Pointless demise of Cork’s Heather the Hen Harrier

HEATHER was a female hen harrier, she was also the star of an online blogspot with around a quarter of a million followers.

It all started in 2013 when, soon after she hatched near Duhallow in Co Cork, she was fitted with a satellite tracking device. This was done to learn more about hen harriers, which are an endangered bird of prey. The Irish population has shrunk to below 100 pairs.

Her movements were not only studied by ornithologists, they were followed by large numbers of the general public. People became fascinated by the emerging story of a young bird of prey travelling the country, searching for food and maybe, eventually, for a mate.