Northern Kites (5 Viewers)

[salty]

cheers June, im out tomorrow for a little kite searching of my own, i hope the weather is OK for it.

 

[June Atkinson]

Red Kite up-date 31 August 2005

cheers June, im out tomorrow for a little kite searching of my own, i hope the weather is OK for it.

:news: :news: :news: :news: :news:
Three of us went out monitoring this morning. The weather was chilly, with a breeze and visibility was very poor.
At Barlow - the Black Horse Pub carpark, we located a lot of the birds which had obviously decided to stay in bed!! Wing Tags 16, 21-F, 22-F, 27,28,29,32, 33, 34, (Hooray for Helen's baby!),35,36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 48, 50,51,52,55,56,57 and 58 were all mostly perched in the Barlow Burn area. The roost would appear to be in Reely(?) Mires Wood.

We saw a couple over the SITA landfill site and then got signals from Wing Tag 46,51 and 54.

We located 31, 45 in the Lintz Hall Farm area, and Wing Tag 47 and 49 in the High Spen area.

So, if you're wondering where to go, here is the proof.........given some fine weather this should be an ideal location for seeing our kites.

Wing Tag 2 is in the Harewood, Yorkshire area - this is the one which has done a huge mileage via Wales, the Chilterns, Yorkshire, back north, off south again, back north and now back to Harewood.........what an intrepid flyer!!

Wing Tag 3 is in Teesdale along with Wing Tag 5 and Wing Tag 23- and the buzzards of course!!

Good luck everyone - and good kite spotting!! :clap: :clap:

 

[salty]

thanks for the update June.

seems barlow fell and far pastures are THE places for kites still, fantastic.

 

[Gill Osborne]

Fabulous news June :clap:

I'm planning on driving down to look for them sometime in the next fortnight when Neil has a day off - sure he'd love to see them too. Will be a HUGE adventure for me as I've never ventured south of the Tyne before!!! :eek!:

Incidentally there's a fab article about the NE Kites in the latest BBC Wildlife ( September 2005 on sale today - has an otter on the cover) on pages 60-61.

Gill

 

[June Atkinson]

Barlow Fell today

Fabulous news June :clap:

I'm planning on driving down to look for them sometime in the next fortnight when Neil has a day off - sure he'd love to see them too. Will be a HUGE adventure for me as I've never ventured south of the Tyne before!!! :eek!:

Incidentally there's a fab article about the NE Kites in the latest BBC Wildlife ( September 2005 on sale today) on pages 60-61.

Gill

We went onto Barlow Fell this afternoon and saw six kites enjoying the beautiful weather. We tried the Black Horse Carpark, but there were no kites to be seen, in any direction! Returning via the Thornley Kennels, we had a lovely view of one kite wheeling and soaring, using its twisting tail like a rudder.
Thanks for mentioning the magazine, Gill - must get a copy soon.

 

[Mouldy]

For anyone interested in an update on the first year released birds, the Red Kite section on www.gatesheadbirders.co.uk has an excellent summary of all the birds comings and goings up to August.

PS was at Far Pasture today, around a dozen Kites present plus two Common Buzzards soaring around with them for over half an hour. :flyaway:

 

[June Atkinson]

For anyone interested in an update on the first year released birds, the Red Kite section on www.gatesheadbirders.co.uk has an excellent summary of all the birds comings and goings up to August.

PS was at Far Pasture today, around a dozen Kites present plus two Common Buzzards soaring around with them for over half an hour. :flyaway:

Well, we are not short of info at present. This is an excellent section on the Red Kites of Gateshead - very appropriate :clap: :clap: :clap:
and the official Website has just been up-dated too at
www.northernkites.org.uk

Our kites certainly know how to play to the gallery - when theywant!!

 

[salty]

For anyone interested in an update on the first year released birds, the Red Kite section on www.gatesheadbirders.co.uk has an excellent summary of all the birds comings and goings up to August.

PS was at Far Pasture today, around a dozen Kites present plus two Common Buzzards soaring around with them for over half an hour. :flyaway:

i keep hearing of reports of buzzards in with the kites, hope they eventually settle here at some point - we could really do with a few buzzard around, there is plenty of food, and nest sites wouldnt be a problem.

 

[Chris Monk]

i keep hearing of reports of buzzards in with the kites, hope they eventually settle here at some point - we could really do with a few buzzard around, there is plenty of food, and nest sites wouldnt be a problem.

With the East Midlands Kites we've found that as the numbers of Kites has increased so have the numbers of Buzzards. From memory this occurred in the Chilterns reintroduction area too.

In the early mornings before the Kites are about you often see only Buzzards. Perhaps Kites are late risers...

 

[salty]

With the East Midlands Kites we've found that as the numbers of Kites has increased so have the numbers of Buzzards. From memory this occurred in the Chilterns reintroduction area too.

In the early mornings before the Kites are about you often see only Buzzards. Perhaps Kites are late risers...

the red kite is a late starter, i have noticed they dont really come out much early AM, usually it can be 10am on wards when they are out and soaring about, later on bad days.

 

[IanF]

I was up Derwentside 8.00 am a couple of weeks back and there were seven of them in the air.

I think its the warm bright sunny days that make the difference. Previous visits it's been 10.00 am or 10.30 am before they've been flying.

 

[Mouldy]

In the early mornings before the Kites are about you often see only Buzzards. Perhaps Kites are late risers...

Popular opinion has the Kites as late risers but I think this is a generalization as I regularly spot a few over Rowlands Gill around 9am, just the other week had nine from my kitchen window at 7.45am and remember last year disturbing one on the access road to far pasture before 7am. So though mid-afternoon is definitely the best time I wouldn't be put off looking for them early, it's a bit pot luck as I've dipped many a time in the afternoon as well.

PS Even the rain doesn't put them off, as I type this message I can see one soaring nonchalently over the houses opposite. :flyaway:

 

[salty]

thanks for that mouldy, they certainly aint put off by rain, or snow in that matter - watched a pair last year on barlow fell in a blizzard, i could hardly see them, but they seemed to be having fun!

 

[StevieEvans]

Any guesses as to how long it might take a Gateshead Kite to fly home from Teesdale......?

SE.

 

[June Atkinson]

Teesdale home to Gateshead

Any guesses as to how long it might take a Gateshead Kite to fly home from Teesdale......?

SE.

I can now answer this for you Stevie.

Julian Burnett :scribe: our Project Administrator has just sent me some info in which he says:
WT3 was reported leaving Teesdale by Ken, who'd tracked the bird heading back north and a little over an hour later, Keith had a signal from it in High Spen, Rowlands Gill.

Meanwhile, WT23 reappeared in Teesdale with WT5, after going missing for most of last week.

Good going :t: :t: :t: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[John Fleet]

A Red Kite's Tale

OK all you North East (England) birders - if you're not members of the Natural History Society, there's just time to join in time to take advantage of Keith Bowey's lecture on the Red Kite Project on September 30th at the Hancock.

The winter indoor meetings programme has just been published so why not push the boat out and join this tremendous society?

John Fleet

 

[helenol]

In the early mornings before the Kites are about you often see only Buzzards. Perhaps Kites are late risers...

No, kites are not late risers, at least not around here anyway.

Re the buzzards, they have benefited from the kites down here in the Chilterns, and appear to be doing very well too.

Regards

 

[helenol]

the red kite is a late starter, i have noticed they dont really come out much early AM, usually it can be 10am on wards when they are out and soaring about, later on bad days.

I suspect this is a myth about these apparantly late starts.

I regularly see them at dawn over the house, flying around. I purposely made a point of looking out for them very early in a morning - (06.00am) and wasn't disappointed.

 

[Mouldy]

Red Kites in Gateshead continue to attract other raptor species. Yesterday from mid-afternoon at Far Pasture I recorded 2 x Common Buzzard, plus single Peregrine, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk along with 1-4 Kites in view almost constantly in the hour and a half I was there.
Have put full report on the Gateshead 'Local Patch' thread.

 

[salty]

Red Kites in Gateshead continue to attract other raptor species. Yesterday from mid-afternoon at Far Pasture I recorded 2 x Common Buzzard, plus single Peregrine, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk along with 1-4 Kites in view almost constantly in the hour and a half I was there.
Have put full report on the Gateshead 'Local Patch' thread.

cheers mouldy B