Hen harriers
The number of hen harrier chicks fledged on England’s northern uplands is the highest recorded in over 50 years.
Defra confirmed that Natural England and its partners had registered 84 chicks from nests across County Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and North Yorkshire. Hen harriers were once plentiful in these areas but their numbers have declined over the past two centuries, least not because of illegal persecution, and they are now one of England’s rarest breeding birds of prey. Amanda Anderson of the Moorland Association said: “The management carried out on grouse moors by gamekeepers provides an ideal habitat for birds of prey, with fewer predators to steal their eggs, and good numbers of prey species such as small mammals and other birds.”
Defra said it was the fifth successive year of increases following a low of 2016, when only eight chicks fledged.