Amazing sight as 500 red kites swoop on Mid Wales feeding station
There was once a time when to see a red kite was a rare and memorable experience. But now the skies in one part of our region are alive with the birds.
Around 500 kites regularly swoop on a feeding station after the species was saved from the brink of extinction
Red kites flock to a 200-acre sheep farm in Powys every day, where conservation efforts are paying off
Gigrin Farm has been an RSPB feeding station for the birds since 1992.
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The red kites are tempted in by hunks of meat and, year-on-year more and more birds turn up.
The kites were close to extinction 50 years ago but species has bounced back thanks to initiatives like this
In a stunning, all-natural display, huge numbers of the aerial predators now circle overhead at Gigrin Farm, north of Llandrindod Wells, before diving to snatch morsels of food.
The species was declared completely extinct in England and Scotland in the 1870s, and by the 1960s the UK population had fallen to just 30.
But projects led by the RSPB have seen numbers positively flourish.
Tractors distribute meat across the land at Gigrin Farm, which acts as a magnet for the birds of prey, which are joined by buzzards and crows.
The feathered predators, which typically dine on anything from earthworms to small mammals, circle, watch and wait before diving for food.
Visitors can witness the spectacle every day at 3pm in the summer and 2pm in winter.
Chris Powell, partner at Gigrin Farm, said the feeding station's work is vital.
He said: "We started seeing these kites about 25 years ago and at the start, we were feeding two.
"Over the years they have grown to hundreds. Over the last 10 or 15 years the numbers have grown rapidly and things have improved drastically.
"We are now feeding 400 or 500 hundred birds in the summer months and even more in the winter because they can't find food.
"We load up the tractor with about 40kg of beef and take this out to the field. We put the food out and the kites come down immediately.
"All the food is gone within an hour but there is a pecking order - the older kites come first and then the younger ones.
"If we weren't doing this work the kite numbers would drop. There is no question about it."
Funds raised by Gigrin Farm help pay for an onsite rehabilitation centre for red kites.
According to the RSPB, a successful scheme to reintroduce red kites across the UK means there are now around 1,600 pairs.
