News:
Project of the Month March 2025

Ground breeding birds in our intensively used agricultural landscape are doomed to extinction, unless...

… convinced bird conservationists like the 43 volunteer Montagu's Harrier rescuers in Brandenburg, who sacrifice months of their free time and weekends, from April to August, driving thousands of kilometres along village streets and dirt roads in their private cars and kicking their heels for hours on end to spot the Montagu's Harriers in the skies above the endless grain fields of north-eastern Brandenburg.

What this is all about and why they are doing it is a fascinating and engaging story…

Of the three species of harrier found in Germany (at least for now) – the Western Marsh Harrier, the Eurasian Hen Harrier and the Montagu's Harrier – two have already made it onto the ‘Red List of breeding birds in Germany’: the Hen Harrier is considered ‘threatened with extinction’ and the Montagu's Harrier is considered ‘critically endangered’. However, this scientific classification alone and current nature conservation policy are unlikely to prevent the extinction of these two rare bird of prey species!

Unlike most birds of prey, the three harrier species build their nests on the ground. However, an increasing number of high-voltage power lines and wind turbines fragment the airspace above the open countryside, while intensive agricultural land use is robbing the Montagu's Harriers of their former natural nesting sites in extensive wetlands, moors and heathland. As a result, the maximum of 450 Montagu's Harrier breeding pairs in Germany today are forced to breed mainly in grain fields..

Not a bad idea, bird lovers think, but a cereal field like this is driven several times a year with machines during the cultivation phase and sprayed with agricultural chemicals, and the harvest dates are now 4-6 weeks earlier than 30 years ago. Those who breed on the ground in today's intensively used fields, such as Eurasian Skylarks and Montagu's Harriers, have little chance of successful breeding and rearing their young: nests, clutches and young birds often remain unintentionally on the ground and under the pressure of cost-efficient farming, are shredded and chopped to death.

So what can be done to ensure that these few Montagu's Harrier breeding pairs have an undisturbed nesting place and are able to raise their young successfully?

To find out, in late spring 2024, we spent two long days with conservationists in the Montagu's Harrier conservation project financed by our Foundation, scanning the sky above the cornfields for Montagu's Harriers with binoculars until our necks ached. When we finally spotted a breeding pair of Montagu's Harriers in the air, performing courtship flights, or transporting nest material, or photographed a ground nest in the cornfield with the drone, we began the careful search for a nest site in the cornfield on foot, after which we carried poles, fence elements and nets to the nest site to mark them and fence them in. All of this was done, of course, with the prior consent of the landowners!

Only with these time-consuming preventive measures are the nest and breeding sites of the Montagu's Harrier, its eggs and young safe from nest robbers such as foxes, raccoons and wild boar.

In 2024, 15 ground nests were secured with fences in time. To achieve this, the harrier conservationists in north-eastern Brandenburg, up to the slopes of the Oder Valley, were out and about for months in the late afternoons, often until sunset and on weekends. They drove more than 41,000 km of country roads and dirt roads, secured the harrier nests located and regularly checked the fences of the marked nest sites.

The 52 chicks that successfully fledged were the best reward for all the time-consuming conservation efforts.

Financing the Montagu's Harrier conservation project in north-eastern Brandenburg lends even greater significance to our land purchase commitment for our Pantani migratory bird sanctuary on the south-eastern coast of Sicily. After all, our Bird Guards have only been observing undisturbed resting and foraging of Montagu's Harriers there for a few years, before they rest and strengthen themselves for the dangerous onward flight to the North African coast of Tunisia.

To strengthen and optimise the conservation efforts in Brandenburg, we want to purchase further urgently needed binoculars, a small compact drone and additional nest protection material for the volunteer conservationists and reimburse them for at least their travel expenses (kilometre allowance) for the planned up to 45,000 km of trips.

Together with you and the active Montagu's Harrier Conservation Society for North-East Germany members, we can turn this exciting project into a real Montagu's Harrier conservation success story.

Please help us to finance the total costs of this year's Montagu's Harrier conservation project in Brandenburg, which amount to approximately 18,000 euros,