Mullman goes skydancing

Mullman Daniel Brooks shares his encounter with skydancers.

 

It's a tough choice, but I think the magnificent hen harrier is my favourite bird.

 

I was fortunate enough to study them for the RSPB and later for Scottish Natural Heritage, now known as NatureScot, for a number of years. When you get to spend so much time studying a particular species, you cannot help but build a special love for that creature, especially if it is a charismatic bird such as the splendid skydancer.

 

It is known as the skydancer due to the impressive spring courtship display most often performed by the ghostly grey and white, with black wing tips, male.

 

It puts on this stunning performance in the spring, flying in a roller coaster type fashion around its chosen territory attempting to attract a female which is brown all over with a white rump to the base of the tail.

 

Its corkscrews and somersaults through the sky in what has to be the most beautiful display of any bird in flight in the UK...although I am little bias.

 

Unfortunately, the hen harrier has been heavily persecuted over the years. However Mull is a real stronghold, where these attractive raptors can breed largely undisturbed. Due to there being no foxes or badgers on Mull, they, along with other ground nesting birds, manage to have more success rearing their young here too.

 

We are lucky to enjoy their presence year round. I recently went out to look for a winter roost site on Mull in an area where I had been seeing a number of birds hunting during the day.

 

Part of my job working for the RSPB many years ago was to find and monitor winter roost sites in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, so I grew very good at finding these sites. They roost communally too, so a dozen or more birds can arrive at a single roost site to sleep in the tall ground vegetation protected from the wind and to a lesser extent, the rain.

 

I already had my eye on a suitable patch of reeds that I wanted to go and check out, so headed straight for it. On arrival I  started to walk through the reeds, ankle deep in water, which is a good sign for a suitable harrier roost, the water helps keep most ground predators away.

 

I made my way carefully through the vegetation taking great care to not flatten them any more than necessary, although it is these flattened patches that attract the harriers to sleep on as they provide a platform above the water line to perch on.

 

Very quickly, I found one of these naturally flattened patches, sure enough, there on the platform was the tell tale sign that harriers had indeed been sleeping here. White splash from them pooing, and a couple of small vole fur filled pellets. I found a few other such platforms before backing off to a good vantage point where I concealed myself amongst some rocks and bracken, and covered myself with a camouflaged net.

 

It was a a good hour before dark, and when I would expect to get the first bird coming in. It is essential to arrive at these sites early so as not to disturb them. In fact, it is an offence to disturb them intentionally at their nest or roost site. I sat for half an hour getting slowly more and more cold as the sun set and the light started to fade. Then some movement out of the corner of my eye brought my attention to a stunning male harrier, which ghostly floated by on the other side of the roost site, still hunting as it went, hoping for a late snack before bed. It was soon joined by two more birds, both females, noticeably larger and all brown.

 

It took them five or 10 minutes to settle, but eventually, they all dropped into the roost.

 

Very happy with myself for finding the roost and experiencing one of my favourite wildlife spectacles, I quietly headed back to my car and home.

 

Daniel is a wildlife guide, adventure seeker, conservation campaigner, forager, bushcrafter, rewilder and father of four. His website is at mullman.co.uk