Great news for a Friday - a recent routine check of DeeCee's nest in Argyll, carried out by RSPB staff under full appropriate licences, has revealed a healthy brood of five chicks!
Hen harrier DeeCee's healthy brood of five chicks. Can you spot the tiny youngest in the middle?
You'll need to look really closely to spot them all. Like many birds of prey, hen harriers lay their eggs a day at a time and they hatch consecutively in the order in which they were laid. This means that the eldest of DeeCee's chicks has at least a five day's start on the youngest, and being bigger, is able to gobble up the lion's share of the food that the adult male brings to the nest.
Field voles are a vital food source for hen harriers throughout the breeding season but numbers of voles naturally vary widely from year to year, often showing what's known as boom and bust cycles. This size difference in the chicks is nature's way of ensuring that even in years of few voles when there's a shortage of food, the eldest chicks have a good chance of surviving and fledging successfully.
Fortunately, you'll be pleased to hear that DeeCee has very sensibly chosen to nest in an area which, at the time of the visit, seemed bursting with voles and small birds like meadow pipits, so with any luck, there'll be plenty of food to sustain all five of her young brood.
DeeCee as a newly satellite-tagged chick alongside her siblings. (Image: Brian Etheridge)
All being well and with permission from the landowner, we'll be returning in a few short weeks to fit the eldest chick with a satellite tag to match its mum's. It will be fascinating to see if this young harrier follows in the footsteps of its parent or whether it does something different entirely.
Watch this space...!
For more information about the Hen Harrier LIFE Project, visit www.rspb.org.uk/henharrierlife or follow us on twitter @RSPB_Skydancer