The news is……there is still no news. Here’s a quick re-cap:
Blae, the young satellite-tagged female hen harrier was found dead on or around the 11th September 2012. Her death was made public on September 25th by a posting on the ‘Making the Most of Moorlands’ blog (see here) and we were told her carcass had been recovered and was undergoing a post-mortem.
On October 8th we were told, “No news yet on Blae’s post-mortem results“.
On October 10th, the terminology changed slightly and the word ‘post-mortem’ was replaced by the term ‘toxicology results’: “We are still awaiting toxicology results from the female Harrier Blae“.
Today it’s November 10th. Eight weeks after her body had been found and still no news about what had happened to her. Did she die of natural causes? Did she starve to death? Was she killed in an accidental road traffic collision? Did she ingest rodenticide? Did she eat from a poisoned bait? Was she shot? Or was she caught in an illegally-set spring trap and bludgeoned to death with a metal pole? Where was her carcass found? ‘South of Edinburgh’ is about as useful as saying ‘her body was found in the UK’. Has the Langholm Project received the results of the post-mortem and/or toxicology tests? If no, what’s causing the delay? If yes, why haven’t they released the results to the public?
And then there was her brother, Barry. Barry lasted for a couple of weeks longer than his sister. On October 10th we were told that Barry’s last sat tag signal was received on October 2nd, and he was now presumed dead. A search was underway for his carcass. One month later, still no news.
Where was he when the final sat tag signal was received? Has his body been recovered? If so, has it gone for post-mortem? If not recovered, is the search continuing? How long do you search for before you call it off?
We checked a few websites to see if any news updates had been provided. The first place to look was the ‘Making the Most of Moorlands’ blog – no updates since 10th October.
Next we looked at the official Langholm Demonstration Project website – no news updates since July.
Next we looked at the PAW Scotland website – apparently nothing newsworthy happened between 15th June and 31st October – not even a whisper on the two golden eagle ‘incidents’ (of which more later).
There may be some people/organisations who would prefer that this story just quietly melted away. Sorry, it ‘ain’t gonna happen. We’re going to keep asking.
Previous blog entries on this story here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Raptor Persecution UK 
How is it that we could receive pinpoint radio tranmissions from the moon landings in 1968 with the basic, (in comparison to today) radio communications equipment that were available at that time, but, and I repeat but, we find it so difficult to pinpoint where the last radio signal was received from state of the art very expensive satellite radio tags that are used to detect the EXACT location of Raptors that have been fitted with them. Either the people buying the very expensive radio satellite tags are being sold inferior products by the high tech companies that supply them, (which I strongly doubt), or state of the art modern electronics are not as reliable as people think, (which again I strongly doubt). The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about but what other alternative is there? To my mind, and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that there is nothing wrong with the electronics of the radio tags and that the last known locations of the radio signals were received in the high majority of cases. If that’s the case then the only answer is that someone is deliberately withholding the information for ulterior motives, what those motives are can easily be guessed at given the amount of Raptor persecutions taking place on the majority of the shooting estates throughout the UK, especially on the Grouse shooting estates.
How can you have such thoughts regarding our countryside guadians and profeshionals!!!
Why do you ask such simple questions, having said that can you enlighten as to who these countryside guardians and professionals are, I don’t seem to have come across them yet !!!
Who pays for these expensive tracking devices? And the post mortem, toxicology analyses and the staff who analyse the data from the tags?
I presume that we the public pay for Radio Tags, Post Mortem, Toxicology and the Staff. I also presume the Radio Tags were ripped of the dead Harriers and then smashed so no more signals. As for someone withholding information, well nothing new there then. I think that to many people in power or in legal circles have to much of an interest and say in Shooting estates and their likes. I may be wrong but very much doubt it.
Perhaps there will be something about the Langholm harriers in the next nicely fabricated edition of ‘dear diary’!?
And you think that was fabricated because…..?
This has been said before but quite happy to say it again: we’re not in the habit of fabricating information for this blog (apart from the very obvious spoof articles). We don’t need to fabricate; your disgusting industry provides more than enough fodder thanks very much.
If you think anything on this site is fabricated you should explain which items they are and provide evidence to support your claims.
Grouseman, the only lies that you will ever read about raptor persecution is the nonsense frequently issued by the gamekeeping industry.
BLOG ACTIVITY. In the early hours of Wednesday 14 November 2012, the Making the Most of Moorlands blog was updated THREE times. The first post concentrated on a musical performance in St. John’s Town of Dalry. The second post involved a brief account on the salmon run and some information on the birdfeeding station. And the third post…..wait for it……..was about a bird photography workshop! What the feck is happening here? Perhaps it’s just my warped and twisted mind, but surely to feck the first post should have been an update on the dead Hen Harriers? As far as I am concerned, everyone connected with this project is as guilty as the murdering gamekeepers.