THE project to re-introduce the once extinct red kite to the Yorkshire Dales has made history, according to the latest edition of English Nature Magazine.

It reveals that, in July this year, one pair of this elegant bird of prey produced a healthy breed of four chicks - twice the average brood of two and the largest number known to have survived in one clutch anywhere in England this year.

Red kites were released in the Dales in 1999 after being shot to extinction a century or so ago. Their nesting sites are a carefully guarded secret because of the threat from egg collectors.

The success of this pair has been greeted with joy by conservationists and the magazine featured their arrival with the headline: "Four of a kind make history in Yorkshire."