Heather makes herself at home in South Cork

Since arriving in South Cork after an epic journey from Kerry to Wicklow to Northern Ireland, Heather has set up a home range and appears to be making the most of her time along the southern coast of Ireland. A young harrier may travel in their first few months until they find a place that ticks all the boxes. They may then establish a home range, visiting the same areas on a daily basis before returning back to their roost every evening. Interestingly, Heather has found a friend in the form of a wing-tagged harrier now in her fifth winter. It is hoped that Heather will learn from this older bird, about where all the good places to go are.

Heather is in a good area for the two basic requirements of any young harrier's early days of independent life - food and shelter. The tillage landscape, including stubble fields of oats, wheat and barley provide food in the form of rodents. Hopefully no poisons are being used in these fields. In Ireland, tillage fields are not as big as they would be for example in Britain and the amount of hedgerows we have in our tillage landscape is very important in supporting wildlife also. It is important that the scrubby areas that have been left alone for years are retained as an important reservoir of biodiversity.

It is interesting to see that Heather is again making some short forays out to sea before returning again. Is she thinking of leaving these shores or will the draw of food along the south Cork coast keep her in Ireland?



One of Heather's daily runs in South Cork. Click to enlarge



Heather astounds!

Heather has now travelled from Kerry to Kildare, to Wicklow, to Meath, Armagh, Louth and now Cork!

Heather has astounded us with her latest movements. Having travelled as far as Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, she took a handbrake turn and headed all the way south to County Cork, on the southernmost shores of this island. Indeed she even travelled offshore for a while, leaving her roost on Saturday morning and heading 7km out to sea!! She turned back in again and spent the day hunting the tillage and beet fields along the coast.

Heather is now in good company too! She has met with an old friend of ours, a female that was wing tagged in 2009, now over four years old. How have they found the very same roost, more than 300km from Heather's furthest north roosting point? Did they meet up somewhere along the way, is this why Heather too a sudden change in direction? Is it weather driven (there were slight northerly winds for Heather's journey south)? Is it just hard-wired into the birds to travel to these destinations? Is it habitat driven (certainly both are in wonderful autumn harvest habitat now)? Is Heather thinking of leaving Ireland?

Stay tuned!!

Heather makes massive travels

Hen Harriers bring you on a roller coaster of emotion. 

Less than a week after the lowest low of finding Sally dead, the highest high - a close encounter with Heather - on the other side of the island!

On the evening of Friday 30 August, after telling the individual stories of Sally and Heather on Ireland's national radio station (to listen, click here), I headed straight for Wicklow Mountains National Park, where Heather had spent the previous two weeks on the heather moorland (poignantly, given the death of her sister Sally, she spent most of her time around an area called the Sally Gap). I stayed overnight in the national park and at 0400hrs checked the satellite data from Heather's tag to see where she was roosting in anticipation that I might be able to see her leave her Wicklow roost at first light. 

So, when I logged in to see where she was, imagine my surprise when I saw that she was in County Meath! I sat into my car and began the journey to the Royal County, through Dublin City with very quiet streets. I reached her roosting place just as it was getting bright and was afraid that I had arrived a little too late.. she may have already left. I stood at the gate of a field of freshly harvested oats and watched more in hope than expectation. At 0620hrs, there she appeared!! She was just taking off from the ground, flying over some oilseed rape and gaining height. The sight of this bird, now much bigger than when I saw her last, was enough to take my breath away! It is difficult to describe the feeling that came over me, seeing her there - the two of us over 250km from where we had last seen each other during the summer. A change of landscape from heather mountain and forestry, to tillage and oak trees. An awful lot of ground covered in between. She came back into view again at 0659hrs in front of a rising sun, being mobbed by two rooks as she glided beautifully over the same field.

Heather continued travelling in that direction and yesterday morning rose from roost on the shores of Lough Neagh, in Northern Ireland!! Over 300km from home, she was now far closer to Scotland than to her native Kingdom of Kerry. Incredible. At the time of writing, Heather has started to turn back south and is currently in South County Armagh, around Keady. We all hope the Armagh folk are good to this special Kerry girl!

Sally Dies

 There are no words that can describe the loss of Sally, because she represented so much. She represented herself - a beautiful young Hen Harrier; she represented her species and she represented the hopes of bringing the Hen Harrier's ecology and conservation in Ireland to the general public.

After leaving her heather nest, Sally was in explorative mood, covering large tracts of her native County Kerry and making the Stack's Mountains her home for some time before returning to her nest site further east to find her parents and siblings had long since departed. She continued into County Cork, travelling through the Duhallow area and then into County Limerick, where she spent less than a week before succumbing to starvation. She lay at the edge of a Cladium fen in West Limerick, unable to go on any further, exhausted and greatly underweight, almost half the weight she was on 13 July. 

The first steps in life for any bird of prey are fraught with danger and learning how to find and catch your own food is a most difficult skill to master. However, satellite tracking here is highlighting the disadvantages that Hen Harriers in Ireland are faced with on top of all this. Sally was just 72 days old on the day that she died. Of 10 Hen Harriers that have been satellite tracked in Ireland now, 0 have yet made it to 100 days old. In Britain, 70% of many more sat tagged harriers have made it past 100 days. 

There are no other words that can really be said, even a week on since Sally's death. It is hoped that her early fall, along with so many other young harriers in Ireland will highlight the conservation issues facing the species in Ireland.

All hopes and fears now rest with Sally's younger sister Heather.

Sally's Journey

Sally on the Shannon Estuary, Heather in the Dublin Mountains

Sally has travelled from Kerry, to Cork, to Limerick and is now on the Shannon Estuary, making use of the farmland, scrub and hedgerows in the area.

Heather in West Limerick 24 August 2013

Heather is still in the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains, making use of the heather moorland there. It is interesting to see how close to the large suburban populations of Dublin she is!

Heather in Dublin Mountains, overlooking Dublin City 24 August 2013

Sally and Heather begin to make their own ways in life

It is a joy to report that Sally and her younger sister Heather are now making their own ways in life.

They have left the nest, where they were cared for by their parents from May to August and are now free spirits - the world is their oyster! So, where will they go?!

Sally in Munster, Heather in Leinster

Well, so far, Sally has been more the home bird, ranging around the Stack's and Mullaghareirk Mountains, making use of the hilly farmland in particular.

Sally's latest movements to 21 August 2013

Heather has so far been the more adventurous and made little work of a >200km journey to the other side of Ireland, on the east Coast. She even flew over our capital city Dublin and has now taken up residence on the heather moorland of Wicklow Mountains National Park!

Heather's latest movements to 21 August 2013, a Kerry girl in Dublin in August, just like Kerry football supporters!

The data coming from Heather and Sally's tags are not just letting us know where the birds are, but among other things also allow us to look at their use of habitat. All this information is vital if we are to save Hen Harriers from continuing to be lost from the Irish landscape.

Heather's habitat use of the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains 19 August 2013

So, where will Heather and Sally go next? Will they ever meet each other again? Yesterday Sally began to make moves in the same direction as Heather and is now in Limerick. Will they return to their home near Mount Eagle in Kerry? Who knows, lets just hope that they stay healthy and well. Be sure to keep an eye out for them on their travels and check in with the Hen Harrier Ireland blog for further updates.

Introducing: Sally and Heather!



Sally (left) and Heather (right) on the day they were fitted with satellite trackers



Sally and her younger sister Heather were born on the heathery slopes by Mount Eagle in Kerry in the summer of 2013.

Their parents were seen sky dancing (spectacular courtship displays) in the spring and soon after they settled on a nest location (Hen Harriers choose new nest locations every year) that they felt was safe to rear their young and was surrounded by good heather moorland, young forestry and farmland to find food for their young.

The father, a striking looking silver male was a very good hunter and the mother, a courageous brown bird was very protective of the nest if any predators like foxes or crows came to the nest. The father would let the mother know when he had food and she would rise from the nest where she minded her eggs and young, to meet him in the air and acrobatically flip upside down so that he could drop the food into her talons. She would then take the food back to the nest and piece by piece feed it to the young chicks who included Sally and Heather.

Sally and Heather as young chicks in the nest

Sally and Heather grew strong with the help of their parents and just before they left the nest, they were each fitted with a lighweight satellite tracker so that we could follow their lives and find out what is happening to our Hen Harriers when they are trying to make their way in Ireland. The information derived will be directly useful in informing conservation efforts and will surely provide some interesting facts that we do not already know about the individual lives of two sisters.

Over the coming weeks, months and hopefully years, you can follow the progress of Sally and Heather as they make their ways in life. Hang on for the ride!

Sally with the antenna of the small satellite tag showing on her back

Sally and Heather are named by the local school children of Duhallow after the the two most important features on the landscape for Hen Harriers - Willow trees (Sally trees) and Moorland (Heather).