Kite Flying

The Red Kite is one of my favourite birds. I am lucky in that near where I live they are in abundance Though not long ago they were all but extinct in this country.

Persecution meant that the bird was exterminated in England, Scotland and most of Wales by the end of the last century. The 16th Century saw a series of Vermin Acts, requiring 'vermin' including the Red Kite to be killed throughout the parishes of Wales and England -the bird was perceived as a threat to expanding agriculture.

Such persecution continued throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries, and at the end of the 18th Century another devastating blow happened when increasing numbers of gamekeepers were employed on country estates, set up after the initiation of the parliamentary enclosures. These men were responsible for killing far more Red Kites.
By the late 18th Century, Red Kites had bred for the last time in England; the story in Scotland was similar.

http://www.redkites.co.uk/