you never know what you might see....

A beautiful morning here in west Wales ( although the ground is frozen and that east wind is still blowing) so I ventured onto my Kite patch to view some courtship and cruising over the lambing paddocks.  Farmers on the edge of the hills still lamb at traditional times i.e. late March and in the open which gives the chance of some tasty after-births being available plus the sheep churn up the ground allowing some all-important worming.  I was enjoying great views of 4 pairs of kite and a tagged interloper performing against the snowy hills when flying towards me was a long-winged raptor without a forked tail...an osprey flew low overhead and onwards to the NE, perhaps going to one of the Welsh nest sites.  Several have been seen recently in Ceredigion and its possible the east winds have pushed them further west than usual or we might be their preferred flight path.  If my photographer hadn't been detailed to make some emergency nestbox front panels (great spots damage) I might have been able to post a pic.

Apologies for truncating the photos on the post below: visit www.midwalesringers.blogspot.co.uk for full pics.

Kites at Gigrin

Counting Kites

With the cold weather putting stop to most activities, a trip to Gigrin seemed to be in order to check on the number of Kites visiting, and to try and read as many wing-tags as possible. The most effective way of getting the tag numbers seems to be, by taking photographs. After a very cold hour in the hide, we managed to come away with 19 different tagged birds.

****UPDATE ****

We went to Gigrin again today (27th March) and read 34 tagged birds making a total of 44 individual kites over the two days. The oldest bird was 17 years old and the breakdown of the ages of the others were as follows;

1996 - 1
2003 - 2
2004 - 4
2005 - 1
2006 - 3
2007 - 2
2008 - 5
2009 - 7
2010 - 4
2011 - 13
2012 - 2

I hope Paul Leafe doesn't mind me lifting this post from the Midwalesringers.blogspot.co.uk!.Posted by Paul Leafe at 12:07 No comments:

Sad find

Bri is 168cm

The road from Pontrhydfendigaid to Aber is not very busy so traffic flies along relying on an empty road only this time there was something in the way...a red kite.  This pic is to show its size and the left wing is not even straight out! The minimum wingspan quoted in BWP is 195cm.
I think it looks a bit pale so is it a immature bird Tony?
Its middle toe excluding claw was 30mm: male?
It has been taken for analysis to check for poisons which can impair its reaction time thus making it more liable to be biffed by a vehicle.
I also removed a couple of feathers for WKT's on-going DNA study.

Irish kite on Ramsey Island

Greg and Lisa, RSPB wardens on Ramsey Island off the coast of Pembrokeshire,have just reported a blue/white tagged kite on the island.  This will be one of the 2011 chicks from Wales but without the tag symbol we can't say from which release site but certainly its from Ireland. Not the first Welsh kite to come back!
If you are a birdblog reader then the blogs from all four Welsh islands are excellent, Skomer,Skokholm, Ramsey and Bardsey.
Skokholm has set up Heligoland traps and is about to be re-instated as a Bird Observatory.  It was the first in the UK set up in 1933 by the famous Ronald Lockley, but was closed down in 1976.
All the islands except Ramsey offer accommodation in the summer and the experience cannot be rated highly enough as this Irish kite attests!  

Kite tag

A walk around Tyn y Craig plantation to view the Ystwyth valley from above brought me adjacent to a small upland mire being contested by a pair of buzzards and a pair of kites.  Fortunately they didn't get aggressive but clearly boundaries were being marked and claim laid to a patch of suitable trees.  Through the scope I could read the tag as one kite briefly touched down in the marshy grassland; it subsequently flew around examining the grasses clutched in its feet.  They all looked spectacular sunlit against a lightly snow- dusted landscape of hills and woods.
Royal Blue 08

The Welsh Kite Trust was pleased and honoured to host the annual meeting of the UK and Ireland Red Kite Co-ordination Group last Thursday at the Brynafon Hotel adjacent to Gigrin Farm, Rhyader.  Unfortunately our Scottish colleagues couldn't make the journey but Dr Marc Ruddock and Adam McClure arrived from Ireland together with representatives from the Chilterns, East Midlands and Shropshire. We were especially pleased to welcome Ian Carter, renowned kite expert, from Natural England.

The breeding season report, published in full in Boda Wennol (Issue 27 Autumn 2012), was discussed and below is the map summarising current breeding status for those non-members of WKT.  It was of course a poor breeding year given the awful weather experienced during critical times in the nesting cycle and followed two very harsh winters which resulted in reduced productivity in all areas.

There followed a roundup of other threats experienced in the regions which identified accidental secondary poisoning by highly toxic second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides and lead as major problems. The rodenticides are ingested when feeding on rodents killed by poison and, being persistent, can build up to lethal levels. In some cases, the poisons used are so toxic that just a single rodent body may be enough to deliver a lethal dose. Publicity campaigns to encourage the use of alternative methods of rodent control and to use poisons with care have been undertaken to try to minimise the dangers. The recent widespread use of slug pellets in fields has also shown up in post-mortem analysis as these are attractive to other birds such as pigeons which are then scavenged when dead by kites and other animals.

Secondary poisoning by lead occurs when Red Kites scavenge on pest or game species that have been killed by lead ammunition, mainly from shotgun cartridges. A recent study found that 14% of Red Kites found dead in England had lead levels in their tissues sufficient to have caused their death. Whilst lead has been banned from use over most wetlands and for killing waterbirds it remains in common use in terrestrial habitats with consequences that are largely unseen unless specific studies are undertaken. It was agreed to ask Natural England to pursue this issue with the government and for lead poisoning to be added to the list of tested for poisons at post mortem.

Dr Rob McMahon then gave a most lucid explanation of the DNA research being undertaken at Aberystwyth University with a student funded by the Welsh Kite Trust, which has thrown up a host of further interesting lines of enquiry.

After a hurried but tasty lunch interval we hastened up the lane to watch feeding time at Gigrin which never fails to impress...thank you Chris and staff at Gigrin Farm.

Reconvening to tie up loose ends it was widely agreed that it was important to keep up kite monitoring, despite funding and manpower difficulties in many areas, and that there was still a need to fight the corner for what remains one of the world's rarest birds.

That ain't helpful!

Just had a call from Chris Griffiths of Montgomeryshire Barn Owl Group who informed me that one of its members, Rowland Pugh, watched a Goshawk take a Red Kite clean out of the sky at Tre'ddol near Aberystwyth, yesterday. Apparently there was absolutely no competition - why doesn't that surprise me! Hope it doesn't make a habit of it!