it all, but on going out the back this morning I was greeted by the sight of two kites tumbling out of the sky just beyond the row of houses over the back lane (maybe 30-35 yds in front of me), joined together by the talons as they spun round, disappearing just behind the rooftops in a vertical drop, only to reappear moments later flying upwards and off in opposite directions, both flapping away non-stop ‘til they had disappeared out of sight.

Now I’ve seen talon grappling many times before in the kites, also in buzzards and sparrowhawks locally as a part of the courtship display, but this has always been momentary and more gentle, this behaviour was more akin to the footage I’ve seen on TV of some species of eagle whose name escapes me which take part in these tumbling displays for more aggressive reasons, like a test of nerve with a rival, (a game of chicken so to speak) dropping out of the sky locked together, and in some cases if they refuse to let go in time can result in one or both parties plummeting to their deaths.
I can honestly say I’ve never seen red kites behaving aggressively towards each other but this behaviour seemed more akin to aggression than courtship, with the two involved birds departing the scene quickly and in virtually opposite directions.
Any one reported anything like it? Certainly a new one to me.

cheers

Alan M
Click to expand...
 
Advance notice of Red Kite Event



Our FoRK Health Walks are continuing from now until August. Everyone is welcome to come along. As you see from the programme, the walks are varied.


Friends of Red Kites are working alongside Gateshead Council Rangers in this Event which will run this summer.

Visit the FoRK website to keep in touch as this year's breeding season gets underway.

www.friendsofredkites.org.uk
 

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It looks like the Red Kites are having a good breeding season, the link has this story plus what looks like one of this years young.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/10357906.stm

Red kite project on Tyneside breeds success


Experts say a scheme to reintroduce endangered red kites to the North East is continuing to prove a success.

The Northern Kites project released almost 100 of the birds of prey into the lower Derwent Valley in Gateshead between 2004 and 2006.

A fresh clutch of chicks are being ringed and wing tagged at a secret location near Gibside, where some of the birds have settled.

The National Trust said the birds had established "sustainable territories".

Red kites have also been reported at nest sites at Blaydon, Hamsterley Hill, Rowlands Gill and Chopwell.

Two years ago the number of red kite chicks born in the Derwent Valley was 15. The National Trust says that figure has now risen to 20.

A spokesman said: "It is fantastic news and the hope is that they continue to expand across the North East."

The birds used to be a common sight in the UK, but human interference meant they were extinct by the 19th Century.
 
Birdforum member's work

Here are our two Pop-up Banners. Ian Curran kindly donated his photographs to FoRK and the firm who produced them said that the images were superb!

Thank you again, Ian.

June
 

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Our first 13 chicks of 2010

The first thirteen chicks in the North East have been located ( with great difficulty in some instances) and then Wing Tagged and Ringed.
We hope there are more nests to be found. The help of local residents was especially appreciated.

June
Press & Publicity
FoRK

www.friendsofredkites.org.uk

 

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June Atkinson said:
The first thirteen chicks in the North East have been located ( with great difficulty in some instances) and then Wing Tagged and Ringed.
We hope there are more nests to be found. The help of local residents was especially appreciated.

June
Press & Publicity
FoRK

www.friendsofredkites.org.uk
Click to expand...

June,

This is probably a stupid question but here goes, why are the Kites being tagged with different letters?
 
Tags with letters

This is the series for our very own babies, Mick............... starting of course with A, then working each year to this year, when we need to start with D1 - D9 , not D10 apparently, and then the E sequence. Any more chicks we find will be E3-E9, then next year, all being well, it will be F and G perhaps.

The kites have led everybody on the Monitoring Team, and especially Ken, a merry dance!!

I'll be putting up a series of images following the process in the next couple of days.
June
FoRK
Mickr said:
June,

This is probably a stupid question but here goes, why are the Kites being tagged with different letters?
Click to expand...
 
June Atkinson said:
This is the series for our very own babies, Mick............... starting of course with A, then working each year to this year, when we need to start with D1 - D9 , not D10 apparently, and then the E sequence. Any more chicks we find will be E3-E9, then next year, all being well, it will be F and G perhaps.

The kites have led everybody on the Monitoring Team, and especially Ken, a merry dance!!

I'll be putting up a series of images following the process in the next couple of days.
June
FoRK
Click to expand...

I understand, so they are keeping it to one letter and one number regardless of when they were born. I originally thought that maybe a letter was being used for each year.
 
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