I was at Cheltenham racecourse on Saturday – a delightful afternoon with friends but not a profitable visit.
A large part of my enjoyment of racing is the journey to and from the racecourse. The trip to Cheltenham through the Cotswolds was lit up with autumn colours, and the beechwoods before Adlestrop, still copper-gold in the sunshine, were a highlight. And then it is as much the scrum for the bar, the chat about form, the roar of the crowd and the view of Cleeve Hill which makes the day. It’s even better when I win a fortune, which has happened, but it’s OK when I don’t.
Another part of the experience is the pause on the journey home, this time with coffee from flasks and chocolate/orange cake, while we look for Short-eared Owls, Great Grey Shrikes and other birds above Brockhampton as the light fails. On Saturday we saw no owls but a ringtail Hen Harrier tracked the horizon, not once but twice.
Any day with a Hen Harrier sighting is a good day – but an unexpected Hen Harrier is even better than an expected one.
The friends with me appreciated the significance of a sighting like this and we all headed off buoyed up by seeing this bird (and the cake was very good!). It is, after all, a survivor, a bird unkilled, a bird which made it rather than one of the many that ended up dead on a moorland, a victim of greed and hate.
Any day when I see a Hen Harrier is a winning day. What are the odds?
Absolutely. I also saw a ring-tail hen harrier at the weekend, and on managed grouse moor too. Super!
Keith
Wonderful, Mark, pure serendipity, the very best kind of birding experience and an appropriate emotional response.
I was at the NERF conference on Saturday, a day of course when Hen harriers are much in mind although not part of any of the main talks although the NERF Chairman Steve Downing inevitably gave us a summary of what is happening or has happened recently concerning harriers. Sunday I was ringing with a team of East Dales RG members at a private NR called High Batts near Ripon, an old haunt we nearly all know well. We also had an audience including a grandfather and grandson who had recently seen a harrier or two including one locally on a Nidderdale Moor and as we discussed almost certainly Arthur whose satellite tag had abruptly stopped working in the North York Moors recently. We will win the argument in the end might not be tomorrow or the day after or indeed next year or the next decade but we will win and grouse shooting criminality will be a thing of the past, a minor blip in history. The hard look in that teenagers eyes said it all.
Paul, I was also at the conference on Saturday, and as a colleague noted on the way out, there was an almost total lack of younger people there.
Ah Trapit my friend I think you may have been misled by your eyes. There were quite a number of younger folk there admittedly a smaller proportion than those of us of pensionable age but some. Also I don’t necessarily equate an absence meaning that there are none of the younger generation getting involved because I know this to be untrue, but they often enter through different means to us. Over the years I have had a number of ringing trainees, the best have always been the younger ones. Even as we speak one of them is entering the raptor interest with catching owls in a new project of his own making, another will probably be doing some harrier roost watches and one is already a committed raptophile who now works for JNCC. Just this last Sunday a 14 year old was out with us and nurtured in the right way will be a huge asset in the future.
I hope you enjoyed conference, are you going to Cheshire? if so we must meet.
I hope you are right regarding the “young entry”, to borrow a huntin / shootin term.
Yes, I thought it was a very good ,varied programme,I was especially interested in the Marchant
brother’s Goshawk study, and had a brief chat with them afterwards, regarding their use of trail
cameras, and nesting densities (my particular interest), in our respective study areas.
It was refreshing to speak to people with field experience ( outwith my own area), who seemed to
believe what an ex keeper was telling them, unlike some armchair experts, with their derisory
comments.
I also thought Leo Smith’s Raven presentation excellent , and very informative.
All being well I ought to be at the Cheshire groups first conference next year, should i request the name “Trapit” for my name badge ?.
I’ve heard Gary talk before, he may not be the best speaker in the world but the content was very interesting. Although I didn’t get chance to talk to him I was fascinated by the trail camera shots and will be trying a similar thing here. As you know I’m not a fan of any of the shooting industry but treat folk as I find. No you don’t need trait on your badge some will get the wrong impression, just find me!
Watched an Immature female Gos being mobbed and chasing in turn a crow this morning. A brave or foolhardy crow, not sure which!