Red Kite x 1 (high south west)
Osprey x 1 ( along the gorple ridge s/w)
Merlin (1 ad fem and 2 juvs , the 2 Juvs mobbed Hen Harrier continually )
Hen Harrier x 1
Buzzard x 11 ( 3 + 3 + 3 + 2)
Sparrowhawk x 2
Kestrel x 6
Wheatear x 4
Swallows x 30 s/w
HEN HARRIER’S, BREEDING ATTEMPTS on WALSHAW DEAN ESTATE 2018.
After
the incredible winter of 2017 – 18 when we had record numbers of wintering Hen
Harriers, 11 or 12 birds including 2 adult males, it was thought that it might
be possible for a pair to settle and attempt to breed. Little did we know what
was about to unfold? We had an adult male present since the following autumn so
when a second adult male turned up on 23rd March it seemed to trigger
a response from our original bird with skydancing noted on 24th
March. This display was intensified the next day and the second male didn’t
stay long and was not seen again after the 25th. By 29th
March we still had 5 females and 1 adult male which was now starting to follow
one of the females around, flying above her and with both birds then slowly
soaring together. Alarm bells started to ring so we called a meeting of the
Calderdale Raptor Study Group in early April, to go over our options of what to
do in the case of a breeding attempt. It soon became obvious that we were in a
precarious situation, with the RSPB not being allowed on to the estate for one
reason or another, so we would have to go through Natural England. The other
problem we had was what to do with the information, do we go public with it or
do we keep it quiet, the RSPB and Natural England both told us to keep it under
our hats, not even some of our closest friends and colleagues could be told.
This didn’t sit well with some of us, but hey we had never been in this
situation before so we bowed to the judgement of those who knew best. On 8thApril
both the adult male and female were seen carrying nesting material into deep
heather, and this was continued by the female over the next few weeks with the
male starting to skydance again from 14th April. Around this time we
hit our first major problem, Natural England had informed the landowners of the
nesting attempt and had put an exclusion zone around the nest site of 250
meters, this didn’t seem to deter the keepers who over the next few days were
driving around all over the moor in an half track vehicle cutting the heather,
one even started to walk up and down the moor carrying a GPS device in order to
map out areas to be burnt, so he told us. They may have been outside the
exclusion zone but our female harrier obviously didn’t like this because she
abandoned the first nest and started to build a second close by. After several
days building this second nest was also abandoned as the half - track continued
to drive up and down the moor. We asked the RSPB for advice and they rang the
Police who came out to talk to the estate telling them they were too close no
doubt. Then on 21st April the female had moved into a patch of
bracken lower down the hillside much closer in a small gully, unfortunately
close to a public footpath. Over the next week or so the pair was seen mating
and the famous food pass was witnessed on numerous occasions. On 20th
April the male flew over the nest site with prey but the female didn’t come out
to take it from him, so he flew off and 2 observers watched him travel some
2.5KM to the east with it. This got the observers thinking where’s he going
with that? So next day they checked out the area he had flown into and low and
behold he had a second female with another nest. Natural England and the rest
of the raptor group where informed strait away and we started to draw up a plan
to watch over both nests. This second female at site B had been present all
winter and was very distinctive, having two large gaps in her left wing and a
missing central tail feather. On 30th April this nest was checked by
Natural England and was found to have 6 eggs in it, so cameras were put in to
keep a careful watch. Back at site A mating between the pair continued and food
was being brought by the male in good supply. On 1st May one raptor
worker reported gunshots coming from a small wood fairly close to where the
harriers were nesting at site A. Natural England went in to put cameras on this
nest on 3rd May and found 4 eggs that felt cold. It soon became apparent that site A had
failed as the female went missing and was never seen again after 1st
May. This was very disappointing but we still had site B, which had 6 eggs, so
we all moved and kept a close watch at a safe distance. Over the next few weeks
things seemed to be going really well with the male regularly seen bringing in
food for the female which would take it from the him with the famous food pass,
she would then either take it back to the nest or eat it on the moor some
distance away. On 12th May a third female turned up but was thought
to be just passing through and was not seen again. Our female looked like
making a good parent as she would occasionally come off the nest to drive off
Short-eared Owls that came too close, she could also be seen apparently turning
the eggs and adding material to the nest. Everything was going well until the
male disappeared on 16th May, he was not seen over the next few days
but the female was still sat on the nest so he may just have been missed. The
female was seen to come off the nest in the early morning of 20th
May then nothing! Both adults simply vanished, to say she was such a
distinctive bird with obvious gaps in the left wing it seems odd she was never
seen again. Natural England went in to check on 29th May and sadly
confirmed our fears that both nests had failed. To say we were gutted is an
understatement, we were so close to a hatching date, who knows what might have
been if the eggs had hatched. Obviously people felt very angry and upset at
these failures and questions started to be asked, Natural England suggested
that the male was not bringing in enough food, but he was a full adult and we
watched him catch voles on several occasions and witnessed many food passes at
both sites, also it was a “vole” year and several species of Owls took
advantage of this food supply with record numbers nesting, we alone found 12
pairs of Barn Owls, 14 pairs of Long-eared and Short-eared Owls were through the
roof with possibly as many of 30 pairs in Calderdale. One Barn Owl was seen to
catch 4 voles in 15 minutes not 1 km from site B. Kestrels also took advantage
of this abundant food source, so to say it was down to lack of prey just
doesn’t make any sense at all. We will probably never know for sure what went
wrong, intentional or un-intentional disturbance by the general public or
keepers, apparently, they were allowed to check small mammal traps on the moors
one of which was only a few metres away from nest site A. Both nests being
located close to public footpaths, but we only saw one of these being used on
only one occasion by 2 members of the public. Perhaps the male left to follow
the third female that turned up, but that wouldn’t explain site A failing. We
also had a boy flying a drone close to site A on 29th April two days
before the female disappeared, but he was thought to be too far away to have
caused any problem. All together it proved to be very exciting and very
stressful, it’s just a great shame that Calderdale’s first known nesting Hen
Harriers failed for un-known reasons. We may have strong suspicions but the
honest truth is that we just don’t know why both nests failed. Finally, we
would just like to thank all the members of the Calderdale Raptor Study Group
who gave up their valuable time to give this truly fantastic magnificent bird
of prey a chance.
1 comment:
Nice one Andy.
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