Conservation success story

I was able to spend a few days, during our trip to the UK, photographing birds. The first day was spent at Gigrin Farms, a Red Kite feeding station in Wales. Red Kites were hunted mercilessly in the UK as “pests” until the mid 1900’s. At one time there were only about 10 birds left in the entire country. A major conservation effort, including release of birds from mainland Europe, was undertaken. As part of that effort, government feeding stations were set up to help build up the populations. Red Kites are now widespread and numerous throughout England, Wales, and Scotland. These feeding stations, like Gigrin Farms, charge people to watch the feeding and photograph the birds. These are a few of the many shots Deb and I were able to take. Magnificent birds, they are very agile swooping and diving to grab meat from the ground where it was spread.