Montagu's Harrier: where is AU in the UK is the question on every twitcher's lips

If you’re interested enough in the daily news agenda to be reading my newsletter, chances are you’re also like me in as much as you take your BBC Radio 4 Today Programme like you take your daily dose of meds. Religiously.

Very often it is background noise that offers nothing more than the reassuring sound of familiar voices, the hum of whose dulcet tones begins in the shower and ends in the car park when you finally arrive at your place of work. Other times, it cuts through those in power like a chainsaw and has you cheering at the inquisitors-in-chief.

Yesterday, though, yesterday the Today Programme put a right old smile on my face as a giddy-as-a-dog-with-four-balls wildlife journalist relayed to the nation the reproductive prowess of a Montagu Harrier who is currently servicing two wives across two nests at secret locations in England.

The lucky bugger, I thought. Not only is he the most handsome, gracious, regal, aristocratic creature you’re ever likely to see in the skies but he doesn’t need three Weetabix or a week’s warning ahead of you know what! Ten chicks in two summers for AU, as he’s called, means he’s single-handedly repopulating (one step at a time, of course) these isles with a species that hasn’t seen a single chick flee the nest in five years. Wrap that bird in cotton wool.

Then, the pragmatist in me kicked in and I thought, rather him than me, actually. I’ve all on remembering to do the things I’ve been told to do by one better half, let alone two, and I’ve lost count of the number of times the eldest has messaged me to say ‘where are you? Mum said you were meant to be picking me up!?’ Adroit multi-tasker, I am not.

It also amused me that one of the little girls among the chicks has ended up being called Dave after, in an exchange of text messages, auto-correct intervened as someone declared ‘we need to save this bird’ and changed it to ‘we need to Dave this bird!’ Poor lass!

Yet, whilst all this put a smile on my face, for a number of reasons, it also put cheer in my heart knowing that the farmers, the conservationists, the RSPB and everyone else associated with protecting these harriers - which nest amongst crops and so are vulnerable to the machinations of the harvest - are pulling up trees (including keeping the location of the harriers a secret to prevent a stampede of enthusiasts from upsetting them) to ensure they remain safe and have a chance of, first of all, getting a foothold on existing at all, and with the promise of hope, fortune and a fair wind, thriving in this country once again.

A lovely story.

James

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Word of the day: Polyamorous - having, wanting or preferring to be engaged with more than one romantic interest at the same time.

On this day: August 25, 1974 - Human cannonball, Mary Connors, aimed to be shot further from a cannon than anyone else who’d gone before her (surely not that many people!?) as she aimed to clear the River Avon. It was, then, on this day that she once again plopped into the water, and had to be rescued. Two dependable, reliable, fully-trained men of the water were on hand to rescue her. The two men fell in. They too had to be rescued.

Happy birthday to: Elvis Costello, 72.

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