Hen harrier project flying high as it hits milestone for chicks in wild
A NATIONAL trial to rebuild England’s hen harrier population has hit a “key milestone” by releasing its highest number of chicks into the wild.
The endangered bird is seeing a rebound under a brood management trial set up in 2018, which this year has reared and released 13 chicks.
The figure is the most in a single year for the trial, focused in northern England, which has seen 34 chicks from nine broods take to the wing since it was launched.
Five of the brood-managed birds have gone on to breed in the wild since the scheme began, adding 17 chicks to the wild hen harrier population.
The trial is part of the Government-led hen harrier recovery plan and is designed to allow birds and gamekeepers to co-exist in areas where grouse shooting is high.
It sees eggs and chicks from wild nests reared for a few weeks at a specialist bird of prey centre before being transported to pens on grouse moors.
They are then tagged and monitored before being released. In England, there were no hen harrier nests in 2013 - but this had rebounded to 84 chicks fledged in the wild in 2021, of which 80 per cent were on grouse moors.
Last year, brood management trial interventions were approved at two nests in North Yorkshire and Lancashire and all eight chicks were reared and released. John Holmes, the strategy director of Natural England, said this year’s cohort will now be monitored through “satellite tracking technology”.
“Thanks to these trackers, we know that birds reared in previous years have survived and successfully reared young themselves, contributing to the welcome increase in hen harrier nesting attempts that we are starting to see,” he said.
We know that birds reared in previous years have survived . John Holmes, strategy director of Natural England.