One new site was discovered whilst carrying out a breeding bird survey for a local farm. Three further sites were located by specifically surveying farm copses and woodlands in SP11 for Red Kite. Seven nests were at sites where I had known them to breed in previous years. In total I located 13 active nests, plus a 14th site near Windrush which is usually used but was not this year for some unknown reason. I selected SP11 as it is my local square and was easiest for me to survey comprehensively. find all) breeding pairs of Red Kite in one 10km square, which could then be extrapolated to give a population estimate for the whole area. In order to derive a more reliable population estimate for the area, in the spring/summer of 2022 I set out to census (i.e. Figure 1 Three Red Kite chicks in a nest in the North Cotswolds (Rich Tyler) This generated some discussion amongst county birders, in part because of the lack of records submitted to the county recorder and in part because they only colonised the area around a decade ago, with the first confirmed attempted breeding recorded in 2012 on the National Trust’s Sherborne Park Estate (although earlier breeding attempts were suspected). From a back of an envelope calculation based on breeding sites known to me and other local birders and suitability of habitat, I suggested there to be 100 breeding pairs of Red Kite in the thirteen 10km Ordnance Survey squares which make up the North Cotswolds. ![]() ![]() Last winter I was asked to estimate the number of breeding pairs of Red Kite Milvus milvus in the North Cotswolds for a presentation being given by Andrew Bluett.
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