Blogs

It's Monday morning and I'm recovering from a fun, if slightly damp and muddy Sunday at Newton Rigg College's Countryside Day, near Penrith. There was plenty to see and do from all aspects of the countryside from den building to tractor rides, clay pigeon shooting to wildlife gardening, and...

The Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Scotland , have launched the Heads up for Harriers scheme - their own version of the Hen Harrier Hotline - and are appealing for members of the public to send in their sightings of hen harriers across Scotland. They have said: As the Partnership...

The excitement was palpable 10 days ago when I took a call from Mick (the RSPB’s Assistant warden) to say that a food pass had been seen between a male and female harrier on the United Utilities estate. I could almost feel my pulse quicken with excitement, the first food pass in two years, this...

It feels like a while since I last put fingers to keyboard to bring you some news from the United Utilities estate in the Forest of Bowland so now we have reached the end of the first week of April it seems like a good time to give you an update on what’s been going on in this part of the country...

Across the uplands of Northumberland Spring has not sprung and the land seems locked down. In North Tynedale, only the crossbill and that honorary raptor, the raven, appear impervious to the snow and the ice and the incessant east wind (indeed the crossbills have been seen with juveniles in their loose...

Steve Garnet is the Moorland Warden at RSPB's Geltsdale reserve near the Cubria-Northumberland border, an area of prime hen harrier habitat. The last successful nest was in 2006, with persistently few hen harriers ever since, but who knows - could this be the year they make their return...? So...

Check out these amazing knitted hen harriers! Inspired by the Skydancer project, enterprising volunteers Fariha and Siobhán picked up their knitting needles and created these fantastic hen harrier hand puppets for our education volunteers to use in primary schools. The puppets have been...

Despite the ice and snow, it was a glorious day at Geltsdale yesterday. It's been a better winter for roosting hen harriers this year than it has been for a long time, so as the landscape gradually thaws, we're keeping fingers and toes crossed that some stick around to breed. Just picture...

Stephen Temperley returns to Skydancer this month, reprising his role coordinating the North Tynedale hen harrier nest protection project. As the breeding season gets underway in earnest, he has some positive early news... Greetings from the RSPB Species Protection Coordinator for Northumberland!...

In winter evenings, hen harriers group together in communal roosts of anywhere between 2 and 10 birds, sometimes bedding down with other birds of prey, particularly marsh harriers. (c) Andy Davis, 2012

A female hen harrier carries a tasty vole back to her winter roosting spot on the Dee Estuary. (c) Andy Davis, 2012

Pupil from West Woodburn First School, Northumberland, takes a break from investigating moorland plants to scout out some birds flying above the moor.

Female hen harrier near her nest - photo by James Leonard

A male hen harrier takes a dive at the camera - photo by Amy Challis, Bowland 2008

Pupils at Hallbankgate Village School colour in their very own hen harriers.

Children at West Woodburn First School practice their skydancing, as part of a Skydancer outreach visit.

Hen harrier chicks photographed in a nest in Wales, in 2009, by Jude Lane, Bowland Project Officer in a previous job.

View from The Gun Inn, North Tynedale, on our volunteer training evening for the hen harrier nest protection project.