30/01/2024
Announcement from RSPB Scotland.
After fourteen years of running Tollie Red Kites, we will be stepping back from the partnership at the end of January 2024.
Thank you to all volunteers, Brahan Estate, funders and local people for their long-term ongoing support for these now well-established birds. Our time at Tollie has been fantastic. We have achieved all that we set out do with the site and more, engaging with tens of thousands of local people, tourists and visitors to the area, raising awareness of this returned species. On the behalf of the Kites, we offer a huge gratitude to everyone who has been involved, and what a success, after so many years of absence through human persecution, to see Red Kites are now well and truly settled back into their home, where they belong.
The North of Scotland was chosen to host one of the UK’s first re-introduced populations, after Red Kites became extinct in the UK due to persecution in the late 19th century, barring a small population in Wales. Between 1989 – 1994, 93 Kites from Sweden were re-introduced near Munlochy on the Black Isle, and another 93 in the Chilterns in England. The first successful breeding was recorded on the Black Isle in 1992, and two years later Kites born here in Scotland raised their own chicks for the first time. The latest survey of the North Scotland population was in 2019 and found there to be around 80 pairs, including the first successful nest in the Cairngorms National Park.
Tollie Red Kites was set up in 2009 as part of the Eyes to the Skies educational project, as a partnership between the Brahan Estate and RSPB Scotland, recognising the area as an important place in Red Kite history in Scotland. The project involved supplementary food being put out to attract Kites and other birds, allowing people to see them up close, take amazing photos and learn about their natural history. The project also gave local schools the opportunity to adopt a Red Kite and follow its progress using satellite tags.
Feeding at Tollie sadly had to stop during the COVID-19 pandemic due to staff furlough and for the safety of visitors and volunteers, and the Avian Influenza outbreak in 2021 meant that for the health of the Kites and other birds in the area the decision was made not to resume feeding, and we have been winding down operations since then. The feeding was always supplementary to the natural diet of the Red Kites, so stopping this has had no negative impact on the birds.
Thank you all again for your support, if you would like to share any memories you have of Tollie, or any photos please do.
