Two Langholm hen harriers fitted with sat tags

There have been two successful hen harrier nests at Langholm this year, according to the Langholm Demonstration Project website (here). The scant information provided informs us that the nests contained healthy broods of six and four chicks.

Interestingly, the Project website doesn’t provide any information about the number of satellite tags that have been fitted to chicks this year. We find that very curious, given that two female chicks from the brood of six were fitted with tags prior to their fledging the nest last week.

What’s with the secrecy? This is an expensive project, part-funded by the taxpayer, and there’s strong public interest in what happens to these harriers when they leave Langholm. We know from previous years that the survival rate of these young birds is appalling, with many of them ‘mysteriously disappearing’ over grouse moors in Scotland and northern England. Strangely, the Project team has been reluctant to reveal these locations.

We’ll we watching with great interest to see whether the Project team releases information about the movements of these latest two young birds over the coming weeks or whether this turns into yet another cover up job.

Meanwhile, Cat Barlow who runs the related ‘Making the Most of Moorlands’ education website (here) has posted some video footage of the brood of four, as well as some merlins and other species.

To read our previous blog posts about Langholm, just type ‘Langholm’ into the search box on the right hand side of the blog. (Too many previous posts to list them here).