Montagu's Harrier
Circus pygargus
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Distribution Britain 32 (-36.0%) Ireland 0
Numbers breeding: Britain 13 RBBP Ireland 0 European status: 8,000 (0% in Britain and Ireland) British population trend: gradual increase possible How likely are you to record it? 2 squares (0.0%) Ranked 183= |
Always rare over the last 100 years, about 30 pairs nested in the 1950s on moorland and heathland (up to 10 pairs in Wales:: none after the mid-1960s). Numbers then dwindled and none was recorded nesting in 1974. The last Irish nest was in 1971. A gradual return started almost immediately and in the last ten years RBBP had logged 6 — 12 breeding females and between 1 and 11 non-breeding birds. Most are in East Anglia and around the New Forest. Some of these migrant birds have nested in arable crops — where success is high when careful protection is provided. Global warming may help them. Slow increase possible but not assured.
From
The
State of the Nations Birds
Copyright © 2000 by Chris Mead