Follow the story as a pair of red kites bring up their three chicks in the wild.
Red Kites
One of Britain's most distinctive birds of prey, red kites are recognisable by their iconic forked tails, and long, angled wings. They’re now a common sight in our skies, but before the 1990s they were entirely absent from Yorkshire. So, when I found a well-established nest in a tree canopy near me, I applied for a Schedule 1 license to film their nesting behaviour. So as not to disturb them, I began my project well before the breeding season, building a scaffold tower opposite their 16m-high nest.
Filming their secret lives
Red kites build on previous year's nests, creating them from a base of sticks and twigs, lined with grass and wool. But this pair had also used rubbish, which was sad to see. I filmed their breeding process from early courtship, when the pair put on spectacular aerial displays, to nest building, egg-laying, hatching and the final fledging.
Red kite chicks
Interestingly, the chicks were aggressive from the very start. As they got older their constant squabbles over food grew fiercer, until, surprisingly, they fledged the nest. Then, possibly because they were no longer contained in such a tight space, their interactions grew calmer. To encourage the final chick to fledge, the adults begin to withdraw food. Watching these early flying lessons was magical. Red kites have a large wingspan and seeing them soar is just amazing.
This has been a dream project and I'm now crossing my fingers that the red kite pair return to this next year so I can follow the process, from nest building to final flights, all over again!
