AA #3: Captivating - but Controversial?
The cache, a camo-taped, screw-capped plastic pot, is hidden a short distance off the trail in a location shaded by a mighty ash.
During your amble, and indeed all around here and beyond - particularly to the north and east - you will be almost certain to see one or more of these magnificent birds in the skies scanning the ground for food . . . the red kite. See GC85TMA WS#5 The Comeback Kite (on the opposite side of the Wharfe) for comprehensive info on the bird - except for associated controversies . . .
From 1989-1994, red kites were imported from Spain and Sweden and released into the Chilterns by the RSPB and Natural England. Thereafter, there were various further releases in different parts of the country (see map). Initially, in some areas, local residents were encouraged to leave food out for them in their gardens, but this was later stopped.
The UK kite population had dwindled to very low levels, and eventually, after a slow start, the numbers increased rapidly. The RSPB describes the reintroduction programme as ‘one of the UK’s biggest conservation success stories’.
However, some critics (particularly farmers) have commented that it is only a success story if the devastating effect red kites have had on other wildlife is ignored. Although red kites are thought to feed mainly on carrion, roadkill, livestock afterbirth, earthworms and, as opportunists, the occasional small mammal, they may also destroy a 'great deal more'.
Red kites predate any animals and birds small enough to carry away. This includes field voles and dormice, but also chicks of ground nesting birds such as skylarks, lapwings, grey partridges and curlews, all of which are on the RSPB’s Red List of great conservation concern. They may even take songbird fledglings from gardens.
When haymaking, farmers have observed red kites targeting leverets (young hares <1yr old). Within minutes of mowing starting numerous kites may gather, circling overhead, to spot and catch any wildlife disturbed by the activity. Neighbouring birds, eg. owls may then be jeopardised if there is a resulting shortage of prey.
Red kites can threaten chickens, ducks and geese causing great distress and, if eggs have hatched may snatch chicks when they emerge.
The sight of majestic red kites soaring in the skies above is captivating and they are part of Britain’s history. In Victorian London, when the skies were 'crowded with kites', they were called ‘Hat Birds’ for their habit of snatching fur hats from pedestrians.
However, and claimed to be partly as a result of their reintroduction, many other bird species have been decimated. Some 40M birds have disappeared from the UK over the past 50 years - a catastrophic decline. Farming methods are usually blamed: the use of agrochemicals, fertilisers and drainage, the abandonment of crop rotation and the increase of pastureland leading to lower food and habitat availability for birds to rear chicks. But some argue that if our birds are facing so much pressure, why reintroduce another predator and more competition for dwindling resources?
A similar competition for food caused the demise of the red squirrel. Since the introduction of grey squirrels from America in the 1870s and subsequent rapid spread, the UK population of red squirrels has dropped from around 3.5M to 140,000 (see CPR#6: Invasion of the Edible Tree Rats). Like grey squirrels, the red kite may take food needed by other birds before they can get to it. Critics point out that the introduction of new species – and the reintroduction of formerly extinct species – to the UK should have been thoroughly researched before being approved and that the grey squirrel is a good example of the potentially catastrophic consequences of getting this wrong.
RSPB figures show that the kite population continues to grow by 14% per year. The current UK population is estimated at 10,000 individuals. They are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and it is an offence to harm or kill them. However, critics argue that there simply isn’t enough carrion to feed so many kites, as well as other carrion-eaters like crows. So they will all have to increasingly turn to wildlife, with some species already facing extinction. The kite 'controversy' continues . . . and, as usual with such issues, resolution will depend on continued monitoring of the situation, collection of relevant data and evidence-based decisions based on cumulative scientific facts.
See short videos here (reintroduction of the species and ongoing threats), here (swooping into a garden to steal food), here (exporting UK kites to Spain), here and here (100s of kites being fed at Gigrin Farm) and here (red kites in flight).
