Hen Harrier Action organize Hen Harrier Day, which is usually on the closest weekend to the start of the grouse shooting season and started as a protest with a few people and is now a large protest and also a celebration of the incredibly beautiful and increasingly rare birds. 2020’s event had to be online of course, and as part of it all they asked me to compose a song for people to sing/learn/record. So I set to researching these birds. I wrote the song, The Bridge Singers recorded and illustrated it , I made a learning video to help any other choirs or singers who wanted to perform it, and both our video and another by a choir in Oxford were played as part of the live online events on that day. We had hoped that by August we’d be allowed to sing in a larger group outside and could perform it to ourselves at least on the day, but although in August we could meet outside in groups of up to 30 people, singing was not allowed in more than groups of six, so instead some of us gathered on the bridge with our glasses of whatever and toasted our success. This was a huge deal for the choir as it was a national event, and lots of favourable feedback came in from the Hen Harrier community. The song was performed again live at a different event in the autumn by a local singer in Cumbria.

For more information about this song, Skydancer: Ghost Of The Moors, click here!