Black Isle Red Kites being poisoned?
A sad indictment reported on the BBC, suggesting that Red Kites – among other birds of prey – are being illegally poisoned:
Scotland’s red kites under threat from illegal killing
The birds were reintroduced having been hunted to extinction in most of the UK in the 1870s.
Equal numbers of the distinctive bird of prey were reintroduced in 1989 into the Black Isle in the Highlands and The Chiltern Hills in southern England.
By 2006 about 320 breeding pairs had established themselves in the Chilterns while the Scottish population had struggled with only 49 breeding pairs surviving over the same period of time.
I always get a thrill when seeing the Red Kites, either this side of the Moray Firth, or else above the A9 as it crosses the Black Isle – they have a very distinctive “swallow’s tail” to easily identify them, that looks impressive on such a large bird.
I can only hope the study is failing to track a number of the brrds, as a reason for the low number.
The first time I saw one was only a few years ago, on the B9015 from Aberlour to Fochabers in Morayshire – it was an impressive surprise because it was flying just above road height, possibly catching thermals from a hillside the road travelled on, and it made quiet an impression – and was easily identifiable by its red colouring and swallow-tail.
I can only hope the monitoring team have simply failed to realise the distribution of the birds, otherwise it gives a poor show on local land owners and farmers.
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