Rare bird spreads his wings to visit Yorkshire cousins

Published on Wednesday 26 May 2010 21:14

A RARE red kite bred in the Highlands has been spreading its wings by flying to England to meet other birds.

After leaving the Black Isle, where it was born as part of a reintroduction programme, a bird named Spey was tracked to various locations in the Central Belt and Borders before being spotted in Yorkshire.

The travels have surprised experts who expected the birds to remain close to their home nests.

The red kite was satellite tagged and his flight path was logged by RSPB Scotland as well as schoolchildren who have adopted the bird.

Red kites are reared in the Black Isle as part of a reintroduction programme for the species in the UK .

Under the Eyes to the Skies project, which runs for two years, satellite tags have been attached to at least 15 chicks so they can be followed on the internet as they disperse.

However, the furthest flown was Spey, which made its way to Comrie in Perthshire, then Glasgow and Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway.

The kite was later tracked along the M6 to the north east of Kendal, then close to Bowland Forest in the Yorkshire Dales. Further progression was made to Bradford and Halifax and to a roosting spot in woodland to the south west of Keighley.

More recently Spey has been tracked touring Shipley, Leeds, and open farmland around Eccup to the north of the city and to Harrogate and Wetherby in North Yorkshire. The last positions are close to the site of Harewood House, north of the Eccup Reservoir, where red kites were reintroduced in 1999.

Spey's blue wing tag, indicating his Highland birthplace, distinguished the bird from the local red kites, which more usually sport orange wing tags.

Mike Todd, a RSPB volunteer who has been inputting data from a number of satellite-tagged red kites, said: "Spey is a well-travelled bird and seems to have found a group of relatives down in Yorkshire. There has been a reintroduction scheme in North Yorkshire as there has been on the Black Isle and it looks as though he has met up with a group of Yorkshire kites.

"Spey has spent some weeks roosting in a plantation by the Yorkshire Planetarium and roving around the countryside nearby. However, more recently he has moved up to the Yorkshire Dales. It will be interesting to see if he continues to drift north back up to Scotland."

Red kites were reintroduced to Scotland in 1989 when chicks were brought to the Black Isle.