Natural highlights in the hills this month
TO SEE THIS SLIM BIRD of prey fly with wings held in a shallow ‘V’ and glide low across its spring and summertime upland moorland home is to witness the majestic beauty that's synonymous with raptors. Both females and males care for their young, the males providing food and often passing prey to the female mid-flight in an aerial game of ‘throw and catch’. Females and juveniles are brown with a white rump and a striped tail, which give them the name ‘ringtail’, whilst the males are a ghostly pale grey. This, sadly, is rather fitting. According to the RSPB, the hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) is the most intensely persecuted of all UK birds of prey. The red-listed species is targeted particularly in areas dominated by driven grouse moors. Indeed, the hen harrier gets its name from its free-range fowl prey – though its diet mainly consists of meadow pipits and voles. Yet, since January 2022, RSPB and Natural England data reveals that 39 UK hen harriers have been killed or have ‘suspiciously disappeared’. In Scotland, hen harriers breed in Orkney, as well as the Uists and Inner Hebrides, parts of the Highlands and locally in the Southern Uplands. Smaller numbers are resident amongst the uplands of North Wales and northern England. In winter they flock to feed on coastal marshes.TO SEE THIS SLIM BIRD of prey fly with wings held in a shallow ‘V’ and glide low across its spring and summertime upland moorland home is to witness the majestic beauty that's synonymous with raptors. Both females and mal
