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After a disappointing spring/summer for hen harriers at Geltsdale this year, it is now time to turn our efforts and eyes to different roost sites. This work is incredibly important to get an indication of numbers of birds using the area over winter and to act as a protective presence at certain sites. Any bird, which successfully survives the winter months, can then go on to be a potential breeder.

Hen hariers need quiet areas to roost that offer cover and shelter, areas that are relatively undisturbed by potential predators or human activity. Harriers can roost in tall heather or in marshy areas with plenty of Juncus (rush). Although spending the night with our feet in ice cold bog doesn't sound very apealing to us, it is a case of the the wetter the better regarding roosting harriers (foxes don't like getting their feet wet either) as these areas offer greater protection. So, this time of year, we dust off our bivy bags and sit out watching these areas on the reserve and in the wider area, with the help of a fantastic team of volunteers.

Roosts can be communal, with birds coming in from afar. Winter hunting grounds cover a much wider range than in the summer months. Depending on the weather, hen harriers usually come into roost before sunset. It is a great sight, picking up a hen harrier way off in the distance and then following it as it flies closer and closer to you before it comes down to roost in the patch you are watching. Birds can of course come in at different times and a radio-tagged bird has in the past been detected flying around in the dark before it came down to roost, long after it could be detected by sight.

During October, we had a few sightings of a grey male foraging on the meadow behind the office/visitor centre, giving some brilliant views of this graceful bird to staff and visitors alike. A ring-tail has also roosted on the reserve and we have had 5 sightings of roosting harriers at the different sites watched within a 20 mile radius of the reserve. A grey male has also been roosting regularly at RSPB Campfield reserve on the Solway coast.

The hen harrier hot line is open all year round - your records are invaluble! So please send in any sightings. 0845 4600121 henharriers@rspb.org.uk  The root watches will be carried out until march, so expect another blog at the beginning of next month, hopefully with more harriers to report.

Well, very sad to relate, all the harrier activity this spring eventually came to nought. The late immature pairing didn’t settle to nest, and although the young male was seen sporadically in the area throughout June, we had no more sightings of any females. This has been so disappointing, especially in view of the desperately poor breeding season that hen harriers have experienced across England in 2009. We can only hope that next year ‘our’ harriers will return to breed at Geltsdale a little sooner in the spring. Sightings from birders on the hen harrier hotline (0845-4600121 or e-mail henharriers@rspb.org.uk) will again be crucial in our efforts to locate and protect breeding birds as early as possible. The hotline is, in fact, in operation year-round, and sightings during the autumn and winter are also really valuable as we try to monitor and protect communal roost sites.

Other species on the Reserve, however, have generally fared very well this season. Breeding pairs of short-eared owl, dunlin, whinchat and ring ouzel are all up on 2008 figures – very pleasing. Our peregrines and ravens both successfully fledged young in close proximity (in the past, competition for the prime nest site has often meant that the ravens lose out). Numbers of breeding golden plover, curlew, merlin, wheatear and even cuckoo are all holding steady. Our number of lekking black grouse was slightly down on the 2008 counts, but after two consecutive ‘wash-out’ summers this is hardly surprising. However, with a dry June and early July this year, productivity is much higher, so we’re hoping for a big increase again in 2010. The only real ‘losers’ this year have been stonechat (down by over 60%) and spotted flycatchers (apparently a decline noticed in many places in the north of England). As residents, moorland fringe stonechats are particularly susceptible to cold winters – and last winter was certainly a chilly one. I wonder if that other cold-vulnerable resident, the Dartford warbler, fared any better down on the southern heaths..?

Well, finally, back to harriers again. August and September are usually good months for harrier spotting here at Geltsdale, as breeding adults and juveniles pass through as they disperse to wintering grounds. In the last few days we’ve already logged an adult male and a female heading south across the Reserve. We usually also get a number of marsh harrier sightings at around this time of year (largely juvenile birds), sometimes hunting in close proximity to their smaller cousins. So I’m eagerly looking forward to some good harrier action in the next month or two…

Well, the last four or five weeks have certainly been a real ‘harrier roller-coaster ‘ here on Geltsdale!  And what a convoluted saga it’s been; all the harder to make sense of since the birds decided set up residence in a remote gulley that we couldn’t actually view without getting so close that we might inadvertently unsettle the birds – something we obviously wanted to avoid at all costs. This, then, is a brief summary of the events that unfolded: 

An immature male (still in his beige, ‘ring-tail’ livery) was observed holding territory and building so-called ‘cock’s nests’ in a very remote part of the reserve. Cock’s nests are made by males from heather sprigs, to impress potential partners with their house-keeping abilities and readiness to breed (these ‘nests’ are never actually used to lay eggs in, as the female always builds her own nest).

At about the same time, a much darker, big adult female had also been sighted in the same area, and at least one food transfer between the two was seen. However, no sustained sky-dancing or tandem gliding was ever witnessed (though any copulation would probably not have been observed because of our restricted vantage points).

At this stage, round-the-clock surveillance was swiftly set up in order to protect both birds from any accidental/deliberate disturbance or persecution. The male was regularly seen foraging, carrying food back to the nest gulley, and even continuing to build ‘cock’s nests’ (rather unusual behaviour at this stage). However, sightings of the female, always scarce, seemed to dry up completely.

We hoped that this was because she was sitting tight whilst incubating. But after a week without seeing her we became concerned that she might not actually be there anymore.

In addition, the male was now suddenly in full-blown sky-dancing mode. He was seen up to three kilometres away in high-level advertising display – the sort of behaviour one expects when a male is trying to pull a new female. Had he indeed seen another female in the area? And was the original female still there? Males can sometimes be polygamous, servicing and provisioning more than one nesting female. Perhaps we might even get two nests?

So eventually we decided we had to go in and check the nest gulley, to find out just what was happening. But, sadly, it was not what we had hoped for. We found only a single, long-abandoned egg lying in the heather. There was no real nest, with just a couple of bits of loose heather in the vicinity (almost looking as though they had been dropped in as an afterthought).

The female had obviously now deserted the site, leaving her one unhatched egg behind. This was indeed a bitter blow, given all our efforts. So, what had happened here? Was this a case of predation, not enough food being supplied by the male, or something else? All the observational and physical evidence has proved inconclusive, so we’ll probably never know the true cause of failure for sure. All in all, a most disheartening sequence of events for the whole wardening team.

But our disappointment soon turned to fresh hope, as our male was now to be seen in the company of a new female – herself also a young bird. Was this the bird he was earlier trying to impress with his spectacular aerobatic display? The birds were observed together sky-dancing, close tandem flying, and dropping into areas of leggy heather – all typical behaviour when birds are pair-bonding and looking to select a nest site. This activity continued for a couple of days across a large swathe of suitable ground, and optimism was again high.

However, frustratingly, since then we’ve had only sporadic sightings of solo ring-tails. And as our young harriers are both very pale-plumaged individuals, it is usually quite difficult to say which bird we’re watching unless they’re together for direct size comparison. No nest-building or food-carrying has yet been witnessed, so the signs, realistically, are not all that promising.

Even if they hang around, have these immature birds got the drive, experience and energy to embark on a risky nesting attempt at this late stage of the season? With every day that passes, the likelihood of success seems to be waning. But, who knows, there could still be yet another twist in this convoluted tale. And so we continue our long vigil in hope...

The heavy showers continue to pound the Bowland Fells, interspersed with sunny intervals. This makes life a bit more interesting! We currently have two surveyors here on the estate, Colin and Peter, undertaking moorland bird surveys for us. The methodology of the survey states that surveying shouldn’t be carried out in winds of greater than force 3, or when there is any rain. This immediately rules out any kind of survey work for half the time(!) though doesn’t stop us monitoring the birds of prey.

For the last two years we have had a camera on a hen harrier nest, showing recorded images of the activities of the harriers at the Bowland Visitor Centre, Beacon Fell. This is a partnership between RSPB and United Utilities, and Lancashire County Council Countryside Service and Natural England. The nest camera is nearly ready to go into action this weekend, after a visit by contractors to service and check the equipment ten days ago. This revealed that two small, but very important, pieces of equipment were faulty. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any spares with them, but I did receive replacements the next day. A round trip of nearly fours hours to the equipment on the fell to replace the gear, and everything was working - phew. Lets just hope it stays that way!

Last time I mentioned a possible sixth hen harrier nest. I’m pleased to say that this was confirmed just a couple of days later. Now, I’ve just heard of a possible seventh nest… Again this needs to be followed up. A job for tomorrow, me thinks.

On the downside, one of our early nests looks as though it might have failed. Observations from a distance have shown the female spending long periods of time off the eggs, hunting. A male (possibly the same that paired with this female, but we can’t prove it) is still being seen in the vicinity, but is not providing her with any food, hence the need for her to hunt for herself. Observations early this week showed her visiting the nest for only a few minutes during a two hour period.

Merlin have now crept up to four confirmed nests.

Thanks for reading

Pete

Great to hear about hen harrier nests elsewhere in England but of course we are all very disappointed in Northumberland where our harriers haven't had a successful season.

We hoped that the male hen harrier would start displaying again and pull in a new mate, but that hasn't happened, so far. However, we saw a male hen harrier towards the end of last week which was uplifting. Of course, it would help if he stayed put on the territory and made a bit of effort with some skydancing!

While he roams the hills, we keep watch for his return every day.

Having spent the last two and a half months staring at one hill, two hillocks and a belt of high crags, I am now very familiar with every bush on the skyline, every contour and every rock. This means that if one morning there appears an additional grey-white object on the landscape, I get very excited. It's a bit like someone adding a new plant to your garden during the night. The following day, you'd instantly know that something was different.

Of late, those occasions when a stone on a hillside becomes a male hen harrier, have been less frequent, but we don't give up.

I am extremely fortunate to have the help of volunteer wardens at the North Tynedale site. The hen harrier protection project would simply not be possible without the support of these dedicated individuals. At the moment I have more offers of help than I need as it is quiet, but it has been fantastic knowing that there are people living locally who are willing to step in and assist with the monitoring - often at short notice.

Even when there is not much activity, they put in a sterling effort, scanning the hills and sky and keeping detailed notes. They also monitor the other raptors in the area and, if nothing else, at least we are helping to keep the peregrine nest safe from human persecution. It takes a lot of commitment to keep turning up and putting in the hours when the chances of seeing a displaying harrier are becoming very slim.

Of course, there are other birds to enjoy when things are quiet on the harrier front. The peregrines are always about as are buzzards and kestrels, and occasionally we see goshawks and, at dusk, long-eared owls. Warblers and swallows have been around for quite a while and there are many other songbirds including stonechats, linnets and crossbills. Cuckoos have been calling for a few weeks. I frequently see deer bounding into the woods when I enter the site, and sometimes I spot the odd mischievous stoat darting across the sand stones at my observation point.

I've been joined by many tens of bees during my observations over the last few weeks which are attracted to the pink bilberry flowers. A few bees usually come over and politely check me out with a few circuits of my head before returning to foraging. The bilberry flowers are past their best now, but the lime green of their leaves and new bracken shoots are bringing colour to the hills.

Time marches on, and spring along with it. The heather clad slopes still look a dull winter brown, but the bilberry is growing apace, and is a stunning bright, fresh green, in contrast to the heather. The first cohort of chicks is beginning to appear out of the nests of stonechat, dipper, grey wagtail, meadow pipit, etc. And the male green hairstreak butterflies do battle with each other over the bilberry on sunny days.

Last week I took a group of college students for a guided walk on the estate. The weather was a bit wet and windy, and got progressively worse as we went up the moorland track. Try to imagine the scene: I’m doing my hardest to try and enthuse them with the joys of the uplands, but people are getting wetter and colder all the time. The cloud level is low, and then, suddenly, there’s an adult male hen harrier working his way along the slope just above us.

He seems to make light work of the conditions, gracefully taking the very wet and blustery conditions in his stride. By now most people are watching him intently, and a quiet buzz of excitement is apparent in some of them – this is one of the rarest breeding birds in England. Then, as suddenly as he appeared, he’s gone into the cloud.

These are the sort of moments I really enjoy, when you least expect something, you are rewarded for your patience.

Patience seems to be the key word this year. Last time I posted we had three nests with eggs confirmed, but this has crept up to five now, and we believe we have six nests – the heavy rain as I write preventing us from confirming this last one. Whilst we are still locating new nests, our first nest should now contain at least one or two chicks, and we will know for sure how many by the end of next week.

The first merlin nest of the year has also been located. This small falcon nests slightly later than many others, with egg laying usually starting  in the first week of May.

Hopefully have a few more nests to report next week!

Grey clouds tumbled through the North Tynedale site for much of last weekend and this week, but we did see a female and male hen harrier which was uplifting. The female bird swooped along the top of some crags before dipping below the ridge and... straight past a peregrine nest. When the harrier came back into view, she was being shown the door, as it were, by our male peregrine.

After no sightings of a female hen harrier for over a week, it was a shame she was given such a frosty reception. Hopefully, she'll be back soon.

As for our male hen harrier. He has gone AWOL, again. You will recall that he was not seen for 5 days a few weeks ago and then he returned so we've seen this before. We did get a brief glimpse on Sunday, though he appeared to head towards a nearby grouse moor. It is one of his regular hunting grounds but we'd like him to return home soon!

Hi everyone. Well, unfortunately no news is not good news when it comes to hen harriers! Things have gone worryingly quiet here on the harrier front – in fact, we’ve not had a single sighting on the Reserve for three weeks now (though a female was seen on low moss land to the north of Geltsdale last week). However, we still remain optimistic that there’s a chance of a late nesting attempt here for two main reasons:

1) Geltsdale often doesn’t get territorial or nesting birds until well into May. This is particularly the case in springs following a season with no nest(s). We’ve not had a nest here since 2006, so in the absence of any returning birds we’re dependent on unpaired (often immature) harriers which could turn up anytime before early June.
2) This spring, hen harrier action seems to be very late and slow nationwide. Even at Bowland, breeding activities are well behind previous years. Also, many harriers are still being seen at lowland/coastal sites even at this late stage, when one would have expected them to be back on their upland breeding grounds. There has been some speculation that this might be linked to prey availability, with the coldest winter in two decades having potentially depressed populations of field voles across the board. Studies have shown that field vole availability is a crucial factor influencing the settling of harriers early in the nesting season. Males rely heavily on these small rodents as a food source when they are courtship feeding their mates and provisioning her during incubation. Field vole populations generally run in a ‘boom-bust’ cycle of 3-5 years, with numbers building up to a peak then crashing before a steady recovery phase – and so on…However, these cycles can be quite localised, so areas as large as Geltsdale or Bowland may well have more than one population ‘block’, and these could be at different phases of the cycle. So, in theory, there will probably always be a part of the Reserve with a good vole density.  Having said all that, a severe winter could certainly reduce vole numbers en masse, and even ‘peak’ populations may then be too low to support a pair of nesting hen harriers. In such circumstances, harriers may:

· wander away from traditional breeding grounds in search of  an area with a better food supply
· suspend any breeding attempt for that year or
· delay breeding to coincide with a ready supply of passerine/wader/grouse chicks.

So, taking all these factors into consideration, there is certainly still a chance of things kicking off here at Geltsdale, and we continue on full steam ahead for the next month. And I’ll be sure to keep you posted on any developments…

We have two more harrier nests! This takes our total to three.

We still have birds present at two other sites, and possibly a third, which continue to show signs of pairing and possible nest building. But things really are very slow, with birds still seemingly unsettled. Speaking to others elsewhere in the country this week, this seems to be a common theme with hen harriers, as well as other birds of prey, with many people speculating about availability of prey species such as voles and meadow pipits.

Hen harriers, like most birds, are fascinating to watch and study, if you put the time in, revealing many aspects of behaviour that most people miss out on.  One of these aspects is sky dancing. However, there are other things…

Hen harriers have, what some people might consider, a ‘traditional’ relationship. That is, the female stays at home and looks after the kids, whilst the male does all the providing. However, and many people would also view this as being traditional, the female is undoubtedly the boss in this relationship - she decides where the nest is going to be, is always very demanding of the male, if there’s any sort of a threat she is the one that deals with it whilst the male hangs around in the background, and she won’t let him in the nest!

It is this last fact that provides us with one of the other spectacles that harriers provide – the aerial food pass. This is a ‘blink and you miss it’, sort of thing! But amazing to watch. As the male approaches the nest site, the female rises from the nest and intercepts the male. As she passes under him the male releases his prey, she twists over onto her side and catches the prey as it falls. The male flies on, off to catch something else, whilst the female either eats the food herself or feeds it to any chicks she may have.

Pete

Our hen harriers have given us much to puzzle over in the last few weeks. There is a temptation to speculate on what is not happening, which can be a head-spinning exercise. Picking up on the clues right in front of us is more telling. In particular, the behaviour of the male bird is significant.

The vigour of his skydances, his height and the frequency of displays can all help to make sense of the bigger picture. For instance, if there is no female in the immediate area, he may dance higher in the sky.

So what's our boy up to?

He hunts in the wider area over rough grassland and heather moorland, checking in every few hours with a fly-by and, on a number of occasions, a skydance. His skydancing has been fairly energetic at times which is a good sign. What does all this mean? Well, clearly this area is his patch and he considers it a pretty fine place for nesting - which it is. He is very much king of the castle here. Of course, there is no better location from which to monitor one's land than from the highest point. There he will sit in the sun and rain for an hour or two, just watching.

Though the drama of his dance is affected by the proximity of a female and/or the presence of another male, a blustery day can help transform a lazy skydance into something more thrilling. Under such conditions, he can really make a spectacle of himself, which is of course the point.

Last Sunday afternoon the wind got up and our male bird took lift out of the heather. The updraft pulled him from the vegetation and he was soon traversing the skyline in great tumbling loops. The increased velocity and added spin on the turn was impressive, and he seemed to know it!

I only hope his performance wasn't wasted on just me!

Easter Sunday: Hot and sunny, skylarks singing, early swallows flitting through the heather valley, buzzards circling, kestrels suspended above forest clearings, peregrines happily on eggs. And the harriers? It was as if they had never been here. No shrieking for food from the female and no sign of Mister.

Easter Monday: Male harrier back on site, skydancing urgently. Speculation mounts. Is our female now incubating a full clutch and the male is trying to woo a second mate?

Just when we needed fine whether to monitor the site closely, thick fog rolls in and doesn’t budge for two days. Visibility is thirty metres, fifty when a gust of wind momentarily clears the air. We sit in the fog and listen. And listen. But don’t hear anything.

Update

It has been a turbulent and anxious time on the North Tynedale site over the past few weeks. I’ve been working flat out with some dedicated volunteer wardens, keeping a close eye on the hen harriers and trying to interpret their behaviour and predict their next moves...

Where do I begin?

Rewind to 17 March. As noted in a previous blog, this was when our male hen harrier began skydancing. A few days later he successfully pulled in a mate. She even enjoyed a few skydances herself and generally things were getting pretty steamy between the pair. Since the beginning of April, they have been copulating, and nest building seemed imminent.

Nesting

Our male hen harrier was encouraging the female by picking up sprigs of heather and randomly dropping them. He also tried to lead her into his preferred nesting spot. She mostly ignored him or course. Perhaps she didn't like the view.

This is a critical time because when the female hen harrier is ready, she can very quickly build a nest and lay her first egg. Last year she did this all within an afternoon.

Now, supposing this happens out of view of our observation points, or, say, I am stranded in the Northumberland countryside next to a broken down car (frustrating, but as far as 'places to wait for the AA' go, a sunny field full of curlews and lapwings was not bad). Well, the point is, it would be easy to miss our girl setting up home.

In the run up to Easter weekend, it looked as if our birds may have had a nest. The female was springing out of the heather when the male returned with prey, and there was a lot of activity centred on one area of the site.

Our female hen harrier is very vocal and she has been calling incessantly to the male until he passes her (in mid-flight) the vole or meadow pipit he's just caught. Her begging calls are urgent - particularly so when he returns from a hunt empty handed (taloned?). He gets an ear load off her then.

So it was all looking pretty good. The team of nest watchers were mobilised and we were more or less ready. CCTV cameras, observation unit and flasks of tea at the ready.

It was, you might say, a perfect example of how a hen harrier courts and breeds.

And then, on Easter Sunday, it all went very quiet on the North Tynedale moors...

Hurrah! Brilliant, super, smashing, marvellous, … (add you own superlative here). No sooner than I publish a new post, we have our first confirmed hen harrier nest reported by fieldworkers on the UU estate. As far as I’m aware, this is the first hen harrier nest in England this year. Let’s hope for plenty more over the next few weeks.

Pete