I’ve just got back from a weeks holiday and its all change – birds missing and the roost is shifting! We are now entering the peak dispersal period for juvenile red kites, so keeping an eye on their movements is even more important.
Radio tracking is a fantastic way of having contact with birds, even though you might not see them. All of the radios on the kites have a posture sensor so you can tell from the frequency of the beeps if the bird is flying or perched. If a bird is recorded in the same posture and location for some time then you know that something might be wrong. If you want to actually see a particular kite, you can use the tracking gear to get several bearings and triangulate the position of the bird. Reading wing-tags can be difficult so radio transmitters provide a useful additional tool.
We have four birds that are officially missing which means that other kite workers across Scotland are listening out for them as they survey their own birds. I also check frequencies of other missing kites when tracking across Grampian. So far the birds have moved up to about 10km from the release site, although we have had one bird which ventured further afield to near Alford (which is about 50km from Aberdeen) and has now come back into the main roost by Aberdeen.
Red kites roost communally and by following them in the evening we can tell that the kites are shifting their roost site every couple of nights as they are decide on the best spot. As the days get shorter and colder, the decision will happen soon – it will be interesting to see where they end up calling home for the winter!