I really wish I had been able to talk about harriers as much as I seem have been talking about the bad weather this year. Too much of one and really not enough of the other is how I feel about this season!
That rain at the end of last week really did hit us hard in Bowland. As you’ll see from these pictures the rivers rose to almost bursting points in places.
Langden beck in spate on Friday 22nd June. © Jude Lane, RSPB
The usually calm, babbling Langden beck was transformed into a roaring brown torrent, undoubtedly washing away any late nests and as Gav said in his latest blog, causing young chicks to die either from starvation or cold as the parents searched for hard to find food. It wasn’t just species that nest close to the river that were affected either, a couple of our merlin nests, situated on shallow moorland slopes succumbed to the torrential rain, sadly resulting in the loss of young chicks. Fortunately the peregrine chicks, being that much older, had just fledged so were able to get themselves sheltered and presumably just watched on as the water poured off the fells and into the ever rising rivers below.
The fish pass in the Dunsop valley today (above) and on Friday 22nd June. © Jude Lane, RSPB
For those of you keen to hear about 74843, you’ll be pleased to hear that she’s still transmitting strongly. She has established herself a relatively small home range of about 8 x 3 km in the Yorkshire Dales over which she hunts by day before roosting in a large bracken bed at night. Although she appears much more settled (as in she's not been taking herself off to Scotland every other week or so!) we can tell from her satellite fixes that she’s not made a late breeding attempt as the location of her fixes and the corresponding mileage have been too active for a breeding female. Maybe next year?
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