Annie spotted at WWT Caerlaverock
The moor, along with many other parts of the country received a heavy fall of snow on the night of the 28th January. We waited to see if the snow would force the harriers to move to easier feeding grounds near the coast. On the 29th January a ringtail sat tagged Hen Harrier was spotted at WWT Caerlaverock causing a flurry of Twitter excitement as we knew Annie was not far north of Dumfries. Data confirms that Annie has indeed moved south and was in the Caerlaverock area yesterday. The first winter for any raptor is a difficult one as they face the challenges of cold and finding prey in challenging conditions, it great to know she has made the sensible move to the Solway coast where she can hopefully find enough prey to survive this harsh weather. Keep your eyes open and send us any new of sightings
cat@langholminitiative.co.uk.
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| Tracks onto the moor had a heavy covering of snow |
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| Hawthorn bush |
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| Blue skies today over the moor (30th January) |
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| Langholm Town with Whita Hill behind (Tom Hutton) |
We are waiting for data from Hattie and Grainne, it will be interesting to see how these two year old birds, who have never left Langholm moor will react to the heavy snow fall, will they stay or will they go?
Meanwhile the Red Grouse stay on the moor regardless of the weather, and could be heard chuckling away today.
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| Red Grouse, Langholm moor |
Our project volunteers have been busy building a hide at our moorland bird feeding station to make wildlife watching a little more comfortable and limit disturbance to the feeding birds. It is not quite finished yet but we'll be out again this weekend and I'll post a blog update when it is ready to use.
The moorland bird feeding station sounds exciting. Is it near one of the diversionary feeding stations for hen harriers? Will the public be able to access?
ReplyDeleteHi Alex, the bird hide when finished will open to the public and we'll welcome visitors, I'll post details shortly of how to find it. One hide window overlooks part of the moor and hunting harriers can be seen quite regularly throughout the year. The diversionary feeding posts for the harriers depends on where they breed each year (which can and does vary). There are several good points along the public road where in previous years we have been a been able to get good views of the harriers without leaving the road and causing disturbance. We organise various events each season to help visitors see he harriers and other moorland wildlife, I'll post here on blog or email cat@langholminitiative.co.uk Thanks Cat
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