Save Our Skydancers

Help protect our hen harriers from persecution. With your support we will satellite tag two chicks next spring and share film of the birds at the nest online.

Below is the original appeal, which went live on 19 November 2021.

Hen harriers are rare and beautiful birds of the UK's uplands. Top predators, they have a wonderful nuptial display called 'skydancing'. Take a look at this short film and enjoy their mastery of the air.

 

Sadly, evidence shows that illegal killing is the main factor suppressing the UK hen harrier population. One of the best ways to protect the birds is to monitor their movements with a satellite tag. Your donation can help us tag two hen harrier chicks in 2022.

 

Each tag costs over £2,000 and provides valuable scientific information as well as helping to protect the birds by making their illegal killing more hazardous to the perpetrators. The tags are very reliable and continue to transmit after a bird is killed. Even if the tag is subsequently destroyed by the wildlife criminal, the last transmission location is always known and builds up a pattern of evidence.

 

Hen Harrier Action is a small charity which campaigns to restore our uplands for nature and for people. One of our main aims is to interest and engage more people in the wildlife of the uplands and the problems it can face. To help, we aim to have a live camera at the hen harrier nest where the chicks are to be tagged. Once we have reached our target for two tags, your donation will help fund a camera and related equipment to help us share the birds' story.

 

Many hen harrier nests are in remote locations; finding and reaching them is difficult. It also requires a special licence. In 2021, with such a licence, we monitored the nest and the chicks were ringed, though it was not possible to tag any. We also obtained some good film but 2021 was as much as anything a learning experience. In 2022, with your help, two of the chicks will be tagged and good video obtained from the nest each day from when the chicks hatch to when they fledge.

 

We are working with the RSBP Investigations Team on this project and must order the tags early in 2022 so please donate now!

 

All donations, large or small, will help the future of these iconic birds. On their behalf, and of everyone given a better chance of enjoying their 'skydancing' over the moors, thank you!

Any donations balance achieved above our campaign target (or stretch target if we set one) will be used to support the charity's general charitable objectives .
Photo of 'Tamara', a female hen harrier tagged at Mar Lodge, Scotland in 2019, with kind permission of Shaila Rao.

Film 'The hen harrier observed' by Jenny Shelton, with words from James Macdonald Lockhart's 'Raptor: A Journey Through Birds' read by Tom Kane.