The Hen Harrier Diaries: Final Entry

The Hen Harrier Diaries: Final Entry

Work on the Hen Harrier Diaries commenced on the 28th of February, nearly six months later it has finally come to a conclusion it has been a disappointing year to say the least, with only two of our six pairs managing to rear young (with four chicks reared in total).

Below is a summary of the pairs.

Pair 1. Penny.

Penny set a high standard in 2015 rearing three chicks, a remarkable achievement for her first breeding attempt, this year she faced many obstacles from human disturbance (someone who clearly doesn't have any consideration or knowledge for wildlife taking photographs and clearly disturbing the mother who should have been tending to her chicks), bad weather to forestry work taking place in close proximity to her nest. But against all odds this amazing bird managed to rear two chicks this year, the young harriers have now dispersed to explore the world, we wish them well and hopefully someday they will return and rear chicks of their own.

Pair 2. Heather's Mom and Dad.
As reported in previous updates our hunch was in fact correct, Heather's Mom and Dad were not successful in their breeding attempt this year. We believe they failed in the first weeks of early chick stage, with predation was the most likely cause. The odds are really stacked against this pair with the majority of their territory now a green desert of sitka spruce. This vast area of forestry is home to numerous predators and is forcing the birds to travel huge distances to forage. This sustained absence is when the young chicks are vulnerable to predators and is heartbreaking to watch. It is clearly no fault of the birds, and with a bit of luck this pair can be more successful next year.

Pair 3.The Glen Nesters.
It seems the intrusion from other Hen Harriers changed the minds of this pair and they abandoned their breeding attempt early in the season, while the male remained in the territory for several weeks it appears all the activity proved too much for the female and she abandoned early on. This was really a disappointing turn of events for this pair as they have been one of our most productive pairs over the last number of years, lets hope 2017 can be a better year for the specialists.

Pair 4.
It turned out to be a brilliant year for this pair, they managed to rear two chicks and both were females, despite deciding to nest less than 50 feet from active turf cutting (this is their second year rearing young in the same location, with turf cutting active both years). These chicks were the first to fledge in 2016 and they remained in the area for several weeks before finally deciding to venture into the world on their own, lets hope they stay safe and one day they return.

Pair 5.
Unfortunately this pair also didn't make it this year, we can't say for sure but predation was the most likely reason for failing, this pair also have little or no choice to nest near mature sitka spruce plantation and face a gigantic challenge to rear young every year. This is very disappointing for this pair after such a successful year last year, lets hope they stay safe over the winter and return next year to give breeding another go next year.

Pair 6.
This pair are similar to the other three pairs that didn't make it, and a clear pattern is obvious in all cases: sitka spruce/parents away from nests/predation. This has become an all too common occurrence. Pair 6 didn't have their best year in their debut year in the Hen Harrier Diaries, they also didn't make it across the line, we believe they they failed at the early chick stage, lets hope they return next year and have a better time of it.


For the young Harriers born this year they are now exploring the world on their own and face the biggest challenge of their short lives surviving their first winter, hopefully the will grace our skies on the hills again next spring. It's now onto the The Irish Hen Harrier Winter survey where we will keep you updated along the way, you can contribute directly to the conservation of the Hen Harrier by reporting any sighting of a Hen Harrier to harriers@ahg.gov.ie.


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                                                                                                            Hen Harrier Ireland.

Hen Harrier Diaries: Entry No. 7

The Hen Harriers from the Hen Harrier Diaries have been working vigorously over the last few weeks to provide sufficient food for their young chicks, unfortunately it has not been all plain sailing for three of our pairs.

Pair 1. Penny.

Penny and her male companion are going from strength to strenght and are kept extremely busy providing for their young chicks, at this moment in time it's unclear exactly how many chicks Penny has or what stage they are at, we do know that Penny is still not sharing the workload of providing food for the chicks and spends the majority of her time at the nest, it could well be that her chicks are still relatively young or it could be that the male ( he is a super male ) is providing a sufficient amount of prey for Penny to remain at the nest with her young, hopefully we will have news of fledglings for the next update.

Pair 2. Heather's Mom and Dad.

Things are not looking good for Heather's Mom and Dad it's looks like they may not have been successful in their breeding attempt this year, previous watches have not provided us with any activity around their territory and both male and female have not been seen since our last update, we will monitor the situation over the coming days and weeks and hopefully we will have some positive news on the pair for the next update.

Pair 3. The Glen Nesters.

There is an element of mystery and uncertainty surrounding and specialists, their tranquil Glen has been the subject of intruders (other harriers) since the start of the breeding season,and as believed in previous updates that the female was incubating eggs, we are now almost certain that she is not incubating eggs and has possibly abandoned her breeding attempt before it ever started, the last sighting of the female was on the 27 of april and there has been no sighting of the male in weeks, it's possible with all this activity in her territory that she decided to abandoned this year's breeding attempt in this territory,maybe they have tried their luck somewhere nearby, we will continue to search the surrounding area and we will keep you updated on our findings.

Pair 4.

This pair chicks are not far off fledging, and both male and female are kept extremely busy providing food for their chicks,this is absolutely brilliant news for this pair as in previous years their chicks have always been the last to fledge, they clearly are on top of their game this year, hopefully we will have news of the first chicks fledged from Hen Harrier Diaries 2016 for the next update.

Pair 5.

It's highly probable that pair 5 have been unsuccessful with this year's breeding attempt, as with pairs 2 and 3 there has been little or no activity around the nest over the last few weeks, we have witnessed a male in the vicinity a few times but he was showing no interest in the nest, both the male and female were seen flying together on the 16th of June about one kilometre away from the nest this was ominous sign, as with the other pairs we will monitor  the situation closely and keep you updated on developments. 

Pair 6.

As we have been focusing the majority of our time trying to establish the exact status and whereabouts of pairs two three and five, we haven't dedicated as much time on pair 6 we would have liked however we can report that as of last week the female was still present at her nest and was seen defending it from Hooded Crow, we will focus all our attention on this pair over the coming days and we will keep you updated.

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                                                                                                   Hen Harrier Ireland 

 

Hen Harrier Diaries: Entry No. 6

After an extremely busy few months we have finally decided on the six pairs we are going to follow for the Hen Harrier Diaries 2016, the six pairs are all situated in territories from the Stacks to Mullaghariek Mountains Special Protection Area for Hen Harriers, after a few anxious moments at the start of the breeding season all six pairs settled down and are well on their way with their breeding attempt with the females either incubating eggs and some even have young chicks.

Introducing the pairs:

Pair 1. Penny.

The young female from the 2015 Hen Harrier Diaries, Penny had an outstanding season last year rearing three beautiful young Hen Harriers, and again this year she is off to a flyer, she has chosen to nest relatively close to last year's nest and is in close proximity to a mature sitka spruce plantation, this is a treacherous location with an abundance of predators lurking nearby, she is currently incubating eggs and we believe she might have at least one chick, the male is now either landing in the nest with food or dropping it straight into the nest this is a good indication that they might be young in the nest.

Pair 2. Heather's Mom and Dad.

It's wonderful to see this pair back again this year for another attempt at breeding, hopefully they can produce something the same as last year. These two are really making us work hard to find the exact nest location, hopefully for the next update we will have the nest located and maybe even news of chicks in the nest. 

Pair 3. The Glen Nesters.

These two are professionals at rearing young, rearing three chicks last year, they have again chosen the secluded Glen as their preferred nesting location, the secluded Glen was thrown into chaos at the start of the breeding season with another male and female present, the resident male had to use every ounce of energy to show his unwanted guests who the king of this Glen was, all is peaceful now in the Glen, and the female is now incubating eggs while the male is kept busy keeping a watchful eye over his territory and providing his female with food.

Pair 4.

This pair have again decided to nest in the same location as the previous two years, it's an area where turf cutting is active, last year they reared one chick. Two pairs were active here at the start of the breeding season and we could possible have two pairs, hopefully we will have more information on the second pair for next update, the female of the resident pair is currently incubating eggs, the male is kept busy supplying food for the female and defending his territory from any intruders.

Pairn 5.

After an outstanding breeding season last year rearing 3 Beautiful chicks pair 5 are back again this year, hopefully they can produce the same result again result as last year, they have again decided to nest close to last years nest on a steep slope of gorse and heather, this female is also incubating eggs while the male is extremely busy evicting other males from a neighbouring territories out of his territory.

Pair 6.

This is a new pair to the Hen Harrier Diaries, they nest in a territory that has records of Hen Harriers breeding as far back as 1955, their preferred nesting location is also a steep Glen covered in heather bramble and bog myrtle, they had an excellent year last year rearing 4 chicks, after a few anxious moments at the start of the breeding season when the female had not returned, she finally returned to take her place alongside the male and is now incubating eggs, the is male is keeping a close eye on proceedings, returning with food and occasionally to check that all is well in his domain.

The Hen Harrier Diaries: Entry No. 5

The Hen Harrier breeding season is now in full swing, with birds occupying all four territories checked over the last week.

One of the sites checked was the territory of Penny the young female from the Hen Harrier Diaries 2015, Penny and her male companion are now both present, with the male affectionately following her every move, the male is doing everything he can ti impress Penny with some spectacular sky dancing and so far she seems to be impressed.

The second site that was checked has produced some anxious moments during previous watches, this is the site where records of Harriers breeding date back as far as 1955 ( as reported in the Hen Harrier Diaries: Entry No 4) it was a huge relief to finally see both male and female present, hopefully they can now settle down and continue the long tradition of Harriers breeding here.

On our arrival at the 3rd site we had two males and a female circling simultaneously. With one male departing the region the remaining birds were then able to concentrate on the job at hand, with the remaining male caring for the females every need, returning from a hunting foray with a Bank Vole tantalising the anxious female with food parcel, with the male hanging on to the prey for several minutes the female grew impatient and tried to wrestle the prey from the male's grasp, he eventually gave in to the female's request to release the prey. Hopefully we will have reports of  them nest building in our next update.

Elsewhere we checked a site that didn't have a breeding attempt last year, hopefully that will change this year, with both male and female occupying the territory at present, with both male and female checking out potential nesting sites hopefully they can soon find a suitable area for nesting.

                                                         Stay tuned for further updates.

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                                                                  Hen Harrier Ireland.