The Hen Harrier’s Year THE HEN HARRIER’S YEAR Ian Carter and Dan Powell PELAGIC PUBLISHING Published by Pelagic Publishing 20–22 Wenlock Road London N1 7GU, UK www.pelagicpublishing.com The Hen Harrier’s Year ISBN 978-1-78427-385-9 Paperback ISBN 978-1-78427-386-6 ePub ISBN 978-1-78427-384-2 PDF https://doi.org/10.53061/OPFD3750 Text © Ian Carter 2022 Illustrations and artist’s notes © Dan Powell 2022 The moral rights of the author and artist have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Apart from short excerpts for use in research or for reviews, no part of this document may be printed or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, now known or hereafter invented or otherwise without prior permission from the publisher. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library Cover: A male takes over guard duty as the female returns to the nest To the watchers on the hill CONTENTS Foreword by Roger Riddington xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 January 15 Communal roosting 15 Distribution in winter 17 February 21 Hunting behaviour 21 Foraging range from roost sites 24 Winter habitats 27 History and status in Britain 32 The long decline 32 Seeds of recovery? 36 March 41 Breeding habitats 41 Setting up territory 45 First-time breeders 46 April 49 Food in early spring 49 The skydancing display 50 Vocalisations 56 Copulation and nest-building 56 Nesting in trees 58 vii THE HEN HARRIER’S YEAR May 61 Incubation and hatching 61 Legal protection and nest visits 67 Polygynous breeding 68 June 77 The food pass 77 Nestling development and brood reduction 84 Food in the breeding season 85 Conflict on the grouse moors 90 A unique situation 90 Driven grouse shooting 91 The role of science and technology 92 The killing fields 94 Possible solutions and a way forward? 98 July 107 The growing brood 107 Foraging range from the nest 108 Moult 111 August 113 First flight 113 Towards independence 115 Breeding productivity 116 September 123 Wanderlust – movements and migration 123 October 127 The benefits of communal roosting 127 November 133 Winter food 133 Daily food requirements 135 Threats and survival 136 Land management 136 viii CONTENTS Poisoning 137 Collisions and disturbance 138 Deaths from natural causes 140 Life expectancy 142 December 145 Visiting a communal roost 145 Influence of weather conditions 147 The wider picture 152 World status 152 Prospects for the future 153 Further reading 158 Sources of further information 162 Species mentioned in the text 164 Index 168 ix