Bubbling Curlew & Boxing Brown Hares at the RSPB Brodgar Reserve

The magical Ring of Brodgar is a special place at any time of year, the RSPB reserve surrounds this historical site. During April and May the site really springs alive with the territorial displays of male Curlew, and the female Brown Hares 'boxing' unwanted attention from amorous males. During a dawn breeding bird survey last week I was fortunate enough to record a minimum of 10 displaying male /pairs of Curlew and an impressive 12 Brown Hares (8 in one group) on our Brodgar reserve.

A bit mad . . . 'April/May' Brown Hares can be seen commonly all over Orkney at the moment with morning & evenings being an especially good time for watching these facinating mammals.
Brown hares are famous for their boxing matches which draw a lot of attention to them. Hares face each other in the middle of open fields, sometimes with an audience gathered round, and spar with each other, rearing up on their large hind legs and scrabbling at each other with their paws.

It was once thought that these strange dances were fights between males (jacks), perhaps to impress nearby ladies or warn off rivals. Instead, it seems it's actually female hares (jills) that are doing the boxing, using their paws to fend off over-enthusiastic males.

Hares shelter/rest in a shallow depression on the ground called a  'form'. The Brown Hare is larger than the Rabbit, with longer legs and longer ears with black tips. A baby hare is called a leveret. They live for about 4 years in the wild and can run at an impressive 30 miles per hour.

During, this late Orkney spring, you cannot have failed to notice the 'bubbling' cries of male Curlews as they rise from the ground and then glide around their territory before decending again. These aerial displays are to guard a territory from other males and to impress the nearby ladies. For me and many others it is one of the main sights & sound of an Orkney spring. They breed when they are two years old and on average live for between 5-10 years. The oldest known Curlew (from ringing data) was over 32 years old - wow! Males are slightly smaller than females, which is only really obvious when they are together.

Curlew are a species under threat in the UK and indeed in Ireland huge declines have been witnessed with an estimated population of 5000prs in the 1980's, now thought to be a few hundred! This population collapse strikes a chord with me as it is a similar figure that was quoted for the Orkney population around the same time. Orkney has not suffered the same level of decline but, there are fewer Curlew present today, hard to believe if you take a walk anywhere on the islands at the moment. Long term RSPB data sets suggest as much as a 30-40% decline have occured on our reserves. 

The supporting cast on my mornings walk comprised of; Lapwing (7prs), Redshank (3prs), Oystercatcher (14prs), Snipe (3 displaying males), Skylark (5 singing males) and a silent hunter in the form of a Short-eared Owl. The pools opposite the Historic Scotland car park were alive also with; Wigeon (192), Teal (85), Gadwall (13), Shoveler (3), Shelduck (2prs) and a rarity amongst our regular ducks in the form of an American Wigeon. All in all a very nice morning out watching wildlife. 

 RSPB have a guided walk around Brodgar on the 8th May - Give the office a call to join staff on a pleasant stroll around the site. Tel (01856) 850176.