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Birds released as part of the reintroduction project are fitted
with coloured, plastic wing-tags so that their movements can be
followed. Using a high-powered telescope it is possible to read
wing-tags from up to 1 km away. The female bird at the Red Kites
@ Rockingham nest has red tags marked with '1' on each wing. A brief
history for this individual is given below:
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Collected as a chick from a nest in Segovia,
central Spain in June 1997 when about four weeks old and transported
to the East Midlands release site. |
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Released in the East Midlands in July 1997 as
one of a group of 20 birds taken from nests in Segovia and the
Chilterns. |
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Quickly dispersed away from the release area
and joined up with the reintroduced Red kite population in the
Chilterns where it was seen intermittently over the next two
years. |
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Returned to the Midlands in late summer 1999. |
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Paired up in 2000 but the breeding attempt was
unsuccessful. The single chick was found dead under the nest
when about four weeks old. |
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Remained in the area over the winter 2000/01
and found at the present site, 2.5km away from the 2000 nest
in March 2001. |
| The male |
| The male bird of the pair does not
have wing-tags and so its identity is not known. We suspect
that it is one of the birds released in the East Midlands but
that its wing-tags have now been lost (they do tend to fall
off after about 3-5 years). |
For more information on Rockingham Forest and for
details of visiting the Red Kites @ Rockingham Project visitor centre
please visit the Forestry
Commission website.
For more information on the RSPB visit www.rspb.org.uk
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