2021 Breeding Summary

Photo by Ken Sanderson 

In recent reports we’ve announced new record figures and this one is no exception. We know of forty-four chicks that have fledged this summer, from twenty successful nests, beating last year’s figure of forty-two. Sadly, there were six nests which failed with four of the failures due to the hailstorms and the cold, wet weather of May. Of the five garden nests found, two were lost during that period, but the three remaining successful nests fledged seven chicks.

There were three very late nests discovered this year: One was in Spen Banks, near Sherburn Towers Farm, Rowlands Gill and another was a re-lay in the Harperley Nature Reserve, near Tantobie. The third nest found was north-east of Whitley Chapel and this brought the total of known nests in south-east Northumberland up to three. The youngsters in the nest at Spen Banks fledged in late July, as did the Whitley Chapel brood of three, but the chicks in the Harperley nest did not fledge until the fifth of August. Red kite chicks normally fledge by the end of June 

Unbeknown to us a juvenile kite was found grounded near Derwentcote Steel Furnace, Hamsterley Mill on June 22nd and was taken to Blyth Wildlife Rescue. It only came to our attention when the organisation posted an article on Facebook of the successful release of the bird into the wild following a month in rehab. The finder was a visitor to the area and had not been aware of the existence of FoRK. 

So, in summary, it would appear that our kites are doing reasonably well and going from strength to strength. We now look forward to the autumn and winter roosts when numbers counted should reflect the successful breeding seasons of late. .

Ken Sanderson and John Barrett

Photo by Willy Houwen  

Red kites have had their best breeding season ever this year. A minimum of forty two chicks are known to have fledged from nineteen nests with a further five nests that got to the incubation stage, sadly failing. The kites almost certainly benefitted from the early spring and summer Covid19 restrictions which limited people’s activity during the early incubation period in April. 

Those same Covid19 restrictions did not allow FoRK to carry out any monitoring from March 24th (BTO directive) but with the easing of Lockdown in the middle of May we were allowed to carry out the finding and monitoring of nests. A significant number of these nests had been reported to us by local residents, so a big thank you goes to them. 

Ringing and wing tagging of kite chicks at nest sites took place in June with nine nests visited. Sixteen chicks were wing tagged with a further seven chicks ringed only, being too small to fit wing tags to. 

This year one of the nests contained a brood of four chicks. This is only the second time ever this has occurred in our region. The first time was in 2015. 

This summer’s breeding success continues the story of a steady improvement in our regions red kite’s fortunes in the last couple of years. With last winter’s encouraging roost numbers and a significant increase in the number of kite sightings outside the Derwent Valley we remain optimistic, even though it is disappointing that our birds are still suffering from persecution, that this will continue and look forward to witnessing the spectacular sight of large numbers of these birds coming into roost from September onwards and throughout the autumn and winter.

Ken Sanderson and John Barrett