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Living World

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The Living World

Getting up close and personal with wild nature in Britain and beyond.

Intimate encounters and extraordinary observations of wild nature in Britain and beyond.

Living World: Hen Harrier

23/09/2018

Hen Harrier

BBC Radio 4 - Living World, Hen Harrier

Brett Westwood joins lolo Williams to explore hen harrier ecology. From 2001.

Lindsey Chapman introduces an update to this Living World from 2001. Brett Westwood and lolo Williams are in the Welsh uplands exploring hen harrier ecology.

Ghosts of the Moor are how the pale grey male hen harrier is sometimes referred to as it glides seemingly without effort across an upland landscape. To find out more and to revel in actually seeing a hen harrier on the wing, in this episode Brett Westwood & lolo Williams are on the Berwyn Moors in Wales in search of this enigmatic bird of prey. lolo has brought Brett to this particular spot as since seeing his first hen harrier here as a young boy, lolo has returned every year to study their ecology and biology. As the duo watch harriers on the moor, lolo expands his understanding of how harriers utilise this unique man made habitat, especially in early spring when the males perform their spectacular "sky dances" to attract the female. Not everyone is as pleased to have hen harriers on their moorland so discussion falls to how rare in England & Scotland they are due to loss of habitat to conifer plantations or sheep, as well as conflict on grouse moors.

Lindsey Chapman revisits this revised Living World from 2001 bringing the story up to date for today's listener.

Producer Andrew Dawes.

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