Thursday 7 April 2022 - Tom Bowser - The Re-Wilding of Argaty

REWILDING ARGATY

On Thursday evening, Tom Bowser from Argaty Red Kites treated Club members to a fascinating and beautifully illustrated account of the rewilding of Argaty on the Braes of Doune.

Argaty has become synonymous with red kites, but, as Tom put it, red kites have had,  ‘a roller-coaster ride over the centuries’.  In the past, the Gaelic word for kite was used as the basis for a place name, as in Gladsmuir, reflecting the prevalence of kites.  An account of 1795 stating ‘so common is the kite with us...’ is confirmation of this.  However, only some 60 years later, the Bamffshire Journal reported ‘There was shot on Saturday...one of those birds so rare with us nowadays – hawks called kites’.

This remarkable turnaround in fortune was a consequence of greater accessibility provided by railways; landowners promoting game shoots; and the development of the breach-loading shotgun.  Gamekeepers, mistakenly, killed kites assuming that they were predators responsible for killing game birds, whereas they are scavengers – effectively the vultures of the north.  By 1917, kites had to all extent disappeared: only a small number appeared in Wales, all from one breeding pair.  

To counter this decline, in 1989, red kite chicks were imported from Europe.  Argaty was selected as the second site in Scotland producing, in 1998, its first fledglings.  This encouraged a decision to allow visitors to come to see the birds. Not long after this, Tom’s father reached retirement and Tom was faced with the prospect of running the farm, a role to which he was not fully committed.  At about the same time the Red Kites’ head ranger left, prompting Tom’s decision to take on the Red Kite business. However, as it stood, it was not a financially viable option.  Hence emerged the concept of extending the scope of the project, initially by introducing and building up a community of red squirrels.  The early success of this prompted Tom to take further steps into rewilding, adding ponds, wildflower meadows, and 100 bird boxes. These, together with nature walks, encouraged many more visitors. In due course this extended habitat also attracted barn owls, an osprey, as well as dragonflies. All this thanks to an initial enthusiasm for red kites. 

As a means of recording all this, Tom has written a book – A Sky Full of Kites - a history of kites in Scotland from persecution and extinction to re-introduction and beyond. It tells the story of the Argaty Red Kites project and its part in helping to restore these birds to this part of Scotland. And, finally, it is a personal tale about his attempts to rewild the estate and how the birds proved to be a catalyst for that.

Stuart Brown expressed the Club’s thanks for this insight into a remarkable achievement.