Friends of Red Kites - in the North East of England (16 Viewers)

[June Atkinson]

Sage Gateshead 5 July 2014

We'd love to see you at our double Anniversary Celebration at Sage Gateshead this coming Saturday. Details in the attached Poster.
RSPB will also be there with their stall - we hope to raise the profile of the Hen Harrier.

www.friendsofredkites.org.uk and http://www.sagegateshead.com/event/on-red-kite-wings31789/

 

[June Atkinson]

Double celebration for Friends of Red Kites

Tony Henderson, who writes about Environment in The Journal, hails our Celebratory Event, ON RED KITE WINGS, this Saturday.
http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/double-celebration-red-kites-gateshead-7354122

The Winner of the Photographic Competition is one of our BirdForum members, Mick Render, of Washington.
Chromazone, Team Valley, will do an A3 print of Mick's winning image.

Do come and share in this event at Sage Gateshead.

 

[June Atkinson]

Invitation to all BirdForum members


Come along and help us celebrate on Saturday, at Sage Gateshead.

Details on our website www.friendsofredkites.org.uk

and http://www.sagegateshead.com/event/on-red-kite-wings/

The Committee and Trai will welcome you!!

 

[June Atkinson]

To Friends of Red Kites on BirdForum

A special invitation to everyone:



http://wfly.co/Yf9x4


COME AND CELEBRATE WITH US!

 

[Mickr]

Red Kite reported over Lambton Estate Chester le Street then reported dropping into the estate. Although this should be an ideal area this is the first I've heard of in this area.

I watched one for a few minutes over a year ago on the Lambton Estate side of the roundabout at Chester le Street. It was actually circling over the roundabout between Lambton Estate and the A1. A Kite was reported to have been killed on the A1 in the same area during the same week. I drove between Washington and Durham 5 or 6 times but could find nothing to suggest that a Kite had been killed. All I could see was dead Pheasants but I didn't see the Kite again after that week.

Roughly where was the latest Kite seen?

 

[Boro Birder]

Fantastic news that they have had a successful breeding season, hopefully in a few years they will start spreading out.
On my survey patch I never even seen a Kite and it does not seem they have spread to that area yet, however they do seem to be branching out from the Harewood house area, and I know they are breeding just over the county border, I never thought I'd see Buzzards in my local area but now they are breeding in locations I never thought possible. Red Kites will do the same hopefully.

Damian

 

[June Atkinson]

Red Kites spreading out

We have a special bond with the Yorkshire Kites which were established at Harewood House.
Wing Tag 01 Speedy and Wing Tag 02 Scarlet both defected from the Derwent Valley in the very early days of the reintroduction and, pairing up with Yorkshire kites, have gone on to breed really well.
Scarlet was filmed on her nest this spring, with two chicks. We reckon that she must have raised at least eighteen chicks which is brilliant!!

My survey patch was Medomsley, near Consett. Like you, Damian, I didn't see a single kite in the three months! Yet previously we know that at least five were foraging in that area, which is very suitable territory. It's also a corridor towards the Derwent Reservoir, so maybe they retreated to the core area for breeding.

Hope you come to Sage Gateshead tomorrow - you'll be very welcome......make yourself known to the volunteers.

http://wfly.co/Yf9x4

Fantastic news that they have had a successful breeding season, hopefully in a few years they will start spreading out.
On my survey patch I never even seen a Kite and it does not seem they have spread to that area yet, however they do seem to be branching out from the Harewood house area, and I know they are breeding just over the county border, I never thought I'd see Buzzards in my local area but now they are breeding in locations I never thought possible. Red Kites will do the same hopefully.

Damian

 

[Boro Birder]

We have a special bond with the Yorkshire Kites which were established at Harewood House.
Wing Tag 01 Speedy and Wing Tag 02 Scarlet both defected from the Derwent Valley in the very early days of the reintroduction and, pairing up with Yorkshire kites, have gone on to breed really well.
Scarlet was filmed on her nest this spring, with two chicks. We reckon that she must have raised at least eighteen chicks which is brilliant!!

My survey patch was Medomsley, near Consett. Like you, Damian, I didn't see a single kite in the three months! Yet previously we know that at least five were foraging in that area, which is very suitable territory. It's also a corridor towards the Derwent Reservoir, so maybe they retreated to the core area for breeding.

Hope you come to Sage Gateshead tomorrow - you'll be very welcome......make yourself known to the volunteers.

http://wfly.co/Yf9x4

That's great news June, also I cannot make it today, trying to get a lift was also a problem, I was looking forward to meeting yourself and the other volunteers has being pretty new to birding (3yr) I am still at a learning curve but doing just that daily,
I hope there will be other opertunitys for that to happen and look forward to doing so.

Thanks
Damian

 

[dannyboy]

I watched one for a few minutes over a year ago on the Lambton Estate side of the roundabout at Chester le Street. It was actually circling over the roundabout between Lambton Estate and the A1. A Kite was reported to have been killed on the A1 in the same area during the same week. I drove between Washington and Durham 5 or 6 times but could find nothing to suggest that a Kite had been killed. All I could see was dead Pheasants but I didn't see the Kite again after that week.

Roughly where was the latest Kite seen?

Mick I don't know the exact location I just noticed a post on the Durham Bird Club Site saying one had been sighted over the Lambton Estate viewed from Houghton Gate. I've passed there about 8 or 9 times since the report and have seen no signs -although I have been driving and only been able to look for a few seconds. Still missed you at the Sage event on Saturday.

 

[Mickr]

Mick I don't know the exact location I just noticed a post on the Durham Bird Club Site saying one had been sighted over the Lambton Estate viewed from Houghton Gate. I've passed there about 8 or 9 times since the report and have seen no signs -although I have been driving and only been able to look for a few seconds. Still missed you at the Sage event on Saturday.

I would think the Kite would have to be fairly close to be viewed from that location. I wonder if it's worth speaking to somebody in the estate office to see if they've seen anything? I hear a lot of shooting from the estate, it may be a pheasant shoot or it may be clay pigeon shooting.

It was quite a good day at the Sage, we only attended the first concert but wished we'd purchased tickets to both. It seemed to have been really well attended so was a big success and June deserves a big pat on the back for pulling it off. I also thought that the work Trai had done was also impressive and she put a really good presentation together, I'm glad we didn't miss it. The roads were a mare on the way in as a couple of cars had been involved in a crash and the tail backs were terrible.

 

[Nutcracker]

I would think the Kite would have to be fairly close to be viewed from that location. I wonder if it's worth speaking to somebody in the estate office to see if they've seen anything? I hear a lot of shooting from the estate, it may be a pheasant shoot or it may be clay pigeon shooting.

Or kite shooting? I'd not be surprised, given the failure of the Gateshead kites to increase as would be expected. In which case, don't expect to get any reliable information from them.

 

[Mickr]

Or kite shooting? I'd not be surprised, given the failure of the Gateshead kites to increase as would be expected. In which case, don't expect to get any reliable information from them.

Asking them questions will not alert them to anything as they will almost certainly know the Kites have been around. It might put them off doing anything if they know they are being watched, not that I am saying they would do anything.

 

[Nutcracker]

That's a good point, if they know they're being watched it might just give them cause to stop.

 

[June Atkinson]

A record year for Friends of Red Kites


Having had two disappointing breeding seasons, we are really happy to announce that this year we have thirty chicks - and counting! We have triplets and twins, too, and all in very good health.
Our Breeding Survey, carried out by fifty volunteers, from the Borders to the Tees, found very few outside the core area. But we have twin chicks in the Urpeth area, which is really good.

Attached - triplets, one of which was too small to be tagged.

This year's tag colours: Left Wing is pink for our kites and the right wing tag is orange.


June
Press & Publicity
www.friendsofredkites.org.uk

Or kite shooting? I'd not be surprised, given the failure of the Gateshead kites to increase as would be expected. In which case, don't expect to get any reliable information from them.

 

[June Atkinson]

Congratulations to Mick Render

Mick won the Photography Competition held as part of our On Red Kite Wings Event at Sage Gateshead. His stunning portrait of one of our Red Kites will be printed at A3 by Chromazone.

Well done, Mick!:t:

 

[June Atkinson]

Our Red Kite mosaic will land on Scottish soil!

Our kite mosaic, which has toured the region for the past two years, and was most recently built on Durham's Palace Green, landed for the final time at Performance Square at Sage Gateshead.

It is now in storage and in August will be taken to the Black Isle by a Conservation group who are keen to mirror the various ways we have used it in Schools, in the local Community and as a focus for the Flight of the Red Kite Exhibition, which shows the mosaic against iconic backgrounds such as Durham Cathedral, Marsden Rock, Steel Rigg, Bowes Museum and others.

The Black Isle is the most persecuted area in the UK, so we hope that the kite mosaic can help to raise the profile of our majestic Birds of Prey in Ross-Shire.

 

[dannyboy]

Mick won the Photography Competition held as part of our On Red Kite Wings Event at Sage Gateshead. His stunning portrait of one of our Red Kites will be printed at A3 by Chromazone.

Well done, Mick!:t:

Absolutely Well done Mick :clap:

 

[June Atkinson]

2014 Red Kite Chick parade

Meet our new chicks!! We have over thirty, which makes this year a record.

We are really encouraged by this, after the poor seasons in the last few years.

 

[Nutcracker]

Basically, full-grown apart from the wing and tail feathers. Makes one realise how small Red Kites actually are.

And how much more sickening it is that the gamekeepers shoot them for fear they'll carry off peoples' horses and young children :storm:

 

[June Atkinson]

Anniversary Red Kite Bus Tour

This Sunday we leave from Winlaton Mill at 10a.m. sharp for a 3-hour tour of the lower Derwent Valley in our Red Kite Bus.

We have a few spare seats so if you are interested in going either e-mail me on [email protected] or phone 01661 823208 and leave your details if I am out.

We shall have stops in places where we should see kites and walking will be minmal.