I own a grass farm in the Chilterns which provides grazing for horses and haymaking. It also provides habitat for hares, skylarks, lapwings and field voles (the staple diet of my resident pair of barn owls) – which is why I am so set against the red kites.
Between 1989 and 1994, red kites from Spain were imported and released into the Chilterns by the RSPB and Natural England. The population here had dwindled and the RSPB describes the reintroduction programme as ‘one of the UK’s biggest conservation success stories’. But it’s only a success story if you ignore the devastating effect red kites have had on other wildlife.
The RSPB assures us that red kites feed mainly on carrion and earthworms and, as opportunists, the occasional small mammal. While it is true they eat roadkill, earthworms and livestock afterbirth, they also destroy a great deal more than just the ‘occasional’ mammal.
Red kites predate all livestock of a weight they can carry away. This includes field voles and dormice, but also the chicks of ground nesting birds such as skylarks, lapwings, grey partridges and curlews, all of which are on the RSPB’s Red List of great conservation concern. I have witnessed kites taking songbird fledglings from my garden.
When I’m haymaking, the red kites target the leverets. Haymaking is precarious and timing is important. Within five minutes of starting to mow there will be 20-plus red kites circling overhead, intending to hoover up any birds or mammals disturbed by my work. Long-term, the owl’s safety will be jeopardised if there is a shortage of prey.
The red kites threaten my chickens and geese too, which causes great distress. Chickens are wonderfully secretive and will disappear to sit on a clutch of eggs safely concealed in a barn, only to reappear three weeks later with a large brood.
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