Exploring the multinatural: Mobilising affect at the red kite feeding grounds, Bwlch Nant yr Arian

Red kites are one of Britain’s rarest birds. Once extinct from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, a few remained in the upland valleys of Wales. In Wales, there are now over 1,000 breeding pairs, with a successful reintroduction programme throughout the United Kingdom. Part of this success story has been the provision of feeding stations. This article seeks to explore the unfolding and infolding topological relations that ensue at the Bwlch Nant yr Arian feeding grounds, near Aberystwyth as a site-based ontology. The gatherings at this site compose an alluring spectacular display which is a charged, affective experience. Following this practise the meanings of feeding red kites has evolved and metamorphosed into something less about kite survival, and more of an environmental pedagogy. Intriguingly, this is driven not by leaflets, documents, devices or schooling, but by an encounter with charismatic nonhumans, difference, affect and experience. The research navigates and explores the natures of the event-site and elucidates an affective zone of emergence that materialises where diverse Umwelten overlap.