Why the red kites are flying high once again

A new population of red kites is flourishing in Wharfedale, as the result of a reintroduction programme based on the Harewood Estate.

The Yorkshire Red Kite Restoration Project is a partnership between English Nature, the RSPB, Yorkshire Water, the Harewood Estate, Integrated Waste Management Ltd and Waste Recycling Environmental (WREN).

The release programme began in 1999, and became the first project to take British-born kites to release elsewhere in the country.

Previous reintroduction programmes in the country have brought in kites from Spain and elsewhere in Europe.

Re-introducing a bird which was driven from our skies many years ago was never going to be an easy task, and the project had to consider whether the 21st Century landscape would support birds last seen in Yorkshire skies in the 1800s.

Fortunately, the woodland, open fields and rolling countryside of the Harewood Estate proved to be the perfect habitat.

The managed landscaped of a shooting estate seems to be well-matched to kites, said the estate's head gamekeeper, Ged Green, as a number of the kites which have ventured beyond the boundaries of Harewood have settled into similar estates.

Former civil servant Doug Simpson, of Harrogate, has the day-to-day job of running the restoration project from an office on the Harewood Estate yard.

He said: "Some people are astounded that we've got a successful breeding kite population so close to Leeds. We had an exceptional breeding year last year."

Christopher Ussher, said one of the reasons Harewood had been chosen for the release of kites, was its record with existing wildlife conservation projects.

He believes the kites are an extra attraction for the estate's visitors.

He said: "There has been an increase in birdwatchers. We often have one of two groups visiting, but there have actually been more since the kites have been here."

Mr Ussher said among the estate's projects which will be beneficial to wildlife, is a scheme to restore hedges and revert land from intensive farming use to grassland.

"We've stopped 100 per cent of our intensive farming. We're expecting to see a great increase in the more 'invisible' end of the wildlife spectrum, such as voles and shrews. The whole thing is a wildlife extravaganza, really," he said.

Among the persecutors of red kites in the past were those trying to protect young pheasants and grouse.

But the experience of releasing young kites at a shooting estate such as Harewood soon proved that the bird posed little threat.

Kites are almost entirely carrion-eaters, and their diet can consists of dead animals, discarded food and rubbish, and even insects.

On one occasion, said Mr Simpson, a number of newly-released kites were discovered sheltering under the roof of a building housing hundreds of young pheasant poults in open pens.

The poults themselves were unafraid of their large lodgers.

Another scene on the estate saw pheasants happily feeding in a freshly ploughed field, while kites walked among them, picking up insects.

Naturalists cannot rule out that the kite, still equipped with powerful claws, will not kill other birds.

Mr Green said he had heard of one kite chasing some ducklings on the estate, but otherwise believed the kites have not been hunting for themselves.

"We do have the occasional goshawk here. The kites will feed on a pheasant which has been killed by a goshawk," he said.

Kites need to eat around 120 grammes of food each day, part of which is likely to be roughage.

The young kites are taken from the wild, and as they are to be returned later, it is important that they do not become reliant on humans, or lose any natural fear of people that might protect them from harm.

Chicks are taken from larger nests in the Chilterns, and reared in large pens on the estate.

The project's workers take care to have as little contact with the kites as possible, dropping food through a small hatch.

The kites we saw flying over the estate seemed to be curious about people, and flew unusually close to walkers and riders for a large wild bird of prey.

But Mr Simpson said this seems to be just in the nature of the birds - which were not an uncommon sight in medieval London, where they frequently swooped down to feed on rubbish. As our streets became cleaner, kite numbers declined.

The release programme was put on hold last year, as foot and mouth disease restrictions meant that not only the Chilterns nesting sites, but also much of the Harewood Estate, were out of bounds.

One of Mr Simpson's daily tasks is to drive around the tracks of the sprawling estate, checking that all is well with the kites.

Young kites have a small radio transmitter fixed to their two central tail feathers, said Mr Simpson. The transmitter emits two types of signal, depending on whether the bird's tail feathers are held horizontally - as in flight, or if the bird is feeding - or if the feathers are vertical, indicating that the bird is perched. The transmitter eventually falls out when the kite moults.

Mr Simpson demonstrated to me how he uses a receiver in his van to keep track of what individual birds are doing. The 'horizontal' signal often fluctuates if the kite is soaring.

But if the signal is unchanging, it could mean the worst - that the kite is lying injured or dead.

"It's always something in the back of your mind, especially when this time of year is the poisoning season," said Mr Simpson.

The deaths of several of the released birds outside of the estate has raised the fear of the threat that originally killed off the kite - people who claim the kite is poaching game birds or spreading disease.

The poisoning may have also been the result of farmers poisoning vermin, or leaving poisoned baits for foxes and other predators.

Mr Simpson's concern when I visited Harewood, was to track down the signals from three kites which had not been seen for a few days.

After stopping at several points on the estate, and using a large directional aerial, signals were picked up from most of the kites, which could be seen soaring high up, or in the case of two of the kites, circling over the Eccup Reservoir with a curious buzzard.

Mr Simpson said: "Kites and buzzards are probably fairly evenly-matched. The kite is bigger, but the buzzard is stronger."

One of the kites seemed to be returning to the estate after a few days out over North Yorkshire. Most of the kites released at Harewood seem to have flourished, with several pairs unexpectedly breeding last year. Sadly, one or two proved they were unable to fend for themselves, including one unfortunate bird with a deformed leg, which had difficulty perching and feeding. Mr Simpson said it was found collapsed in a field, and has since been taken into a wildlife sanctuary.

Kite chicks are expected to be caught and reared in the coming months, and released at Harewood later this year.

Keen birdwatchers can take a close-up of Yorkshire's red kites on a new viewing platform at the Eccup Reservoir.

It is situated on the dam wall of the reservoir, and borders on the Harewood Estate.

Volunteers are now manning it each weekend, to help sightseers get a look at the kites.

The project is a partnership between English Nature, the Harewood Estate, Yorkshire Water and the RSPB, which says the viewing area has proved to be a magnet for walkers, joggers and cyclists.

Mr Simpson, said: "The new viewing platform is an ideal stopping-off place for anyone walking in the area. And now volunteers are there at the weekend with telescopes and binoculars to make kite viewing even easier, there is every chance that people will be able to get really close-up views of these superb birds."

A map outlining a walk around the Eccup reservoir, which takes in the viewing platform, is available on the Yorkshire Water website, at www.yorkshirewater.com or by calling the RSPB on (01484) 861148.