There’s a paper in this month’s British Birds which shows that Pallid Harriers are being recorded in bigger numbers in most west European countres in recent years – including in the UK.
The changing status of the Pallid Harrier in western Europe by Mike Henry.
The data given are convincing and this upsurge is rather unexpected. I wonder what’s going on? It isn’t simply that birders have better optics, fieldguides and identification skills because we are seeing more nesting attempts of this species, not just more casual records.
Keep your eyes open! And it’s a good excuse for posting this image again and this link to a blog from July 2017 when Pallid Harriers nested in the Netherlands.
Male Pallid Harrier with one of his daughters. Photo: Rein Hofman
Paul Leyland is taking a Christmas break.
You will not find a more dedicated harrier man in the UK. Also a very good artist.
WTE scouting out New Forest as place for reintroduction opportunity if released on IOW.
It’s gob smacking to think that the UK could end up having four species of breeding harriers. Of course that would be a lot more likely if persecution ended here. When I was a kid I would never have believed cattle egrets had started being even a sporadic breeder here, or that the glossy ibis was a potential colonist. And what bird species used to breed here that we lost because of habitat changes or persecution by people,? They’ve found bones from the pygmy cormorant in one site in the fens and Roy Dennis once said the black stork bred here. What’s the future going to hold for the UK breeding bird list?
Interesting paper and as John says a rather good artist as well as a dedicated harrier man. I managed to miss the Bowland displaying male the other year by being in Wales minding the small holding whilst my partner was away in Canada, although I have seen it in the UK and adult males in Bulgaria, stunning birds. Odd that the Bowland male disappeared the week the grouse in that area started to hatch.