GETAWAY TRAVEL GETAWAY
ONE MOMENT, the wide skies above Rhayader in Mid-Wales were empty. The next, they were filled with hundreds of magnificent red kites, circling around effortlessly above our heads.
We were in a field at Gigrin Farm, an RSPB-approved red kite feeding and rehabilitation centre, waiting for these once-endangered birds of prey to swoop down for their daily quota of beef.
Feeding the red kites
It's truly breathtaking to see so many of them in one place, seeming to float then suddenly pouncing to retrieve their share of the feast.
The meat is provided by the Powell family, who also run a sheep farm. Apparently, some of the birds travel up to 40 miles from other parts of Wales for their free afternoon tea!
The extra beef rations are intended to supplement, rather than replace, their self-sourced daily diet of roadkill, dead animals, worms, insects, small mammals and amphibians.
The Powells were first approached by the RSPB to start feeding the red kites about 30 years ago. Numbers have grown since then, from just six in that first year to more than 600 today.
