Thirty years ago I started working for the RSPB on a six month upland bird surveying contract – with the additional challenge of helping to protect England’s only regular nesting hen harriers. The Forest of Bowland was the only stronghold for hen harriers in England in 1982 – it still is. I’ll be contributing a series of guest blogs over the spring and summer and tweeting in real time on @andrefarrar
By the second half of July my fieldwork was more or less over. The endless crisscrossing of the hills had developed a level of fitness I hadn’t achieved before or, sadly, since! I even started running to keep the fitness up. On one occasion I powered (ish) past a man pushing his bike up a hill, I stopped at the summit before returning and he caught me up; ‘are you a fell-runner?’ he asked ... such an undeserved proud moment!
Although the fieldwork was over – I was able to turn my attention to sorting out all the records and data collected in those pre-digital days, pulling it all together in to the final report. My employment would run through until the middle of August ... a recognition that it might still be worth having eyes on the skies as young harriers would be still around at the beginning of the grouse shooting season.
Another important (and enjoyable) part of my last few weeks was calling in on the people who’s paths I’d crossed in my all too brief stay in the Forest of Bowland. I’d learned a lot and fallen in love with this corner of England’s uplands – and I wanted to ensure I didn’t just blow in and blow out again, I’d helped secure a three year agreement with the North West Water Authority so our role in Bowland was set to develop further (it never occurred to me that 30 years later I’d still be writing about it).
As I crunched the numbers from the endless transects I’d walked I came up with an estimate of 7,500 pairs of meadow pipits explaining why they were a constant accompaniment to my days on the hill.
Of the hen harriers – I monitored the outcome of six nests (a minority of the pairs in the whole of Bowland) one nest failed completely and the other 5 produced 12 young that successfully flew.
Four tiny hen harrier chicks and fifth hatching - all grew to fledge successfully. Photo on a licenced nest visit Andre Farrar
It was apparent that there were plenty of young harriers around – and at the time a feeling both that the future for Bowland’s harriers was looking positive and that this could be the start of them reclaiming England’s uplands.
Neither has proved to be the case.
But back in the sunny summer of ‘82 no-one realised that we were seeing the high point for hen harriers, it felt for a brief moment that a corner had been turned.
The supporting cast was quite impressive too – on the streams 22 common sandpiper territories and 15 dipper territories. And from my transects 25 ring ouzel pairs, 33 pairs of wheatears and 70 whinchat territories.
My biggest disappointment (and it still makes me angry 30 years later) was the failure of ‘my’ peregrines. Robbed of their eggs and duped by dummies placed in their nest.
Fond as am of hen harriers, they lack the ability of a wild peregrine to look you in the eye and see into your soul.
For me – new horizons beckoned as I had landed a job (tea making included) in the RSPB regional office in Huddersfield. But that’s a whole different story.
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