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S ince the early 1990's, after the successful reintroduction of the Red Kite, It's now a staple silhouetted figure up in our skies here in Oxfordshire. With their characteristic forked-tail and bellowed screams, the Red Kite truly is one of this countries' most beautiful raptors.
They have a wingspan of between 175 and 195 cm, enabling them to glide effortlessly, they are big birds by all accounts, but having such a large wingspace does come with its problems too..
Red kites are primarily scavengers but are also opportunistic feeders, consuming a varied diet of carrion, roadkill, small mammals (voles, mice), birds, and invertebrates like earthworms. But it's the roadkill that seems to grab their attention more than most, and what seems to be an easy lunch, often ends with disaster in return.
They are clumsy at taking off. All that wingspan often heeds their momentum, which isn't a problem necessarily in an open field, but on a busy road, its sadly not often good news. But for one sweet girl, she was one of the lucky ones to survive her ordeal and when she arrived at OWR looking rather sorry for herself, we all fell under her spells of both beauty and character.
"From the get-go.. she set the record straight"
Upon arrival, she looked rather 'bundled up'. A miserable mess of feathers, a different image from those we often gaze up at soaring away in the skies. Her gleaming, beady eyes, staring our team out, beak set wide open with a ridiculous posture of a tongue sticking out, very sulky and clearly unamused by the greeting.
Our casualty manager proceeded to try and handle her, in a bidded attempt to perform an assessment of her condition and injuries. This, of course, was met with a high-pitched clicking screech. Now I don't claim to speak the fluent Red Kite tongue.. but i'm sure this wasn't pleasant by any stretch of the imagination.. No. This was her ladyship informing us all as to where we stood. From the get-go.. she was setting the record straight. She did not wish to be here, nor anywhere near us and wanted to be back home with her waiting mate.
Nevertheless, we needed to assess the damages. She clearly had a broken wing, but how 'broken' could only be ascertained with an X-ray, so she was bandaged up, given some pain relief and put somewhere quiet and secluded in order keep her stress levels down to a minimum.
After a good night's rest and a chance to calm down, the wonderful team at Falkland Veterinary clinic based in Newbury agreed to see her. The x-rays confirmed the broken wing. Thankfully, this was fixable with a bandage and required only a couple of weeks rest whilst the bone healed.
Everyday, would we hear her 'disapproval' , never mind the fact our team wanted only for her accommodation to be kept clean and tidy .. for her own benefit.. But no.. the screeches of discontent, met with a sulk and the 'imaginative' performances of playing 'dead'. In our experience, whilst they may look menacing, they total are wimps. Its all for show and sound. Compare this to the Buzzards we often see, who quite frankly want nothing more than to tear us apart given any available opportunity.. Red Kites just seem to slump and sulk. I do not agree with the notion of that they 'accept' our help at all.. They do get incredibly stressed if kept in captivity for too long, after all, can we blame them?
They belong high up in the skies, free and wild and there is simply no aviary large enough to meet their requirements long-term in our opinion. The aim of the game, is to rescue, treat, rehabilitate and release and the sooner, the better for the benefit of all the wildlife casualties we see here at OWR too.
Cage rest it was to be. Just as the doctor ordered. She wasn't going to be happy about it, but needs must and rest and recovery was her only job during her stay here at OWR.
After a couple of weeks, Her winged had healed to a degree where being bandaged up was no longer needed. So at the earliest availability, she was moved into one of our larger flight aviaries, where she could get some much-needed exercise and start building up those wing muscles ready to be released back to the wild. It should be noted, that aviaries such as those designed for the display of ornamental birds however are not suitable for wild birds such as Red Kites.
The open sided wire mesh can break and cause significant damage to their flight feathers. Also, we have noticed over the years that wild birds seem to operate on the ideology of that 'if they cannot see you, then you simply don't exist'.. so in order to keep their stress levels down to a minimum, their flights (like all our flights now to be honest) are boarded up, and by removing the visual stimulus, this seems to help birds of all species keep calm and composed during their periods of recovery and rehabilitation.
Our flight, which was purposely designed for the rehabilitation of larger birds of prey, is huge. Measuring almost 4M wide, 3M tall and a colossal 20M in length comes in very handy for these cases. But being as large as it is.. its design is only for the short-term periods of recovery. Which is exactly what this beautiful girl required.
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She spent only a couple of weeks recovering in the flight, and no sooner was she was becoming restless. It was time for her to go home. Our brief interaction and window into this birds life was at an end. When she was taken back to her territory, she took off, and within only minutes of being free, would the team witness something spectacular. She was greeted and finally reunited with her mate. What an experience, and what a feeling of achievement.. For several weeks, he had been waiting for her and now they were now back together, all was well in the world for these two amazing birds... which is ultimately, what our work is all about here at OWR.
Restoring some ethical balance in world, by rescuing , caring for and later releasing back to the wild, the many sick, injured and orphaned wild animals that need our help, in their hour of need.
Best wishes,
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