The Nant Yr Arian Forestry Commission site is a beautiful little location, a small lake surrounded trees with a pathway wending its way around it. It’s an extremely picturesque place and home to all sorts of wildlife, but what makes the site a truly special place is that everyday at the same time (3pm in the winter, 2pm in the summer), it is a feeding station for around 100 to 150 Red Kites.
There's 2 main places where you can watch the birds feed - the first a flat piece of land on the opposite side of the lake to the feeding area where most people congregated, the second a hide which is just next to the feeding site but with limited space. The Kites start arriving about 20 minutes before feeding time, the sky slowly filling up as more and more arrive and they descend lower and lower in preparation. A large number of crows also arrive during this time, presumably interested in trying to steal a free lunch. Bang on the hour, one of the staff appears in the small clearing on the restricted side of the lake. and starts spreading 10kg of beef over a wide area. As they left the area, the birds started coming in closer to help themselves to the food.
It's an amazing sight to watch, as they swoop down from the sky to snatch up the pieces of meat, chasing after each other and also the ever-present crows. But on the day I visited, the Kites seemed rather hesitant to actually feed en masse. I’m guessing this was because of the noise from the visitors as I later observed that once the number of people lake-side had shrunk in number, the birds were a lot happier feeding.
For more information on this rather wonderful daily event, there's more information available on forestry commission site.
There's 2 main places where you can watch the birds feed - the first a flat piece of land on the opposite side of the lake to the feeding area where most people congregated, the second a hide which is just next to the feeding site but with limited space. The Kites start arriving about 20 minutes before feeding time, the sky slowly filling up as more and more arrive and they descend lower and lower in preparation. A large number of crows also arrive during this time, presumably interested in trying to steal a free lunch. Bang on the hour, one of the staff appears in the small clearing on the restricted side of the lake. and starts spreading 10kg of beef over a wide area. As they left the area, the birds started coming in closer to help themselves to the food.
It's an amazing sight to watch, as they swoop down from the sky to snatch up the pieces of meat, chasing after each other and also the ever-present crows. But on the day I visited, the Kites seemed rather hesitant to actually feed en masse. I’m guessing this was because of the noise from the visitors as I later observed that once the number of people lake-side had shrunk in number, the birds were a lot happier feeding.
For more information on this rather wonderful daily event, there's more information available on forestry commission site.
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