Here’s a heartening story from Mar Lodge, a large upland estate in the Cairngorm mountains owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The estate is being managed primarily for conservation and to encourage natural regeneration and expansion of the Caledonian pinewood. It already supports many raptor species, including breeding golden eagle, peregrine falcon, merlin, buzzard, long-eared owl, tawny owl and barn owl, but 2016 brought the return of breeding hen harriers for the first time in living memory. They have since returned to breed each year, and a number of chicks were satellite tagged as part of the RSPB Hen Harrier LIFE project. Sheila Rao, ecologist at Mar Lodge, wrote this evocative story welcoming the hen harriers back.
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