Video transcript
I joined the volunteer group for Northern Kites at the start of the project and attended
various meetings and progress updates in the evenings as I was still working full
time.
From January 2006 and now semi retired I started regular kite monitoring with the
Thursday team, which consisted of electronic tracking and recording the
whereabouts of kites, mainly in and around the core area, the Derwent valley.
Later in early summer of 2006 I was lucky enough along with Liz Forgan of the
Heritage Lottery Fund to release one of the last red kites from its holding pen in
Gibside and watch it fly free.
Over the next three to four years I’ve also become involved in numerous red kite
events. At shows, festivals and National Trust property days we have set up our
information stalls and run craft activities, making kite masks and bookmarks with
children to take home.
I’ve been involved in kite viewing events, showing kites in the wild and answering
numerous questions. Roost watches in the winter and summer nest watched lasting
over 2 months have seen us volunteers engaging with the public, finding kites in the
telescope and hopefully enriching the visitor experience of wildlife in general in out
local area.
Over the 5 years of the project we have spoken to almost 60,000 people at red kite
events. When the kite volunteers won the Nationwide building society community
and heritage hero award in 2008 I was fortunate to be one of the two volunteers who
won the draw to collect it.
These last few years of volunteering with Northern Kites have surprisingly linked in
with pervious parts of my life. I saw my first ever red kite when I worked as a field
hydrologist on Plynlimon, mid Wales in the 1970s. I had moved there from
Watlington Hill in the Chiltons which in later years became a red kite release site and
the eventual provider of Northern Kites chicks. A very strange coincidence.
