Hen Harrier Poster Launched!

An attractive poster, with original artwork by leading Irish artist and naturalist Gordon D'Arcy has been commissioned by the National Parks & Wildlife Service of the Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht.

Anybody who is interested in receiving a copy can contact harriers@ahg.gov.ie 

We are particularly hoping to hear from schools who can follow this blog.

For more on education, see

http://henharrierireland.blogspot.ie/p/education.html

Heather Going Strong!

Heather has been based at her roost in South Cork now since early September.

She has set up a home territory and visits the same stubble fields virtually every day, occasionally checking out new places. It is good that she is familiar with the area now and knows where to get her food and where she can rest safely each night. She may well have learned of all these places from the older wing tagged bird, but she would of course have explored much herself also.

Last Tuesday night, Heather was seen during a dedicated watch on the Irish Hen Harrier Winter Survey, where she was seen to catch a prey item successfully, just before bedtime!

Irish Hen Harrier Winter Survey starts this week - Heather still at her Cork roost

The Irish Hen Harrier Winter Survey is now in its ninth season. Official roost watches start this week, on 01 October and each roost will be watched at least once a month from now until March, just before the breeding season kicks off again.

Just about everything that we know of the Hen Harrier's ecology and conservation during the non-breeding season stems from this national survey, which is co-ordinated and carried out by a dedicated team of surveyors, entirely on a vountary basis. If you would like to know more about the Irish Hen Harrier Winter Survey, click IHHWS

Hen Harriers often roost communally during the winter

We hope to make this season one of the best ever. Be sure to log any sightings with the survey co-ordinator. We are always looking for new volunteers to find and watch roosts to see how many harriers come in to roost. It truly is one of the most enjoyable and worthwhile surveys in Ireland today.

What happens during the non-breeding (or winter) season has direct bearing on our national population.
Consider our star harrier, Heather. If anything happens to Heather over the non-breeding season, then it is clear that this will mean another female harrier who could potentially rear young and sustain the population would be lost. If anything happens to Heather's roost in Cork, or more importantly if anything happens to the area that she is finding her food, what will happen?

This is why it is so important to (a) record any sightings (b) find roosts and (c) conduct long-term research to establish trends at individual roosts and overall across Ireland. This is what the people involved in the Irish Hen Harrier Winter Survey have been doing since 2005. What do we get in return? Some breathtaking encounters with wildlife, some amazing memories and the knowledge that our data is contributing directly to the conservation of one of our most iconic Irish birds.

Heather is 100 days old today!

Heather remains in her home range in South Cork. She seems happy here. It is great to see that she is the first Irish satellite tracked Hen Harrier to make it to 100 days old!!! She has had amazing journeys and stories so far, coming from a heather moor in Kerry to Kildare, Wicklow, Dublin, Louth, Meath, Armagh, Lough Neagh and finally settling on a wonderful part of South Cork, where waves crash against the cliffs and Gannets glide across the water. Here's to the next 100 Heather!!!

Heather makes herself at home in South Cork

Since arriving in South Cork after an epic journey from Kerry to Wicklow to Northern Ireland, Heather has set up a home range and appears to be making the most of her time along the southern coast of Ireland. A young harrier may travel in their first few months until they find a place that ticks all the boxes. They may then establish a home range, visiting the same areas on a daily basis before returning back to their roost every evening. Interestingly, Heather has found a friend in the form of a wing-tagged harrier now in her fifth winter. It is hoped that Heather will learn from this older bird, about where all the good places to go are.

Heather is in a good area for the two basic requirements of any young harrier's early days of independent life - food and shelter. The tillage landscape, including stubble fields of oats, wheat and barley provide food in the form of rodents. Hopefully no poisons are being used in these fields. In Ireland, tillage fields are not as big as they would be for example in Britain and the amount of hedgerows we have in our tillage landscape is very important in supporting wildlife also. It is important that the scrubby areas that have been left alone for years are retained as an important reservoir of biodiversity.

It is interesting to see that Heather is again making some short forays out to sea before returning again. Is she thinking of leaving these shores or will the draw of food along the south Cork coast keep her in Ireland?



One of Heather's daily runs in South Cork. Click to enlarge



Heather astounds!

Heather has now travelled from Kerry to Kildare, to Wicklow, to Meath, Armagh, Louth and now Cork!

Heather has astounded us with her latest movements. Having travelled as far as Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, she took a handbrake turn and headed all the way south to County Cork, on the southernmost shores of this island. Indeed she even travelled offshore for a while, leaving her roost on Saturday morning and heading 7km out to sea!! She turned back in again and spent the day hunting the tillage and beet fields along the coast.

Heather is now in good company too! She has met with an old friend of ours, a female that was wing tagged in 2009, now over four years old. How have they found the very same roost, more than 300km from Heather's furthest north roosting point? Did they meet up somewhere along the way, is this why Heather too a sudden change in direction? Is it weather driven (there were slight northerly winds for Heather's journey south)? Is it just hard-wired into the birds to travel to these destinations? Is it habitat driven (certainly both are in wonderful autumn harvest habitat now)? Is Heather thinking of leaving Ireland?

Stay tuned!!

Heather makes massive travels

Hen Harriers bring you on a roller coaster of emotion. 

Less than a week after the lowest low of finding Sally dead, the highest high - a close encounter with Heather - on the other side of the island!

On the evening of Friday 30 August, after telling the individual stories of Sally and Heather on Ireland's national radio station (to listen, click here), I headed straight for Wicklow Mountains National Park, where Heather had spent the previous two weeks on the heather moorland (poignantly, given the death of her sister Sally, she spent most of her time around an area called the Sally Gap). I stayed overnight in the national park and at 0400hrs checked the satellite data from Heather's tag to see where she was roosting in anticipation that I might be able to see her leave her Wicklow roost at first light. 

So, when I logged in to see where she was, imagine my surprise when I saw that she was in County Meath! I sat into my car and began the journey to the Royal County, through Dublin City with very quiet streets. I reached her roosting place just as it was getting bright and was afraid that I had arrived a little too late.. she may have already left. I stood at the gate of a field of freshly harvested oats and watched more in hope than expectation. At 0620hrs, there she appeared!! She was just taking off from the ground, flying over some oilseed rape and gaining height. The sight of this bird, now much bigger than when I saw her last, was enough to take my breath away! It is difficult to describe the feeling that came over me, seeing her there - the two of us over 250km from where we had last seen each other during the summer. A change of landscape from heather mountain and forestry, to tillage and oak trees. An awful lot of ground covered in between. She came back into view again at 0659hrs in front of a rising sun, being mobbed by two rooks as she glided beautifully over the same field.

Heather continued travelling in that direction and yesterday morning rose from roost on the shores of Lough Neagh, in Northern Ireland!! Over 300km from home, she was now far closer to Scotland than to her native Kingdom of Kerry. Incredible. At the time of writing, Heather has started to turn back south and is currently in South County Armagh, around Keady. We all hope the Armagh folk are good to this special Kerry girl!