Sea Eagles and Harriers

Natural England intends more raptors for the lowlands

01/02/2009

There have been several recent reports circulating in the press that Natural England is about start releasing programmes for both sea eagles and hen harriers in lowland England. While there seems to be no doubt that Natural England is considering both, we understand there are no firm plans to do either at this stage. Naturally, to work up any introduction, conservation agencies need to establish likely local reactions to a project of this kind. So, no doubt, some of these press reports have been derived from these enquiries.

On sea eagles Natural England has been considering a reintroduction on the English East Coast. This they have been doing for some time and they have employed the Environment Council to explore how any such re-introduction might affect the ecology and the land-use interests in the affected countryside.

Natural England tells us they expect to have a full proposal for consultation within the next four to six months. We look forward to seeing this. This bird has been absent from England for over 200 years and whether or not it can fit in with modern land-use will be interesting to assess. Also it will be interesting to hear how NE would propose to deal with potential predation problems, should they occur. It is difficult to imagine these eagles would pose much of threat to game, but lamb-killing does seem to be something of an issue with crofters in parts of Scotland. 

The idea of releasing hen harriers in England is much less further forward we believe. In 1998 we suggested translocating hen harriers as part of scheme to avoid the damage these birds potentially do on grouse moors. We again proposed it in 2004, but this time as a way of improving the status of the bird without conflicting with grouse moor interests. In particular, we suggested establishing the bird on moorland areas of SW England where there seems to be  suitable prey abundance and appropriate habitat. NE is rumoured to be thinking about farmland.  We are unconvinced that this would work. In France, where harriers do nest on farmland, there are good populations of Common voles which frequent the meadows, pastures and crops. In England we don’t have this vole and our Field vole (which is inappropriately named) doesn’t live in farm fields at all but confines itself to ungrazed and unmanaged grass – hence its abundance along motorway embankments. Bit of a hazardous place for harriers to hunt, one supposes.