North Yorkshire Police have tweeted about the shooting of a raptor two days ago in the North York Moors National Park:
At the moment there is no further information about the circumstances of this reported incident, the species, the extent of its injuries, and whether it’s alive or dead.
Hopefully the police will issue a detailed appeal for information.
[UPDATE 18.20hrs: Further tweets from the police – the shooting was witnessed by a walker, the bird was thought to be a marsh harrier or a buzzard, the body was not found].
The North York Moors National Park is a well known raptor persecution hotspot, which is no surprise given the extent of driven grouse moors within the Park’s boundary. Earlier this year a buzzard was found in the Park with shotgun injuries (here) and last year another buzzard was found in the Park with horrific injuries caused from being shot and caught in a leg trap (see here).
Raptor Persecution UK 
Hmm, look at all those burned patches of moorland surrounding it. My blood is boiling. Another nail in the coffin of intensively managed grouse moors: is about the best I can do looking for a positive.
Time these people carrying out the wilful slaughter of innocent birds were severely punished. Fines no use. Jail them.
Only seem to catch the swines once in a blue moon. Justice fails due to the lack of trying.
When are these crimes going to be dealt with properly? In common with cruelty to animals, the punishments (IF anyone is even prosecuted!) these crimes are just not hard enough! We need to drive forward with a action to get real with the culprits and jail them for long periods! Shameful behaviour!
What are game shoots to do with National Park management?
Much better response time on the plea for information there than usual. This was two-three days since incident (could still do better, day of incident is manageable for most suspected crimes) instead of the usual sometime in the next half dozen months. Lets hope it results in a better response from the public. Lets face it, everyone in the local community has to know which gamekeeper and estate is behind it. Perhaps one of the gamekeepers who claim they are not one of the rotten apples would like to tweet the info to the local bunch of constables. Someone want to step up and defy the omerta?
The never-ending nature of raptor persecution on grouse moors, combined with the inevitable difficulty in obtaining sufficient evidence to convict, never mind jail the perpetrators, suggests the only long term solution is to ban grouse shooting altogether. How we do that with Government conservation advisers covering up for the criminals, and the RSPB supporting the continuation of “legitimate” grouse shooting, is another problem.
Time this lot were turfed out of our national parks. They are making a mockery of such designations!!
Grouse shooting and moorland management made the parks what they are today. They were here long before the national park, i don’t agree with persecution but get rid of grouse shooting and the land will no longer be worth looking at! Get rid of national park first!!!!!
And what was there before the ‘Grouse shooting and moorland management’?
So long as we don’t go too far back, they were tremendous areas of heather moorland and bog, with an associated diversity of flora and fauna the likes of which is rare in modern UK. Many of them were ruined historically by burning and grazing, especially on the introduction of sheep, but the modern scourge of this important and internationally rare habitat is definitely grouse moor management. It would take a lot of time and resources to restore the moors to their previous biodiversity value, but it could be done through a form of nationalisation which disallowed grouse shooting and ensured positive conservation management. As usual though, apart from the grouse ‘industry,’ the main hurdle is political. Regional and National Parks could have a role to play tomorrow, but there is strong resistance by most landowners. However there is no reason why tax relief at the current level enjoyed by these landowners could not continue to be allowed for nature conservation which benefits the public in general. Wildlife tourism would be only one of the opportunities to benefit the local economy, if that is considered vital. Wouldn’t it be great if the UK could become an international leader in the field?
We see what you mean Billy. What marvellous land management the video shows!!! But you are right – Grouse shooting and their moorland (mis)management have certainly made the parks what they are today – burned out and drained parodies of what a moorlands should look like! Perhaps it,s me, but personally I found your wonderful’ grouse moor totally abhorrent and certainly not worth looking at. Or do you wear rosy coloured glasses?
We have a North York Moors 2017 calendar. When my wife turned over to the September page it revealed a superb photograph of Rosedale. She remarked on what a lovely place it appeared to be. I agreed, with the reservation that, like some other beautiful places we know, looks can be deceiving and it’s really bandit country. Shame! It’s high time that end was put to this widespread tainting of our countryside by a perverse minority of the population.
absolutely boiling over this.
this is the area where i go walking/ biking and birdwatching although to be honest the section where i think this is you dont see any buzzards or even crows. about a month ago i stopped the car two miles from rosedale abbey and watched a marsh harrier on the moor for about 5 mins. am gutted to think this is the bird that was probably shot.
the whole area is intensively managed for shooting. the linked video is from that area. am pretty sure that a record for the number of grouse shot in one drive was broken there recently, i had looked it up but the webpage has now “disapeared” .
…. and we all know how much gamekeepers like Marsh Harriers! See here if you’re not already aware:
https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2017/08/10/video-of-marsh-harrier-persecution-on-north-yorkshire-grouse-moor/
Still no condemnation from the dark side of the activities shown in the video. No doubt they’ve already expunged it from their version of grouse shooting history.
Grouse moors are manmade (disaster) and not all that long ago were covered by forest, so lets go back to this time and turn them into real national parks.
I’m afraid that wouldn’t work for Hen Harriers, Oliver. There are plenty other low productivity uplands which would benefit from that form of rewilding. I’d prefer to see most of our heather moorland managed effectively as National Nature Reserves, thriving with the biodiversity that grouse moor management has destroyed.
the owner of the land must be prosecuted automatically . Its up to them to manage their lands and make sure crimes aren’t committed. vicarious liability -automatic. plus big fine.
Not sure you’ve thought that through, Marta.
Why should the landowner be held responsible if someone unconnected with the land /landowner has come on to the property and committed an offence?