What's Good For The Goose...

Frozen Dinner (Harrier and Duck Carcass) by Barry van Dusen

On terrierman Patrick Burns's blog today is reprinted an editorial from the Renfrewshire Paisely Daily Express (which seems to be a UK tabloid), entitled "Sky-dancing hen harrier is a truly spectacular sight." The author, Derek Parker, is a kind of ranger charged with protecting moorland raptors, and laments the repeated depredations of fox [Vulpes vulpes] on Harrier chicks [Circus cyaneus]. I'm blogging on it here mainly because Patrick's site doesn't permit comments, and I'd like to note something interesting about how this editorial depicts predators; I also think Harriers are cool.

For those who don't know, the Hen Harrier is Britain's version of our Marsh Hawk, or Northern Harrier---a buoyant, open country raptor and widespread ground-nester. They are common wintering hawks here in SE Louisiana and frequently shadow my own hawk across the pastures, hoping to bully him out of a meal. Harriers are accomplished pirates (aka "clepto-parasites" in the unromantic lingo of raptor biology) but good predators too, and spectacular fliers as Derek Parker observes:

"The slate-grey male flew high among the clouds and summoned the female, which is chocolate-brown in colour, with a harsh, chattering cry.

"As she flew upwards from the nest, the male dropped a morsel of food -- usually a mouse, vole, shrew or lizard -- and she caught it in mid-air in her sharp talons.

"This bird-bonding act -- the celebrated "food pass" of the sky-dancing hen harrier -- is one of the most amazing spectacles in the natural world, especially when seen from the Misty Law as the sun rose at dawn above the heather-gilded north-eastern horizon. "

But in this editorial Parker offers more than Harrier lore and a glimpse at the "heather-gilded north-eastern horizon." There's a villain, too: the killer fox.

"It's the second consecutive year that a savage fox has caused carnage among hen harrier chicks at moorland nests among the heather.

"Altogether, seven out of eight chicks perished - five mauled and the other two frozen to death when their mothers fled from the fanged forager."

Parker's allegiance is clearly with the Harrier, the sight of which he credits among the "highlights of an ornithological odyssey." But his demonization of the fox, considering that fox and Harrier fill nearly identical niches as predators, is amazing to me. In about a dozen short paragraphs, the fox is called a "killer" at least twice, also "savage," "blood-thirsty," and "fanged;" and its feeding habits written as "raiding," "mauling" and "night-time vulpine slaughter."

I wonder how Parker might describe the fox had his charge been to study and protect them. Or how might he think of Harriers if his responsibility was to Red Grouse, whose chicks fall prey to the hawks?

For Patrick's part, I'm sure he posted this interesting piece because of its doubtless correct conclusion:

"A few years ago the local foxhounds could have been called out to deal with the killer fox. But urban-based MSPs, who know little about the countryside, banned hunting with hounds.

"Now, unless conservationists install anti-fox measures like repellent chemicals, electric wire, netting or strategically-placed lanterns around the nests, the blood-thirsty fox will return to kill hen harrier chicks next year -- and the years after that."

What fascinates me is how easily two very comparable predators can be sketched so differently, and how powerful and versatile are the words we use to make these distinctions.

photo by Gary Crandall