In the last 10 years the huge raptors, which ironically tend to eat carrion or worms, and aren't able to take larger prey items, have begun to breed in Gloucestershire. We appreciate these birds much more now." "What's also been a success is it's changed the conversation not only about kites, but ravens and buzzards, which were also rare or declining and are now much more common.
I remember when they were reintroduced into the Chilterns in 1990. He said: "It has been a massive conservation success. READ MORE: Why you need tweed or other warm clothes at Cheltenham Racecourse or up on Cleeve Hill Ian Stevenson, the head of land management at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust grew up nearby. Feeding stations were set up in Wales to try and sustain the population.Īnd in 1990 a populations of Spanish red kites was brought to the Chiltern hills on the Oxfordshire-Berkshire border and released. By the middle of the century the population was down to fewer than 20 breeding pairs, all in the mid-Wales hills.Ĭonservation efforts started in earnest in the 1960s. READ MORE: March? April? When does Spring really start?īut since the 16th century until the mid-20th century the animal was persecuted. They were once so common in Britain that they are mentioned in Shakespeare, and they are such acrobatic fliers the children's toy the kite took its name from them. The sight of kites in Gloucestershire, now not that uncommon, is, in fact a miracle of wildlife conservation. It would have been unthinkable 30 years ago, and still incredibly unlikely just a decade ago. This would have been impossible 40 years ago. Reporter Aled Thomas captured this shaky and rather distant footage of one of these birds of prey flying on Cleeve Common earlier this month (March 2022). If you look up, and you have a little luck, you might catch a sight of a red kite flying over Cleeve Hill, or over the outskirts of Cheltenham and Bishop’s Cleeve.
0 kommentar(er)
