In May a pair of hen harriers set up home on National Trust moorlands in the Peak District and laid a clutch of eggs.
Five hen harrier chicks hatched, but the male harrier disappeared in early June. In exceptional circumstances, the chicks were raised by the female on her own.
This is only the second time hen harriers have raised young in the Peak District in the last 130 years.
Online diary
A round-the-clock watch was set up to protect the birds. We charted their progress in an online diary written by the team’s co-ordinator, Helen Armstrong.
9 November 2006
The young harriers are now spread out around the country. One has been sighted as far away as Hampshire and another was seen hunting around the Peak District only recently. The birds will soon be settling into regular winter roost sites, and hopefully we will see them returning to the Upper Derwent Valley in spring next year.
18 August 2006
The young harriers have been visiting every corner of the park, making radio tracking them far from easy. Their habit of hunting in the cloughs takes them out of range of the receivers, no matter how high you are standing. But we have managed to locate some of the juveniles on most days, and occasionally managed to catch up with them to watch them quartering the bracken beds and tall heather, and occasionally catching a pipit.
© National Trust
28 July 2006
The young hen harrier family is now well and truly grown up. All five juveniles are hunting for themselves and spending lots of time exploring on their own, becoming more independent every day. Some of the youngsters may stay in the Upper Derwent Valley over the coming months, while others, most likely the males, may make their way to lowland coastal or marsh areas to spend their winter.
21 July 2006
The chicks are now starting to improve their hunting skills, and have been seen catching small prey for themselves. The rest of their time is spent swooping around the hillside, picking up bits of heather or peat in their talons and chasing each other around. The youngsters become particularly competitive with each other when the adult female brings prey to the nesting area.
14 July 2006
The last few days have been hot and sunny, so most of the female's hunting and the chicks' practice flights take place in the early morning and late afternoon in the cooler breezes. While still dependent on the adult female for food, all five of our young harriers have been spending time playfully chasing each other in the air, starting to hone their hunting techniques.
7 July 2006
Sunday’s thunder and lightning storm doesn’t seem to have had too much effect on the progress of our hen harrier nest. The chicks have been busy perfecting their flying skills this week, venturing further away from the nest and exploring the valley. Some of the young birds have started to accept food from the adult female by aerial food pass, showing off their agility in the air.
30 June 2006
A very exciting week for our young harriers – they have started to fledge! In a light breeze, the chicks can be seen swooping around the area close to the nest and interacting with each other in the air. Their landings aren’t very graceful yet, but there’s plenty of time to improve.
16 June 2006
The chicks are beginning to lose their downy feathers, which are gradually being replaced by their juvenile flight feathers. The weather has been very mixed this week, and Monday’s storm with thunder, lightning and huge hailstones was undoubtedly a challenge for our young hen harrier family.
© National Trust
9 June 2006
A spell of much improved weather has made hunting easier and plenty of food is being taken in for the five young chicks. As they get bigger and stronger, the adult female gets the opportunity to spend more time off the nest to stretch her wings and soar around the clough.
19 May 2006
Incubation of the eggs is well under way at the nest site in the Upper Derwent Valley. Hatching is expected to take place over the next few weeks.
The male harrier, very attentive and clearly a successful hunter, makes several visits a day to his female. Spectacular food passes take place as she ascends from the nest to greet him and accept his offering in mid air.
The birds continue to behave in a healthy manner, despite last week's wet and windy weather.
© RSPB / Andy Hay
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Working to restore habitats for birds like the hen harrier
In the UK, breeding of hen harriers is almost entirely restricted to heather moorlands, the quality of which has declined due to over-grazing, atmospheric pollution and inappropriate burning.
We have been working with our tenants to restore areas of degraded moor in the Peak District and to create the moorland habitat that birds like hen harriers require.
The protection scheme has been mounted by the National Trust, English Nature and the RSPB, with additional funding from BASC (British Association of Shooting Conservation) and support from the moorland tenant.
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Hen harrier fact file
- Male hen harriers are pale grey, females and young birds are brown with a white rump and a long, barred tail which gives them the name 'ringtail'. They fly with wings held in a shallow 'V', gliding low in search of food.
- In the UK, breeding is almost entirely restricted to heather moorlands, especially where there is old, deep heather. Young conifer plantations are also used. Moors managed for grouse shooting are particularly attractive to hen harriers because they have vegetation of mixed ages.
- The hen harrier lives in open areas with low vegetation. In the breeding season, UK birds are to be found on the upland heather moorlands of Wales, Northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland (as well as the Isle of Man). In winter, they move to lowland farmland, heathland, coastal marshes, fenland and river valleys.
- Hen harriers eat mainly small birds and mammals.
- They arrive back on upland breeding areas from late March and stay there until August and September.
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