As you can imagine, it has been a pretty anxious time for us in North Tynedale. There is always the concern that something might happen to our birds as there has been human persecution on the site in recent years. Could something sinister have happened to our girl?
 
After Easter weekend, the weather turned, as reported in my last blog. Through the swirling mist, we got a few ghostly glimpses of a ringtail – probably a female – quietly hunting over the whole estate. If it was our bird, she wasn’t behaving like a female harrier with eggs.
 
And the male? He hadn’t been seen since Easter Monday, but as soon as the first sun rays in a week hit the hills on Friday evening (17 April), he was back and skydancing.
 
“Fickle” has been used a lot over the last week to describe hen harriers. Perhaps that’s not fair. We may not always be able to make sense of their behaviour, but there will be logic to it that we cannot appreciate or know. And, I suppose, that’s what makes observing these birds so enthralling – the unexpected skydancing, the quick delivery of food (blink and you'll miss it), and yes, even when they go AWOL.
 
A Secret Nest?
Over last weekend (17 April) the good weather continued so we monitored the hills from dawn to dusk. By keeping close watch over the whole of the site, we would be able to confirm whether there was a secret nest. When the female hen harrier is incubating eggs, her mate will only visit a few times during the day with food. We could easily miss these food passes – it is, after all, quite a large area with many hillocks obscuring the line of sight and plenty of healthy, thick heather suitable for nesting in.
 
Our male bird impressed us with his skydancing on Saturday and Sunday but he did not lead us to the female. She did, however, make a brief appearance which was reassuring. By Sunday afternoon we could fairly confidently say that it is unlikely there is a nest. For now.
 
Why?
We cannot explain the change in behaviour of our harriers but we have no reason to think they weren't responding to some natural force. Perhaps after the hardest winter in 18 years, the male bird could not find enough food during the critical stage around egg-laying (the female needs to be pumped with protein during this time). Or, could a fox have destroyed their nest? Who knows.
 
But, it is still early days and we are hopeful that the fortunes of the Northumberland hen harriers could change - again.