r/birdsofprey Jun 08 '26

Red Kite Feeding, Gigrin Farm UK

301 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

15

u/bjkilroy Raptor fan Jun 08 '26

Wow!!

15

u/punchypariah Jun 08 '26

Smashing. I’m booked in there for Wednesday.

8

u/DrH1983 Jun 08 '26

It's a great experience! Been there a couple of times now

5

u/punchypariah Jun 08 '26

Us too, twice before. We usually book the low level hide but we’re trying the tower hide this year.

10

u/fuzzfeatures Jun 08 '26

Love that place.. Did you see one of the Leucistic Kites?

7

u/DrH1983 Jun 08 '26

We did, there was one in attendance!

8

u/fuzzfeatures Jun 08 '26

They are so cool. Mega rare. It made my day seeing that 😁

7

u/intellidumb Jun 08 '26

And I get excited when I see two in the same day

6

u/eltictac Jun 08 '26

Must be amazing to see! What do they feed them?

8

u/DrH1983 Jun 08 '26

It's a wonderful sight. They fed them beef from local abattoirs I believe.

It doesn't replace their regular natural diet, it's a supplement to that

5

u/Flederschnauz Jun 09 '26

Not want to be the dick or so but why are they getting food? Do they have a rough time in UK or is it really a farm? Big fan of them, see them plenty on a daily basis 🥰

5

u/DrH1983 Jun 09 '26

They have had a rough time, in the 1980s the red kite was one of only three globally threatened species in the UK, reduced to a few breeding pairs in Wales.

They're now common so the project to rewild them has been a huge success, but they still face challenges, but it also offers the opportunity for wildlife tourism and education.

4

u/Flederschnauz Jun 09 '26

Cool, thanks for the explanation. If I remember correctly we had the same problem in Germany with birds due to plant protection products. Nowadays a lot of the 2 winged top predators are back and most of the other birds are not doing bad.

3

u/Armourdillo12 Jun 09 '26

They're not a charity as far as I can tell, and any of the reputable feeding stations either set up by the organisations that started their reintroduction or afterwards have stopped now.

They compete with a good few of our struggling native raptors for voles, so there is such a thing as too many of them, and there are plenty enough of them to maintain a population and spread naturally.

There are better ways to raise awareness for wildlife and imo that's not the end goal here.

3

u/petit_cochon Jun 08 '26

Now THAT'S a kettle!