Rare bird spreads his wings to visit Yorkshire cousins

A RARE red kite bred in the Highlands has been spreading itswings by flying to England to meet other birds.

After leaving the Black Isle, where it was born as part of areintroduction programme, a bird named Spey was tracked to variouslocations in the Central Belt and Borders before being spotted inYorkshire.

The travels have surprised experts who expected the birds toremain close to their home nests.

The red kite was satellite tagged and his flight path was loggedby RSPB Scotland as well as schoolchildren who have adopted thebird.

Red kites are reared in the Black Isle as part of areintroduction programme for the species in the UK .

Under the Eyes to the Skies project, which runs for two years,satellite tags have been attached to at least 15 chicks so they canbe followed on the internet as they disperse.

However, the furthest flown was Spey, which made its way toComrie in Perthshire, then Glasgow and Castle Douglas in Dumfriesand Galloway.

The kite was later tracked along the M6 to the north east ofKendal, then close to Bowland Forest in the Yorkshire Dales. Furtherprogression was made to Bradford and Halifax and to a roosting spotin woodland to the south west of Keighley.

More recently Spey has been tracked touring Shipley, Leeds, andopen farmland around Eccup to the north of the city and to Harrogateand Wetherby in North Yorkshire. The last positions are close to thesite of Harewood House, north of the Eccup Reservoir, where redkites were reintroduced in 1999.

Spey's blue wing tag, indicating his Highland birthplace,distinguished the bird from the local red kites, which more usuallysport orange wing tags.

Mike Todd, a RSPB volunteer who has been inputting data from anumber of satellite-tagged red kites, said: "Spey is a well-travelled bird and seems to have found a group of relatives down inYorkshire. There has been a reintroduction scheme in North Yorkshireas there has been on the Black Isle and it looks as though he hasmet up with a group of Yorkshire kites.

"Spey has spent some weeks roosting in a plantation by theYorkshire Planetarium and roving around the countryside nearby.However, more recently he has moved up to the Yorkshire Dales. Itwill be interesting to see if he continues to drift north back up toScotland."

Red kites were reintroduced to Scotland in 1989 when chicks werebrought to the Black Isle .