You may remember last month I blogged about our 2016 Perthshire female, DeeCee and her fantastic brood of five healthy chicks (see here). Well, I’m now delighted to share that all five have fledged successfully from land owned and managed by Forestry Commission Scotland in Argyll – two of them sporting shiny new Hen Harrier LIFE Project satellite tags!
Three of DeeCee's five chicks, July 2017 (Image: RSPB)
The two eldest and biggest chicks in the brood, one male and one female, were each fitted with the tiny transmitters just days before fledging, by a trained expert, under specialist licence. It will be fascinating to see where they go. Will they follow the same movement patterns of their mum, DeeCee, or will they go their own way entirely? Only time will tell.
For now though, we need your help to choose names for them!
You have from today until midnight on 3 August to submit your suggestions to our competition website here. All ideas welcome (yes, even Henny McHenFace but I’m making you zero promises on that one!) and you can submit two entries, so use your entries wisely.
Eight of our favourite submitted names will be selected and put to public vote on on @RSPB_Skydancer. The public voting will run from 7-8 August, and from 9-10 August. The winning two names with the highest number of votes will be announced on this blog on 11 August 2017. See here for the terms and conditions.
So what are you waiting for? Get those thinking caps on and get suggesting!
In the meantime, both our as-yet-nameless young harriers have been sticking tight to their nest site, still dependent on their parents for food as they get used to their wings and gradually practice hunting for themselves. Slowly but surely though, they’re starting to venture a little bit further each day and my guess is it won’t be long before one of them makes the leap and roosts away from its nest for the very first time.
Details of our full Class of 2017 will be online from the start of September, however to protect sensitive breeding sites, maps of their movements will only be added as soon as they’ve dispersed away from their nest sites. With some of the birds this might be immediately, while others may hang about home until the start of November. So if you don’t see the maps straight away, don’t panic - if anything happens to any of them, we’ll let you know!
Whatever else, I have a sneaking suspicion these two are going to be the stars of the show.
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If you want to do more for hen harriers, or even simply find out more, why not join hundreds of people around the country at a Hen Harrier Day event this weekend? I'll be speaking at the event in Sheffield on Saturday 5 August, but there are plenty more to choose from, across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Simply visit henharrierday.org to find the one nearest to you. #HHday2017 #StopKillingHenHarriers
To find out more about the Hen Harrier LIFE Project, visit our website at www.rspb.org.uk/henharrierlife or follow us on Twitter @RSPB_Skydancer