The Kite's Tale: The Story of the Red Kite in Wales

by Roger Lovegrove, Darren Rees (Illustrator)

The red kite was once the commonest bird of prey in Great Britain. Now its fortunes are turning as attempts are made to reintroduce this rare bird of prey to other parts of Britain from Wales. This book was published to coincide with the premiere of an RSPB film in September 1990.

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 1990

About the author

Roger Lovegrove (1935 - 1923) was an Enlish school teacher and naturalist. A native of Devon, he lived in mid Wales for the past 30 years. In 1971 he left teaching for a full-time career in wildlife conservation, joining the RSPB staff as Wales Officer.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting and thorough account on the history of red kites

[dragonhelmuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting book all about the situation and history of the red kite. THere is an indepth analysis of why it was exterminated, starting with the 1566 acte and moving through time - really opened my eyes to the trigger-happy Victorian groundsmen. I also particularly liked the information about the effects of myxomatosis. Unlike wildcats which appear to have found diseased rabbits easier to catch (man & beast), red kites seem to have had problems keeping up their populations without rabbits. Also interesting is that they only eat voles, lagomorphs and mice, and appear to be unable to even scavenge sheep, cats, dogs or calves without dogs, foxes or ravens opening up the corpse first.

One quote:

The word ‘kite’ clearly derives from the Anglo-Saxon cyta (onomatopeic of the call) and evolved through the medieval ‘kyte’; it is noteworthy that like many of our other vernacular names of birds, ‘kite’ has remained essentially unchanged for over a thousand years. However, an alterative name widely used and older than ‘kyte’ or ‘cyta’ but which has now disappeared from the language was ‘glede; or ‘glead’ , again derived from an Anglo-Saxon word, ‘glidda’ which is itself of Germanic origin; the common root.