CHILDREN have welcomed a new red kite to their school after one of the birds was poisoned last year.
Pupils of Winlaton West Lane Community Primary School, near Gateshead, were devastated about the illegal poisoning of their adopted kite, Flash. So Northern Kites partnership put them at the front of the queue to adopt one of 30 kites being released in the North-East this summer.
The children were delighted with the news and named the kite Phoenix.
Headteacher Angela Exley said: "It was horrible having to tell our children that somebody had killed their kite.
"This was a really hard lesson for our pupils to have to learn, but the tears turned to smiles all round when Phoenix was introduced to the children."
Phoenix is one of 30 chicks coming to the North-East over the next couple of weeks from nests in the wild in the Chilterns.
The project aims to restore red kites as a breeding species to the region after an absence of more than 150 years
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