RSPB Scotland’s Investigations Intelligence Officer Jenni Burrell introduces the new class.

This year the Hen Harrier Life Project website has been improved to provide a more interactive experience for visitors. You can choose to look at individual birds, track their journey and look at any points of interests that appear.

The profiles of twelve of this year’s satellite-tag hen harriers are now online and what a brilliant bunch they are. Take a look on the website to learn more about their stories and meet:

Calluna (image by RSPB)

Eric (image by Alan Leitch)

Heather (image by Brian Etheridge)

  

Lia (image by Guy Anderson)

 

Mairie (image by Paul Howarth)

 

Mannin (image by James Leonard)

 

Manu (image by Tim Jones)

  

Rannoch (image by Brian Etheridge)

 

 

Saorsa (image by Brian Etheridge)

  

Skylar (image by RSPB)

 

 

Sirius (image by RSPB)

 

 

Tony (image by Dave Anderson)

 

Sadly Calluna is no longer with us. Calluna’s sat tag transmissions abruptly ended on 12th August, with no further data transmitted. Her last recorded position was on a grouse moor a few miles north of Ballater, in the Cairngorms National Park - Jeff Knott has written this blog about her.

You’ll be able to follow the progress of the other birds as we map their movements online. To protect sensitive breeding sites, maps of their movements will only be added as soon as they’ve dispersed away from their nest sites. We have already been able to share the first movements of Heather, Eric, Skylar, Sirius and Saorsa who have already proved to be adventurous and spread their wings. We’ll add the remaining birds as soon as we can. 

You may notice that only one of last year’s birds is back on the website. After a very successful breeding season, DeeCee has moved away from the nest site so we are able to share her movements again. Don’t worry, the other four are safe and well, but have yet to move away from breeding areas. We will keep you updated and will begin to map their movements in due course. In the meantime, see what they have been up to in a previous blog.

It’s going to be an exciting year following these birds and seeing what they get up to and we can’t wait to share it with you.