The small village of Rhandirmwyn sits within the upper Tywi valley on the northern edge of Carmarthenshire in mid-Wales. Red kites held out around here in perilously small numbers through the 19th and early 20th centuries until they gradually reclaimed much of Wales through coordinated protection and monitoring by local watchers and the goodwill of…
Tag: Red Kite
Mid Wales Raptors
The Clywedog reservoir in Mid Wales supports breeding ospreys; on a recent trip with Tony Cross to ring the two young it was a chance to snap the anxious parents and ruffled young. Over the weekend we also ringed a brood of kestrels in Cwmystwyth, sparrowhawks on the edge of Borth Bog and an albino…
Red kite mobbed by a carrion crow
Red kites are renowned nest predators especially of rooks and crows. In mid April, most carrion crows pairs have a nest on the go, probably with with four blue speckled eggs in a stick nest lined with wool, and if a kite approaches then the male will climb vertically out of the woods to harry…
Little Britain
A few miles north of Heathrow airport and within earshot of the M25, the river Colne forms the boundary between Buckinghamshire and north west London; it is a small chalk river with clear, shallow water and wide gravel beds, lined by tall, ivy-clad trees. The sheltered margins and banksides are bright green with patches of…
Ringing Breeding Birds in Wales
Friday evening near Llyn Brenig in the Sitka spruce forests of North Wales. The warm, humid air that brought storms has been replaced by a chill northwesterly and clearing skies. In the clear-felled forest, the nightjars ‘churr’ at dusk and we try to lure a male to a large mist net with a recording of the…