Damian Clarke, Manager of Red Kite Reintroduction Project, Glendalough
AT THE MOMENT I'm getting ready to head over to the Welsh Kite Trust to pick up new donor stock. For the next few weeks I'll be working all hours, collecting young birds from around the Welsh countryside. When we get back my day will be taken up with looking after them.
They spend the first four weeks in giant crates at a secret location. I gather and chop up crows and rabbits and feed them through a hatch at the back, so they never see me. If they did they would think I was their parent and look to me for food.
After that I'll head into the office at Trooperstown Wood, in Laragh. I spent the last eight years as a park ranger in Glendalough and am on secondment to the Golden Eagle Trust for five years for this project. It's the kind of opportunity that doesn't come up very often, so I jumped at it.
I studied forestry in college, and worked for Coillte for a while, but was always more interested in wildlife. My father was a birdwatcher, and I got into it that way, with a particular fascination for birds of prey. They're certainly more interesting than trees.
Red kites are magnificent birds, very striking to watch. Last year we released the first batch of 30 - 15 males and 15 females - so much of my day revolves around their progress.
I'll have e-mails to respond to, with queries and sightings from members of the public.
So far we've been monitoring them with little radio transmitters in their tail feathers, but as these fall out it's getting harder to keep track of them.
One was shot last year, and that was devastating. I'm very clinical and scientific about them, but it really was like someone had shot your dog. Another was hit by a train, probably scavenging along the tracks for dead rats or mice.
The rest are starting to pair off and mark their own territory. A good part of my day involves trying to find out where their nests are, so that next year I'll be able to monitor the eggs.
If I find they're over a particular farm I'll go and introduce myself to the farmer and explain about the project.
So far the response has been all positive. Lots of farmers have told me they see them sailing over the tractor when they're making silage, looking for mice.
If it's nice I'll have lunch out in a field somewhere. It's wonderful to be working outdoors all day, but it's also nice to have an office to come into when it's pouring rain or you feel like having a chat.
At the moment, because of the new batch coming, I've licences to apply for. I have talks to prepare, too, mainly for birdwatching groups.
We chose red kites rather than, say, golden eagles because they're lowland birds, so people are much more likely to see a red kite.
In time it will become a major tourist attraction for Wicklow, as it is in Wales, where people come to the feeding stations, and they contribute millions to the local economy.
I tell people I work nine to five because it's an easy explanation. But the truth is it's hard to tell when I'm working and when I'm not, because, when I'm off, I go looking for birds of prey.
In conversation with Sandra O'Connell