Time for another dose of red kite from Adam! This time, he's telling us all about how well the birds have been breeding since he came on board as Red Kite Officer last year...
"As winter turned to spring I was full of excitement, not to mention slight trepidation, as I approached my first breeding season as NI Red Kite Officer. Any nerves I had were not helped by reports from Wales in mid-January that birds were already renovating nests!
Thankfully, the season here got off to a good start with a period of unseasonably hot weather in early March and a number of established pairs were seen displaying in the spring sunshine on 10 March.
All five pairs which bred successfully in 2011 and one unsuccessful pair once again took up residence in their respective territories and the first birds were recorded sitting on nests on Easter Sunday, 8 April.
Six new pairs were also discovered this year, with most of the 12 birds making up the new pairings being born in 2010 and in their third calendar year - just the right age for making their first breeding attempt. Unfortunately none of four surviving Northern Irish-born Kites from 2010 were found to be breeding.
One of these new pairs, Blue 30 (Toland) and Blue 16 (Keekaboo), appear to have failed during nest construction and subsequently abandoned any attempt to breed. Another pair, Blue 21 (Kebble) and Blue 13 (Warrior), built what appeared be a brilliant nest in a large pine tree and the female was first recording sitting on 8 April. Sometime towards the end of May, however, the nest structure collapsed and slipped out of the tree, most likely due to a combination of high winds and the weight of the nest causing a dead branch to snap.
The ten remaining pairs successfully hatched 15 chicks with one nest having three chicks, three nests holding two and six nests with a single chick. Only thirteen of the chicks were ringed and tagged though as when we attempted to access the nest of Blue 22 (Ruby) and Pink e (Pickie) to tag their two chicks, we discovered that we were unable to reach the nest due to its location being over 6 feet out from the trunk on the top, inclining branch of a massive oak which was over-hanging a country road. On a positive note, though the nest was a superb structure & hopefully they will return in 2013.
However, the extreme weather we experienced on 22 June took its toll and one of the nests with a single chick failed as a direct result of the heavy, prolonged and persistent rain which lasted non-stop for almost 36 hours.
Fortunately the remaining 14 chicks survived the horrendous conditions and the first fledged juveniles were recorded on 6 July when I saw Red 56 and Red 57 taking to the wing. This is a full week earlier than the first record of fledged birds in 2011.
Adam rings a red kite chick
I have been involved in the red kite reintroduction project from the very start and I have to say that it has been a fantastic experience. I began as a volunteer and am now the Project Officer. From collecting these amazing birds from Wales and seeing them take to the skies here in Northern Ireland, watching them through rain, hail, sleet and snow and the many other challenges they have faced to breed successfully and become bona fide citizens of our wee country, I can only say that I feel nothing by admiration for these incredible creatures."