00:00It's a flying success for Kent's red-billed chuff population, as one of the baby birds has become the first to fledge in more than 200 years.
00:08Fledging is where the chuff grows enough to develop feathers that then allow it to fly.
00:13And the fact it's taken to the skies is a promising sight for the reintroduction project.
00:18So having a chick come out of the nest and survive and get through to that stage is in itself such an achievement.
00:26And I think because it's learnt and it's learnt its flying skills in those Dover winds, it's quite a good flyer.
00:34So hopefully it will survive winter and go on itself to start breeding pear in the wild with another bird.
00:41The chuff has plenty of ties to Kent, being on the Canterbury Coat of Arms, part of the legend of Thomas Beckett,
00:47and having their reintroduction project in a secret Dover location.
00:51So these are captive-reared birds that are experiencing the outside world for the first time, like I said,
00:57experiencing those winds, challenges of the peregrine, but also just the general sights and sounds of Dover and getting used to that area.
01:05So we're trying to keep disturbance to a minimum for their benefit so that they've got the best chance of success.
01:10The species only began their rewilding in Kent three years ago, after they vanished in the 1800s
01:15due to a loss of their natural habitat, chalk grasslands, which was hurt by farming practices at the time.
01:21But efforts have been made to restore the natural environment.
01:24The chuff rely on chalk grasslands for them to survive.
01:30They need the habitat to forage on insects.
01:34They also rely on the grazing animals that thrive, that we use on the chalk downland.
01:41So the grazing animals provide dung, which a lot of insects then use and populate and breed in,
01:49which the chuff also used for foraging, particularly in winter months when the insects aren't necessary around in the grassland.
01:55The project's five-year plan is to introduce up to 50 birds in the southeast, including the Kent population,
02:01with a goal to eventually link chuff populations across southern England.
02:05But with the county now having new chuffs in its clear blue summer skies,
02:09there's no longer the same dark cloud that once hung over Kent's most iconic bird species.
02:15Finn McDermid for KMTV.
