The Red Kite Feeding Centre

The Red Kite is Wales’ favourite bird. Every Easter when we travel up to Talley keeping an eye out for their forked tails and rusty plumage circling over the fields is something we always do. Apparently they used to steal clothes from washing lines to make their nests, referenced by Shakespeare in King Lear; “When the Kite builds, look to your lesser linen”. They had a tough time surviving in most of the UK, but in Wales they reign supreme 🙂

Anyway, up in the fields near Llanddeusant there’s a Red Kite Feeding Centre where every day at 3pm (in summer, 2pm in winter) you can watch them eat. It only costs £4 for adults (£2 for kids) and is worth every penny, even if you’re not much of a bird watcher!

We took our cameras and went into the hide on the edge of the field and patiently waited in silence with our eyes to the skies…

Then at exactly 3pm they appeared, just as a full bucket of meat and scraps was flung out into the field. I expected to see a couple maybe, but there were probably at least a hundred circling and swooping! And once the meat was down it turned into a feeding frenzy!

After about twenty minutes, most of the Kites flew off and so did the other people in the hides with us. But thanks to a tip off, we stuck around for a little while longer on our own. The Kites wait for everyone to leave and then they come back for more, and actually come down to land on the field.