Well, I'm sure you've all been as glued to your computer screens/laptops/fancy phones as I've been, watching our three Aberdeen Red Kite chicks (live on our webcam!!!) grow from fluffy cute little white bundles to almost adult size, with a wingspan of around 5ft 7, in just six weeks! Over the weeks, we've seen plenty projectile poo, great parenting skills from Mum (09, Fairview) and Dad (14, Red Dave) and now, lots of wing exercises as the chicks get ready to say goodbye to their newly found celebrity status and leave the nest!
To celebrate another successful brood about ot take their first flight in Aberdeenshire skies, we are having a special "Aberdeen Red Kite Fledging Party" at VSA Easter Anguston Farm (near Peterculter) this Saturday from 10am - 4pm and we would love to see you there to help us celebrate! At the party, there will be a chance to learn more about these magnificent birds of prey, see the live footage of the chicks and take part in special red kite themed activities such as the ‘red kite scavenger challenge’ and the ‘red kites tracking game’, as well as old favourites, such as fluffy singing bird tombola, face painting, pin badges and RSPB membership information.
Just to give you an idea of how much the chicks have grown, here is a 'before' and 'after' shot of them (so cute!)
So come along, say Hi and tell us your red kite stories! If you've not yet managed to see the Aberdeen Red Kite CCTV take a look now, before the chicks fledge!
Hope to see you all there!
Julie
As I'm sure all of you have noticed by now the 3 young kites in the nest have been tagged. Last Friday morning we went with our climbers and quickly tagged, ringed and measured the kites. The tags are C1, C2 and C3. This year's colour is white which stands out quite nicely. From the measurements it looks as though we have 2 males and a female (C2). I've not had time to download my pictrues yet as have been busy looking for more nests but will soon and then you can have a look at the on the ground being tagged.
The webcam has been working reasonably well again the last day or so, so I'm back to getting no work done in the office! The line seems to be working, but we're not sure what's causing the problems, so it might happen again.
In the mean time the chicks have grown a fair bit and are starting to get well coloured. Today was nice and sunny, so inbetween some big meals from mum they mostly slept!
Since the weekend we've been having some problems with the phone line which we upload the webstream on so we've not had any footage. Hoping we'll get it fixed soon though, so keep checking back just in case. In the mean time the birds don't mind at all and you can still get your kite fix at VSA Easter Anguston where the footage is live every day 9.30-4.30. The feathers are really starting to come through on our three chicks so they're not just white balls of fluff anymore!
Will update as soon as we get the web working.