As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Red kites thrive in the Chilterns 25 years after scheme

1 August 2014 Last updated at 06:06

Milvus milvus R(ThKraft).jpgAn endangered species of bird is thriving 25 years after just five birds were released in the Chilterns.
The Chilterns Conservation Board said the reintroduction of red kites on the Oxfordshire-Buckinghamshire border on 1 August 1989 was one of the UK's most successful conservation projects.

Another 88 were released by English Nature and the RSPB over five years.

There are now at least 1,000 breeding pairs in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire.

Neil Douglas, senior nature policy officer at RSPB, said: "It is heartening to see these impressive birds become a popular spectacle and well-loved feature of our landscape."

Red kites became extinct in England by the end of the 19th Century because of human persecution, but a small population survived in Wales.

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