141 hen harrier chicks have fledged in England this 12 months – the seventh 12 months in a row that numbers have elevated – in line with statistics launched by Pure England.
Hen harriers are uncommon and birds of prey which have develop into an icon for conservation and Nature restoration in England. They’re lovely, placing birds, with a wingspan of over a metre. In Spring they interact in sleek, dramatic ‘sky dancing’ courtship shows, as effectively a ‘throw and catch’ transfers of meals between airborne birds.
The rise in hen harrier chicks efficiently fledging implies that 2023 is one other document 12 months, following 119 chicks recorded from nests in County Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Yorkshire in 2022. There are actually extra hen harriers in England since they had been misplaced as a breeding species round 200 years in the past.
Hen harriers had been pushed to extinction throughout mainland Britain through the nineteenth century as the results of unlawful persecution and disturbance, solely starting to recolonise through the 1960’s. Only a decade in the past there have been no hen harriers nesting efficiently in England.
Hen Harrier, copyright Glyn Sellors, from the surfbirds galleries
Pure England Chair Tony Juniper mentioned: The persevering with 12 months on 12 months improve within the variety of hen harriers fledging from English nests is implausible to see, and reveals how via partnership work it’s doable to reverse Nature’s decline, even in essentially the most difficult of circumstances. The encouraging numbers we see once more this 12 months are testomony to the volunteers, landowners and companion organisations who’ve labored so laborious to assist and monitor these birds. Right now’s information is, nevertheless, overshadowed by persevering with unlawful persecution, which regardless of all the nice apply amongst many landowners nonetheless stubbornly persists. We know that rather more must be performed to guard these valuable birds and stay completely dedicated to working with our companions to stamp out the despicable killing of those great creatures that convey a lot pleasure to so many individuals. We’ll proceed to work laborious, bettering monitoring and conservation administration to attain long run restoration.
In 2023, 54 nests had been recorded (up from 49 final 12 months), of which 36 had been profitable (34 final 12 months). This represents a mean of three.9 chicks per profitable nest. Northumberland had the best variety of nesting makes an attempt, 17 in complete and the best improve on the 12 months earlier than the place 9 nests had been recorded. The Yorkshire Dales and Nidderdale space additionally remained a powerful maintain with 15 nests recorded in 2023.
The fledglings recorded this 12 months contains 24 brood-managed chicks, taken from six nests on grouse moors and reared to fledging in captivity. The brood administration programme is an experiment to see if eradicating hen harrier chicks from grouse moors for rearing in captivity for later launch reduces battle with sport capturing and reduces persecution sufficiently to permit populations to get well. Pure England is dedicated to a full scientific investigation of this system and the brood administration trial has just lately been prolonged to additional perceive the influence this has had on their conservation.
Regardless of this progress, unlawful killing of birds of prey stays a severe and ongoing subject which Pure England is working alongside the police and Nationwide Wildlife Crime Unit to deal with.
Pure England’s work to guard, monitor and assist numbers of hen harriers is a part of the Hen Harrier Motion Plan. This contains plenty of actions to allow hen harriers to thrive, reminiscent of a undertaking to reintroduce the birds to southern England, licences for diversionary feeding and improved satellite tv for pc monitoring.
