Red Kites are on the Increase in Britain as presented by: Telegraph Media Group


The red kite was once on the brink of extinction, but now the bird of prey is once again soaring over the British countryside. Part time nature photographer Gareth Scanlon captured the birds play-fighting in mid-air from his back garden in Brynnamman in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Red kites in England and Scotland have been reintroduced from Germany, France and Spain. Now there are estimated to be up to 700 breeding pairs of red kites in England and 130 pairs in Scotland. These birds were once considered a pest in Britain and by the 18th Century humans had wiped out all red kites in England and Scotland. Only in Wales did they cling on to life - with a few breeding pairs surviving in remote parts of mid-Wales by the late 1970s.
	view Red Kites are on the Increase in Britain as presented by: Telegraph Media Group