Cultureshock

You need Adobe Flash installed to watch this movie.
Get Adobe Flash

Video transcript

When I was a teenager living in Newcastle in the 1960s I first saw pictures of red kites in my bird book. I knew they were rare with only very few pairs left in Wales after years of persecution throughout Britain. At the time I wondered if I’d ever see a red kite in real life.

The some years later in the mid 1970s living as a student in Bristol I was near enough to Wales for weekend camping and walking trips. One early summer day near some oak woods where wood warblers, redstarts and pied flycatchers sang I was lucky enough to see my first ever red kite, overhead, soaring in the blue warm sky before drifting over the hill. Absolutely fantastic.

Thirty years later and I’m a volunteer at a public watch point at a red kite’s nest in the Derwent valley in the North East of England as a result of the reintroduction project. The first red kite to fly in the North East of England for 150 years has just taken flight. Thousands of people are marvelling that the birds are back with such enthusiasm, especially the children. They can look in their bird books and not wonder as I had at their age when, or if, I’d ever see one. They’ve seen one, the red kites are back.

So it’s been such a privilege being part of the team of volunteers helping return these wonderful birds to the area they should never ever have left.