Red Kites, a Leucistic Kite and Gigrin Farm, Mid-Wales.

3 Sept

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life.John Burroughs

Gigrin Farm is in Mid-Wales, in, of all places, "Rhayader". A place whose name has become a partly-butchered-Anglicised form of its original Welsh name "Y Rhaeadr" (the waterfall), or more fully, "Rhaeadr Gwy" (waterfall on the Wye).

The absence of a waterfall hasn't usurped the old name; despite it having been forsaken in 1780, to make way for the bridge linking the town to Cwmdauddwr and the Elan Valley.

Even as a native Welshie, and MA student of Travel and Nature Writing, I was astounded to find that there was a farm within easy reach that had a wake of Red Kites to be seen. (As an aside, I was equally jubilant to mull over how the name 'Gigrin' could have come straight from a Harry Potter book, maybe a loyal servant of Grindelwald or a blind, bumbling magical creature?) Then, struck dumb that this bird, I was clearly horribly ignorant about, had not only been voted Wales's favourite bird in 2007, but had been the subject of much welsh support when nearing extinction a hundred years previously.

Now, I'm not nationalistic, but I was starting to feel abashed. I still enthralled myself with memories of the Hector's Dolphins in New Zealand, the smallest and rarest marine dolphins in the world, but didn't even know that my own countrymen had been diligently protecting Red Kites? I quite simply had to be a better tourist at home. "Cymru am byth!" and all that. (Wales forever!)

First stop, Gigrin Farm. A site where, at 3pm, raw meat is flung around by an unconcerned farmer and all the carrion birds of Wales descend to feast. Obviously, you are tucked away from talons and tearing flesh within hides.Seeing a Leucistic Red Kite was completely unexpected, as we were unaware that they existed, and to see one, without scouting for it, was a stroke of uncanny serendipity. In bird circles, “Leucistic” describes the partial loss of pigmentation in a bird, resulting in white, pale, or patchy colouration of the skin, hair or feathers, but not the eyes. Unlike Albino creatures, Leucistic creatures have a reduction in multiple types of pigment, not just the melanin.

After the encounter, helpful signs on the site, and the omnipresent Google, demystified the cause of the singular alabaster 'Red' Kite that we saw from the hide. Before that, we had speculated that it may be a juvenile (our pocket guide rebuked that idea); a particularly pretty female or that it was a different bird entirely. Irrespective of definition, it was regal and wondrous.From the farm, an entirely fresh perspective of Wales came rushing forward; a country of innumerable hills and territories cast jade, emerald and malachite. A country usually perceived as tamed suddenly rendered exacting, tempestuous and unbridled.