Wednesday 22 February 2012

High as a Kite.

Wing tag 43          SWIFT  female
Wing tag 15    RED PHILIP  male
These are the two Red Kites i saw last week and going through some high ISO images i found a couple showing their wing tags.

Information courtesy of Friends of Red Kites

Wing tag 15 Red Philip born 2004 Chilterns.
In spring 2005 he set up a first year territory with Wing tag 16 Flag born 2004 Chilterns but did not breed.
He paired up with WT 16 Flag again. They successfully built a nest, laid eggs and in late May 2006 hatched the first Red Kite chicks born in North East England for nearly 200 years. One chick was successfully raised and has since been named Geordie.
Red Philip and Flag bred again in spring 2007 and two chicks were raised and fledged in mid July both chicks tagged as Wing tag A3 and A4.
Successful a third time in spring 2008 again two chicks Wing tags B7 and B8 which fledged in July 2008.
One of their chicks from 2007 bred successfully at one year old in spring 2008. Wing tag A4 Farra Flame was seen displaying with Wing tag 71 Sky Dancer and they went on to have two chicks one of which fledged in July 2008 and fitted with Wing tag B9. This made Red Phil and Flag grandparents at 4 years old!
During 2009 they hatched two eggs but failed to raise them.
Red Philip was seen in the winter roost in Snipes Dene and in March he and Flag started to refurbish their old nest but this was abandoned and Flag took up with Wing tag 42 Thunderbird but neither raised chicks that season.
In the winter of 2010/11 Red Phil was seen at the pre-roost  at Hollinside Manor or on his territory on occasions with Wing tag 43 Swift.
In 2011 Swift was confirmed as his new partner and they built a new nest in the Derwent Country Park. They fledged three chicks two of which were tagged E8 and E9 the third bird being too small to tag.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting stuff John. Cheers Brian.
    PS Have my eyes gone funny, or are others having problems with this new system of names we have to type in?

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  2. It is very interesting Brian. Click on the link for more info from Friends of Red Kites.
    I always struggle with these security names when they get more difficult and listening to the names is even more tricky.

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