All images and text © ADRIAN WINTER 2008.

The growth in the numbers of red kites in the UK has been one of the biggest conservation success stories of recent years. Once a common bird of towns and cities by 1930 red kites had dwindled to a marginal population in mid-Wales of just 20 birds with, it is thought, just one breeding female. Thanks to protection measures and co-operation from local farmers by 1993 the Welsh population was up to 100+ breeding pairs. The work of the Kite Feeding Station at Gigrin Farm has played a big part in ensuring the continued survival and expansion of the the red kite in Wales; by 2000 the Welsh countryside contained 260 breeding pairs. The reintroduction schemes in England and Scotland, using continental and some Welsh birds, have returned the red kite to some of its former strongholds from where, it is hoped, further expansion will occur until kites are as common a sight as they once must have been. Feeding time at Gigrin (3pm summer, 2pm winter) is one of the great wildlife spectacles of the UK, with 200+ circling and swooping kites, plus buzzards, ravens and other corvids and the occasional heron all arriving for the feast.