Our local red kites have been fairly active again in the new year, and the mild weather has allowed them to continue with one of their favourite food sources; worms! Many farmers are ploughing up stubble fields in preparation for spring crops and the local kites and buzzards (along with quite a few common gulls) take great delight in feasting on the uncovered worms. In the autumn and winter, invertebrates make up most of the diet for young kites (and buzzards too). Sometimes when I'm out watching the kites I feel like a fraud calling myself a raptor worker as it seems that red kites are just overgrown song thrushes!
It has been good though to catch up with so many of the 2011 chicks who are now completely independent and moving around Aberdeenshire and beyond. For the first time ever one of our Aebrdeen-born birds has been see on the Black Isle with other kites. It is a young female who was reared near Peterculter on the outskirts of Aberdeen. Hopefully she'll come back to Aberdeen safe and sound!