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6 - Understanding the Decline of Hen Harriers on Orkney

from Part II - Essays: Inspiring Fieldwork

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2020

By
Arjun Amar
Edited by
Tim Burt  and
Des Thompson
Tim Burt
Affiliation:
Durham University
Des Thompson
Affiliation:
Scottish Natural Heritage
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Summary

The hen harrier is well known in the UK for the wrong reasons – it has been dubbed ‘the most persecuted bird of prey in Britain’ due to its role in the conflict with driven red grouse shooting (Redpath et al., 2010). The numbers and the distribution of this species on mainland Britain are hugely restricted due to the illegal killing of these magnificent birds (Murgatroyd et al., 2019). Thankfully, most of my research on this species has not been on the intensively managed grouse moors of mainland Britain, where these birds are frequently killed by gamekeepers, but on the wild unmanaged moors of the confusingly named Orkney Mainland, the largest of the Orkney Islands in northernmost Scotland.

Type
Chapter
Information
Curious about Nature
A Passion for Fieldwork
 , pp. 133 - 137
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Amar, A. and Redpath, S. M. (2002). Determining the cause of the hen harrier decline on the Orkney Islands: an experimental test of two hypotheses. Animal Conservation 5, 21–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amar, A., Picozzi, N., Meek, E. R., Redpath, S. M. and Lambin, X. (2005). Decline of the Orkney hen harrier Circus cyaneus population: do changes to demographic parameters and mating system fit a declining food hypothesis? Bird Study 52, 18–24.Google Scholar
Balfour, E. and Macdonald, M. A. (1970). Food and feeding behaviour of the hen harrier in Orkney. Scottish Birds 6, 57–66.Google Scholar
Meek, E. R., Rebecca, G. W., Ribbands, B. and Fairclough, K. (1998). Orkney hen harriers: a major population decline in the absence of persecution. Scottish Birds 19, 290–299.Google Scholar
Murgatroyd, M., Redpath, S. M., Murphy, S. G., et al. (2019). Patterns of satellite tagged hen harrier disappearances suggest widespread illegal killing on British grouse moors. Nature Communications 10, 1094.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Picozzi, N. (1984). Breeding biology of polygynous hen harriers Circus c. cyaneus in Orkney. Ornis Scandinavica 15, 1–10.Google Scholar
Redpath, S. M., Amar, A., Smith, A., Thompson, D. B. and Thirgood, S. (2010). People and nature in conflict: can we reconcile hen harrier conservation and game management. In Species Management: Challenges and Solutions for the 21st Century, eds. Baxter, J. and Galbraith, C. A.. Scottish Natural Heritage, Perth, pp. 335–350.Google Scholar

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