The red kite is one of Britain's rarest and most spectacular birds, especially at close quarters. 

 

^{Image courtesy of Derek Blemings}

Wing Tag 43 is Swift.    A female, she was born in 2005 in the Chilterns  and released in the Derwent

Valley. Here she is on a very different perch!  She appears to be holding a twig.   For more about her go to  http://friendsofredkites.org.uk/page13.htm#43

 

 

  

         ^{Image courtesy of Steven Fryer  Birdforum}

This is a recent sighting of D5, one of our  majestic Red Kites, born in 2010.  

Between 2004and 2007 the Northern Kites Project re-introduced 94 red kites into the lower Derwent Valley.  This Project was unique; whereas the previous ones had been carried out in rural areas, this one brought back the kites to a semi-urban environment, close to the large conglomeration of Gateshead and its neighbour on the north bank of the River Tyne, Newcastle.   People can now walk to admire the red kites in the Lower Derwent Valley and yet, in the distance, they can see the silver roof of the Sage Gateshead.

It was in 2006 that red kites began to breed in the region for the first time after an absence of 170 years. The core area for the kites is the Lower Derwent Valley but  as the population increases they are becoming more widely distributed, and there are now red kites breeding in south-west Durham and  Northumberland.

 ^{Image courtesy of Max Silverman}

  ^{Image courtesy of Steve Ashton}

 When the Northern Kites Project finished in July 2009, the Friends of Red Kites group was established.

Go-North East kindly gave the Group a Red Kite Bus for four hours, and we held a rolling Launch at Lintzford Garden Centre and at Gibside.  The co-operation and support of Staff was much appreciated.

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