Shropshire Magazine

Picture: Tony Cross/Welsh Kite Trust

Ben Bentley learns how a beautiful bird of prey has become re-established in the county, and meets a man doing everything he can to ensure that they stay

Leo Smith – one of just a handful of people licensed to approach Welsh kite nest sites.

With field glasses hanging round his neck and his trusty telescope in hand, Leo Smith hops over a stile in the South Shropshire Hills near Bishop’s Castle and apologises for the state of his trousers.

“That’s why they are the way they are, and why my telescope is so scratched,” says Leo as he negotiates the obstacle.

Leo doesn’t mind about his trousers or his telescope really; their condition is merely part of an occupational hazard in a grander line of work – to record sightings and nest sites of the region’s iconic bird of prey, the red kite.

One of the sky’s most graceful and instantly recognisable birds, it had until recently been extinct in Shropshire for 130 years.

But Leo, who is one of only a few wildlife enthusiasts licensed to approach Welsh kite nest sites, was the first person to officially report to the Welsh Kite Trust the existence of a red kite nest in Shropshire, back in 2005.

Picture: Tony Cross/Leo Smith

“The first nest I found was while I was looking for a raven’s nest in 2005,” he says. “I was driving along the Teme Valley on a back road and I saw this kite circling. I stopped to watch it for a while and it went into a wood. I went into the edge of the wood and then I saw a pair mating.

“It was very exciting, as you can imagine. These were the first in Shropshire that ornithologists knew about. There had been rumours, but nobody had reported them.”

Indeed, two pairs nested in Shropshire in 2005 but both were unsuccessful. One pair fledged two young in 2006 – the first successful breeding for over a century – and six nests were found in 2007 when five young fledged.

The population very nearly became extinct in Wales in the 1930s and efforts to promote an increase in population did not come to anything until 1993, when 100 breeding pairs were recorded in Wales – but still none in Shropshire.

Says Leo: “The last recorded kite was in 1876 in Ludlow, so there had not been any recorded for something like 130 years.”

He explains that the reason for the decline was human persecution in more recent times.

“They were welcomed in the Middle Ages because they were refuse collectors, but shooting and gamekeeping were the reasons for the decline,” says Leo. “It was extermination by humans.”

A few Welsh kites survived in the upper Welsh valleys, however, because here there was nobody to persecute them. But as Leo points out, only one female produced any young in the 1930s and they were on the verge of extinction in Wales too.

Now he works in partnership with the Welsh Kite Trust, rural community groups, wildlife enthusiasts – such as the Upper Onny and Clun wildlife groups – and eagle-eyed members of the public, to locate red kite nest sites. Basically, if anyone sees a pair they tell him and he hops into his car with his telescope and binoculars and investigates.

Picture: Tony Cross/Welsh Kite Trust

“If the female sits on the nest it means there are eggs laid,” says Leo. “It’s a case of nipping into the woods and then scarpering, and I then won’t go back for another seven weeks, when I can see any young.

“And that’s the really exciting part, because it means the population is growing.”

It is at this second stage that estimates are made of the age of the young. It’s also when fledglings are tagged to enable populations and ranges of kites to be monitored.

“We know birds individually then,” says Leo. “Last year, of 19 Shropshire birds, 14 have been tagged.

“The reason why three of these haven’t been tagged is that one landowner where there was a nest site refused us permission, which means the programme is compromised and we don’t know where these birds are going. It’s extremely rare for that to happen, but it’s disappointing.”

Nest sites themselves are kept secret for protection purposes. Kites are notoriously shy in character and can be frightened away by unfamiliar people  – even their best friend Leo has to keep his distance.

“But they habitually follow farmers cutting the grass, say, so they can get the worms and voles that get chopped up,” he continues.

“Farmers think they are getting quite tame because they follow them. They behave normally with farmers but if I go out there with my field glasses they behave differently.”

Leo loves his work. At 63 he’s retired and says that, along with other conservation work, it’s pretty much a full-time job, but one that has brought huge rewards.

“Personally, the biggest buzz was when we tagged the first two to fledge from a Shropshire nest in 2006,” he says. “I found one of those birds – the female – at the nest last year and she had raised one young last year, so it has already bred in Shropshire.

“The two from the first nest we called the ‘Shropshire Stars’.”

But not all kites make it.

“Around 50 per cent don’t make it to three years old, approximately the breeding age, but longevity is increasing because they are expanding to choose better habitats. In Shropshire we have good upland valleys with good woods and a slightly better climate, and so a greater proportion should reach breeding age.

“For the foreseeable future the population should continue to grow, and quite rapidly. It’s a wonderful story.”

Iconic

After a nesting season in April and early May, the young usually fly later this month or early July, by which time people should be seeing much more of this iconic stranger in the skies about the South Shropshire Hills.

Says Leo: “They are beautiful birds – terrifically graceful in the way they fly. They spiral up on thermals to thousands of feet and this is where the saying ‘high as a kite’ comes from; they hover there in the wind. Most people say they are the most charismatic of all birds of prey.

“They are important because they are top of the food chain and are a good indicator of the wider countryside.

“There are lots of other species that are threatened but they are either ugly or invisible,” he jokes.

• Anyone who spots a pair of red kites should contact Leo Smith on 01588 638577. Readers can find out more on the website www.welshkitetrust.org

Keep up to date on kites in Shropshire on the Shropshire Ornithological Society website www.shropshirebirds.com

Picture: John Harding