As part of the project, we decided early on that we really wanted members of the public and schools to name our red kites. As each bird is given uniquely numbered, coloured wing tags and carries a radio transmitter, it is possible to track birds and provide updates to the organisations and individuals about their very own kite, and how it is doing in the wild.
As well as an open competition for some of the birds’ names, we have also allocated birds to be named by some of our sponsors and the volunteers who worked so hard to make the pens ready for the birds. Aberdeen Countryside Project, who have contributed £45,000 and hundreds of hours of volunteer time to the project, have named bird 07 Phoenix. Ellon Wildlife Explorer Group have recently won WEX group of the year and their prize was to name bird 08; they chose Ellen. Bird 13 is called Treekid (an anagram of red kite) and was named by local RSPB staff members. We received five birds from Central Scotland, some of which came from the land around Argaty Red Kites feeding station. Lynn and Niall Bowser have named one of these kites Annie Hope after Annie Hope Henderson who bought Argaty and loved the wildlife of it. We are also delighted to have the support of Grampian Police force and following the release of some of the kites by Assistant Chief Constable Ewan Stewart the force named bird 29 Big Tam after an officer who passed away earlier this year.
We’ve had some fantastic names suggested so far and are waiting another couple of weeks before making our decision on the names for the two or three birds being named by the public. If you would like to make a suggestion then please email us at: aberdeenredkites@rspb.org.uk.