A Celtic Englishman

Forgive me but it has been too long since my last post!

Enjoying the breeding season, watching wild sky dancing displays and now food passes to females sitting tightly on eggs.

But what a note to begin blogging on once more:


It looks very much like our friend with the orange wing tag (born in England) that has spent the past few winters in Wicklow is hanging out in Wales, with a close friend of the female type!
It is a great feat to have such a good picture of an individual bird, considering he spreads across the Irish Sea! Movement across the Irish Sea is something that has become apparent through the Irish Hen Harrier Winter Survey and records of wing tagged birds from Ireland travelling to Britain and vice versa. This all adds great weight to the metapopulation concept whereby what happens here in Ireland can affect populations abroad and what happens abroad can affect Hen Harriers in Ireland.

Thanks to those who have reported him in Wicklow over the winters and our colleagues in England and Wales for reporting sightings of this fine bird. Now we know he is in breeding mode in Wales, we have gone a long way towards answering the burning question of where he spends his summers after leaving Wicklow each spring!

See a previous post on this blog dated 19 November 2013 about this particular individual, included in the post entitled "Little E - A Born Survivor"...now wouldn't it be something to also find out where Little E is!

We look forward to seeing him and hopefully some of his young ones back in Ireland this autumn/winter!
Beir Bua!

November 2010, Wicklow

November 2012, Wicklow

Winter Draws to a Close

This is it,

The winter has come and gone, daffodils and primroses add colour to our lives and soon harriers will be turning their minds towards the breeding season - this time next month Sky Dancing should be a magnificent sight in our blue skies.

For many of us, this upcoming co-ordinated Irish Hen Harrier Winter Survey roost watch weekend (starting Friday 01 March) will be our last opportunity to see Hen Harriers in our local areas during the non-breeding season. We have had some magnificent evenings watching blue-silver males glide with brown ringtails over reedbeds and bogs. Be sure to get one last taste of this before the winter is finally out - you may be waiting a long time again before seeing another Hen Harrier! If you have not been out to your local roost this winter, or checked for a new roost, why not!

Make the effort, get out there, enjoy life and make a contribution to the natural world in the process!

More Wing Tag News!

Over the weekend, one man in Inishowen, Co. Donegal was lucky enough to see a wing tagged Hen Harrier (yellow left tag, meaning she was born and tagged in 2009). This could well be the same bird seen way up in Sutherland, Scotland in April 2012!!

The observer was even luckier to be treated to a spectacular sky dance display!!

But Hen Harriers only sky dance at the start of the breeding season right?! Hen Harriers don't have rules! Over the years I have had a number of records of sky dancing harriers during the non-breeding season and have been treated to a display myself at a winter roost. Soon enough though, our hills will be graced with this time old tradition once again and Spring will be in full flow! Can't wait!!

Some News on Wing Tagged Hen Harriers

In 2009, a fabulous individual from the Ballyhoura Mountains on the Cork-Limerick border was wing tagged with two yellow tags and the letter C. She travelled first to West Clare where she stayed for a short while in the hope of establishing a non-breeding home range. Every winter since, she has spent her time back in her native Rebel County in South Cork. She was seen here again this January, in the company of two other females, and is now in her 5th calendar year!

In 2010, the extraordinary 'Little E' was tagged in Kerry and has spent every winter since at the opposite corner of the island, with a band of other harriers in Wexford (see post on this fella!).

In 2011, a very unique looking female Hen Harrier from West Clare was wing tagged with an orange left tag (for 2011) and a green right tag (for West Clare). She is currently wintering in the Burren area, looking well. Hopefully she will soon set up a breeding territory come the months of March and April.

Here's hoping for a very successful and lucky 13!!

Be sure to report any sightings, whether of tagged or untagged harriers to harriers@ahg.gov.ie for the Irish Hen Harrier Winter Survey.

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the readers and followers of  Hen Harrier Ireland!

Nollaig Shona 's Athbhliain faoi Mhaise!

Hen Harrier Shootings in Ireland and England

The Hen Harrier is a rare and protected species, but still incidents of illegal persecution can occur.

Recently in Wexford (not Kerry as reported by certain quarters who had no details of the incident) a Hen Harrier was reported to have been shot at its roost. No body was found in a search afterwards. Such an incident, in all likelihood would be at the hands of a maverick shooter rather than by any concerted effort. The harriers have existed at that roost for years and hopefully always will. It is imperative to treat roost and nest locations of any protected species as confidential - tell the local Ranger but why people - who may tell people - who may disturb the bird unintentionally or intentionally?

While relations between Hen Harriers and some landowners in Ireland were strained around the time of Special Protection Area designations for the species, people living and working in the SPAs now realise that after over five years of living with the designation, they are operating as they always have done. The reason the areas were designated as SPAs in the first place was because they were important for Hen Harriers - and they were important for Hen Harriers because of the way the landowners managed the land. Public awareness campaigns and agri-environmental plans for Hen Harriers in recent years have helped foster even better relations between the patrons of the landscape and this magnificent Irish raptor.

The shooting fraternity has done much to help protected species like the Hen Harrier (see recent post below) and are commended for their investment of time, money and effort in various conservation programmes. For anyone to berate shooters in general for the shooting of a Hen Harrier displays a lack of understanding of the issue. The response by the NARGC in the immediate aftermath of press release by BirdWatch Ireland regarding the shooting of a Hen Harrier shows the support and understanding that exists among the general shooting fraternity and this should not be forgotten, rather worked with and developed. For we have something different here in Ireland. We have different attitudes and we have different issues (e.g. Red Grouse are only a miniscule <1% part of the Hen Harrier's diet in Ireland).

When a protected bird is shot, it is indeed a travesty and there is justifiably outcry. When the habitat of a protected species is lost, it is less emotive for the public, but arguably much more damaging with long lasting repurcussions. When you take away a piece of habitat, you take away 1000's of years of history of the species, and damningly you take away any potential of a future. The issues for Hen Harriers in Ireland are obvious and are more numerous and greater than persecution. http://www.ria.ie/getmedia/016e1e30-c1a1-48e0-a5a0-aa3c49276162/BIOE-2011.07.pdf.aspx

In England recently, a famous Hen Harrier called Bowland Beth that was being tracked by means of a satellite tag identical to those used in Duhallow in 2012, has been proven to have been shot. She was an absolutely amazing bird and did so much for her species, raising awareness, answering conservation questions, showing a whole new side to Hen Harrier ecology. Hopefully now, her death will not have been in vein and progress will be made on establishing a scenario for Hen Harriers to co-exist on the moorlands of England...where ironically they have the best of habitat - but to quote an old Native American saying, "the best wolf habitat resides in the human heart" - if they want Hen Harriers they still have the foundations upon which to build. Do we in Ireland?
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/tests-reveal-that-rare-bird-of-prey--was-shot-illegally-8397633.html

‘Little E’. Born Survivor. But Where Does He Go?!

October 2010. Little E in his 1^st Winter as a Juvenile Male. Photo Paul Kelly

November 2011. Little E as a 2^nd Winter Male. Photo Killian Mullarney

 

November 2012. Little E as a 3^rd Winter Male. Photos Paul Kelly

‘Little E’

I wing-tagged Little E on the Cork-Kerry border (his parents being smart decided to nest on the Kerry side!) on a summer’s evening 06 July 2010.  He was one of a brood of 5 healthy chicks.  He was next seen in South Wexford, almost 200km from home in September 2010. I had one of the most memorable sightings of a Hen Harrier, when I met this young male in person on 14 November 2011. He flew right up to me out of his roost, so close I could nearly read my phone number on the bottom of his tag! It was an amazing encounter, to see a bird I had in my hands back in Kerry during the summer, now finding his feet as an individual on the other side of the country. It is an image that will stay with me forever.

 

Fantastic news when Little E returned to his Wexford roost again the following winter in November 2011 and was reported by artist and author of the Collins Bird Guide, Killian Mullarney. Having moulted his brown juvenile plumage to the grey/brown plumage of a 2^nd Winter male, he became the first Irish wing tagged male to have been seen as a ‘grey bird’. There were great hopes that he would progress to become a spectacular looking adult male some day!

 

Needless to say then, I was delighted when informed by local birder and photographer Paul Kelly that in November 2012, Little E has returned yet again to his roost in South Wexford! Now he has really grown up and only slight traces of his juvenile plumage remain. It is wonderful to know that a Hen Harrier you have known since a chick is making his way in the world and doing well. However, it throws up the obvious question…where does he spend his summers?!! Why does he turn up in November? Does he travel on towards France thereafter? Does he even breed in France? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to answer these questions and so much more. There will always be more to find out about these wonderful birds. With the help of satellite tags, as used with Blackwater and Sky this summer, hopefully we will begin to answer some of these questions.

 

At the same time, in Wicklow we are graced by the presence of a male Hen Harrier the very same age as Little E, who was also wing tagged in 2010. The one big difference however, is that this other bird (named ‘Orange 2’) was wing tagged in England! And where does this male spend his summers??? The exchange between British and Irish Hen Harriers and possibly further afield is noteworthy. What happens to ‘our’ harriers over there, or what happens to ‘their’ harriers over hear, has major implications for national populations and indeed the overall metapopulation.

 

Thanks to everyone who continues to send on their sightings of Hen Harriers, tagged and untagged to harriers@ahg.gov.ie. Please if you have seen any Hen Harriers be sure to send the records for the Hen Harrier’s protection.

 

Thanks very much,

Barry O’Donoghue