A DEDICATED team of East Yorkshire wildlife enthusiasts have worked round the clock for months to ensure Britain’s rarest breeding bird of prey made history.
A pair of Montagu’s harriers reared a single chick at a secret Humber nest site. The species is the least common among breeding birds of prey in Britain with fewer than ten pairs nesting in the country every year, usually in East Anglia and South West England.
This year, after the pair made a nest in East Yorkshire, a team of RSPB staff and volunteers mounted guard over it 24 hours a day to prevent egg collectors taking the egg. The pair have now become the first to successfully rear a chick in East Yorkshire in decades.
Pete Short said: “Watching the nest over the past few months has been hard work with plenty of 4am starts but iIt has been worth every minute to ensure that this fantastic bird breeds successfully.”
Seven pairs of Montagu’s harriers have reared chicks in England this year and are about to leave for Senegal, Africa.
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