Hen Harriers have had another successful breeding season in the Forest of Bowland, although breeding numbers were lower compared to the record-breaking season last year. RSPB staff and volunteers recorded 9 nesting attempts of 8 breeding females (including one replacement clutch) on the United Utilities Bowland Estate. 7 nests were successful and fledged a total of 32 young. Sonja Ludwig, RSPB Species and Habitats Officer in Bowland, describes this years season ...
Hen Harriers are one of the most iconic bird species nesting in our upland moorland habitats, but also one of the rarest and most threatened. For many years the Forest of Bowland has been the most important stronghold for breeding hen harriers in England, and the RSPB has been working in partnership with United Utilities and their tenants to monitor and protect these amazing birds on the United Utilities Bowland Estate.
This year, RSPB staff and volunteers discovered 9 nesting attempts of 8 females on the United Utilities Estate. One nest failed as the eggs were predated by a stoat, and although the female built a new nest and laid a replacement clutch, her second breeding attempt also sadly failed. This means that 7 nests were successful and fledged a total of 32 young. Increased vole abundance and good weather during the hatching and early chick rearing period contributed to higher chick survival compared to last year, when 39 chicks fledged from 11 nests.
Two additional females nested on a private estate in Bowland (nests recorded by Natural England).
Eight Hen Harrier chicks on the United Utilities Estate were fitted by the RSPB with satellite-tags to follow their movements and survival. Five tags were sponsored by United Utilities and the chicks named by the pupils of the local primary school in Slaidburn, who will be able to follow ‘their’ birds on their journeys.
The sustained recovery of Hen Harriers in Bowland during the last six years is encouraging, and a tribute to successful partnership working. However, the disappearance of a satellite-tagged adult male called Rush from the Forest of Bowland AONB this spring was deeply concerning. Rush fledged from a nest on the United Utilities Estate in 2021 and has remained in Bowland ever since, although he did not manage to find a mate and breed in 2022. Another male tagged hen harrier called Wayland disappeared a few weeks later in North Yorkshire, just outside the Forest of Bowland AONB. In addition, three of this year’s tagged juvenile females – Hapit, Selena and Harmonia (two of which were fitted with tags sponsored by United Utilities) – have now also gone missing in the Yorkshire Dales after they dispersed from their nest sites on the United Utilities estate, with all cases under police investigation.
These are only some of the latest additions to the list of known Hen Harriers that were either killed or disappeared in Northern England in the last year. This shows that despite the recent increase in breeding numbers the recovery of Hen Harriers in England still has a long way to go.
With Paul Irvine I was a Species Protection Officer for five years during the eighties. We were helped by two brilliant local volunteers who had been walking Bowland for years, Bill Murphy and Bill Hesketh. We had too many unexplainable losses which we could only put down to the gamekeepers. We both thought the situation wouldn’t improve without the cooperation of local landowners which at the time wasn’t forthcoming.These results are brilliant. Congratulations to all the people that have helped to make these so successful.
I have been watching out for hen harriers for many years since seeing a male flying alongside my car near Clapham Station. We live at High Grain (O.S. ref. 744631) and used to see them several times around us each year but have seen none for at least 3 years. I also go walking all along the tops of Bowland, from Whelpstone Crag to Ward Stone but have seen none during that time, in spite of your news about improved nesting statistics. Is there any explanation for this? Am I just unlucky?