Hen Harrier Surprise
During the last ten years I have spent many hours in my hide filming female Hen Harriers returning to their nests with prey that the male has just provided in a mid-air pass. It is part of a fifty year project on the prey of Hen Harriers that I have been working on.
As the female Harrier leaves the nest after the feed I have occasionally taken a photo of her and thought nothing more of it. However, just recently I noticed that she regularly had something in her bill. Upon enlarging the photo I realised that she was in fact removing from the nest pellets that the young had regurgitated after their feed. – something that I believe has rarely been filmed before.
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Published by
Gordon Yates
Updated on
September 29, 2025
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Gordon Yates - Wildlife Photographer
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Award-Winning Photography
Alongside filmmaking, Gordon has earned recognition in still photography competitions with the BBC, RSPB, Scottish Wildlife, and the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club — using his trusted Pentax equipment. One of his proudest achievements was seeing ten minutes of his work broadcast by Granada Television — a milestone in a lifetime dedicated to wildlife storytelling. Today, he continues capturing the natural world with his Canon EOS 7D and Canon XM2 digital camcorder.