Five more young hen harriers have ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances, according to data published quietly and without fanfare by Natural England in February 2023.
All five hen harriers were ‘brood meddled’ birds and all five of them ‘disappeared’ on moorland in what are supposedly protected landscapes: four in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and one in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
The ‘missing’ hen harriers are as follows:
Brood-meddled Male, tagged July 2022, Tag ID 232637 (R1-M1-22), date of last contact 17th August 2022, grid ref: SD804893 (Yorkshire Dales National Park).
Brood-meddled Male, tagged August 2022, Tag ID 213920a (R3-M2-22), date of last contact 5th October 2022, grid ref: NY791016 (Yorkshire Dales National Park).
Brood-meddled Male, tagged July 2021, Tag ID 55145 (R1-M1-21), date of last contact 1st December 2022, grid ref: SD917620 (Yorkshire Dales National Park).
Brood-meddled Female, tagged August 2022, Tag ID 213921a (R3-F1-22), date of last contact 14th December 2022, grid ref: NY692415 (North Pennines AONB).
Brood-meddled Female, tagged July 2022, Tag ID 213931 (R2-F1-22), date of last contact 15th December 2022, grid ref: SD847831 (Yorkshire Dales National Park).
The data emerged from Natural England’s routine six-monthly update of its hen harrier satellite tag database, dated February 2023 (see here).
It’s interesting, isn’t it, that Natural England didn’t publish an accompanying blog with its data update, to draw attention to these latest ‘missing’ birds?
Why do you think that might be?
My view is that it’s because these latest data are damning of the ludicrous, ongoing hen harrier brood meddling trial on the grouse moors of northern England. For new blog readers, hen harrier brood meddling is a conservation sham sanctioned by DEFRA as part of its ludicrous ‘Hen Harrier Action Plan‘ and carried out by Natural England (NE), in cahoots with the very industry responsible for the species’ catastrophic decline in England. For more background see here.
In August last year, Natural England published a blog where it was claimed the results of the brood meddling scheme were ‘encouraging’ (here). As I and many others have said, repeatedly, nesting productivity is not the issue for hen harriers, survival is. Natural England and its so-called ‘partners’ can brood meddle as many chicks as it likes, it still doesn’t address the illegal killing that takes place once the chicks have fledged/been released.
The fact that all five of the latest ‘missing’ hen harriers are from brood meddled nests (four of them brood meddled in 2022, one in 2021) illustrates this point perfectly.
The latest five harriers ‘disappeared’ between 17th August – 15th December 2022. Four months on and I’m aware of a number of other ‘missing’ harriers whose stories are yet to be told. Watch this space.
Meanwhile, I’ll need to update the running total of hen harriers that have been illegally killed or have gone missing in suspicious circumstances, on or close to grouse moors, since 2018, when the brood meddling scheme began…
UPDATE 14.00hrs: 82 hen harriers confirmed ‘missing’ or illegally killed in UK since 2018, most of them on or close to grouse moors (here)
UPDATE 29th April 2023: Natural England & Moorland Association remain silent on latest ‘disappearance’ of five young hen harriers (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
I fond it strange that in the spreadsheet NE gives a list of possible causes for the “missing fate unknown” birds”. Strangely this does not include persecution by shooting interests. Clearly and as illustrated in government research, this was and is the most likely cause of death.
There is enough information in the spreadsheet, and has been since brood meddling started, to show the failure of the programme.
What a disgrace!
I wrote about NE’s dodgy definition of ‘missing, fate unknown’ back in 2017:
Six years on, they’re still at it.
Another baseless pointless load of bullshit from the fat man and the witch do you not think that raptors die of natural causes and how many hen harrier breed on rspb reserves none yet you attack those breeding site s that do
Regardless of how ridiculous and false your comment is, how about typing it in English?
Your talking out of your back passage,I personally witnessed a hen harrier shot in the Pennines national park in 2021 but I managed to film the man pick up the bird and walk off but I was too far away for recognition and I didn’t capture the actual shooting.
Yes natural causes, it shouldn’t have eaten that lead or stepped in that trap. Sad little boy with a gun.
What an unpleasant piece of invective. It says a huge amount for people who run this blog that they allowed it to be published. If this is the very best that those in favour of driven shooting can manage, you really are in trouble.
I suggest that you go back to school and pay attention this time.
Perhaps NE has been muzzled by the annual bung from BASC.
You need proof. Also need to understand rapters have a 20% chance of success to get past A year old,,, not all about gamekeeper activity, but also nature .
If you don’t already (and your comment isn’t some puerile attempt at deflection), you need to understand how the tags work.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09044-w
The evidence is mounting, and on it goes. It endlessly ALL points in one direction. The thing is, these birds fly around, a lot. So the probability of disappearing on a grouse moor isn’t actually that high. It seems these birds don’t get a chance to die from natural causes.
And it’s R-A-P-T-O-R-S.
utter rubbish natural deaths result in the tag continuing to work and the remains found.
And so it continues…..
Presumably the birds nor the tags have been recovered, can we expect NE to investigate further?🤔or will they turn a blind eye and continue with the brood meddling fiasco. The continuing persecution of our raptors leaves me in abject dispair and anger, will it never end.
Natural England should be treated as they deserve. Its obvious to all, they are a disgusting sham organisation. The penalties for the people involved in these crimes are a joke and no deterrent at all. These evil bastards are doing it with impunity.
Have NE commented on the percentage of losses to date?
I’m totally against blood (so called sports) and watch raptors all the time when out and about but i would never have known the full extent of this cruelty had i not stumbled across this web site. The point is, why isn’t the general public made aware of this through the media (in every way). Moaning about it on here (which i also do) serves no point if no one knows about what’s happening in their country while out walking their kids to teach them about nature.. make a point of making this global news. Chris Packam protests, which is great but no one takes heed of him not even the sad sick grouse shooting so called royalty king useless charles with his vast estate’s. We Scotsmen hate it when he and his xxxxx brother comes here shooting.
Here here! Well said
Well Said
From the number of satellite tagged youngsters which are later lost in suspicious circumstances are you able to estimate the percentage of young hen harriers lost in this way from the UK population as a whole?
Let’s hope the mainstream media picks up this terrible news and give it the airing that it deserves and put some stiff questions to NE.
Is it not true that 80% of young birds of prey die in their first year? They die on grouse moors because that’s where they live as that’s where their prey lives.
What a biased report this is.
From the NE blog (you might want to read it)…
“Satellite tags on hen harriers are powered by small solar panels. If a bird dies and the solar panel is no longer exposed to light, tags gradually stop transmitting until the battery drains completely. Natural mortality is high for juvenile hen harriers, especially in winter, and natural causes of death include predation, starvation and disease. However, illegal persecution on land managed for grouse shooting remains the main threat to the recovery of hen harriers, and Natural England research has found high rates of tag failure on grouse moors. Tags can stop transmitting due to malfunction or if they reach the end of their life, but are generally reliable.
Therefore, when a bird goes missing, we always consider the possibility that it could have been illegally killed. When a tag stops transmitting, Natural England staff communicate with the police, scrutinise the data received from the transmitter, and attempt to retrieve the bird. This is not always straightforward, as the final transmissions from the tags do not always give a precise location. If a dead bird is retrieved, a post-mortem examination is carried out, normally by our partners at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London (ZSL).”
1. Hen Harriers live in lots of places. Not just “grouse moors”
2. These Hen Harriers are satellite tagged. Do you even know what that means?
Hi Micky, have a look at the GWCT’s “What the Science Says” website.
https://www.whatthesciencesays.org/are-hen-harriers-illegally-killed-on-english-grouse-moors/
Note that the GWCT is an organisation that is strongly in favour of DGS.
No it depends on species in Hen Harrier is it somewhat less than 80%, although because of persecution it is not easy to calculate a NATURAL death rate. It is in fact way less than 80% for most species. However these birds may well have lived entirely on grouse moors so we might expect any NATURAL death to be there, however the transmitter in such cases essentially reports a static bird and NE go and find the remains plus tag in a NATURAL DEATH and we know the circumstances of that death. Of course in a persecuted death the body disappears the tag is destroyed or its batteries removed so if when searched for one finds nothing, THESE CIRCUMSTANCES INDICATE UNNATURAL DEATH. Tag failure is almost unheard of in normal circumstances ( less than 5%). So there is NO BIASED REPORTING here, you apologist for the criminals.
Most mountain & moorland birds of prey change habitats during Autumn and Winter. Preferring coastal and inland marshes and rough grazing lowland. It speaks volumes that these five birds went missing during the Autumn when transition takes place from Upland to lowland areas. If this was biased then there would be a similar number of birds missing over lowland marshes, but there isn’t. You! Are just a mouth from the blast it, burn it, buried it brigade. But you cann’t cheat karma!
How do most of the dead harriers which are found contain lead shot?
No words. Except lots of expletives.
If NE and DEFRA are monied by the tax payer, surely they should be responding fully, and immediately, so we are made aware?
NE are a disgrace
This is down to landowners and game keepers this is what will get shooting stopped. Responsible people who do shoot will be penalised because of theses idiots..
I think you Scotsmen just hate the English. I don’t suppose the thousands of people employed by the rural sports, keepers,gillies,beaters,staff and livestock feel the same.
Let the English have a vote on Scottish independence. Save us a fortune.
Just saying.
Steve. (Apparentely right wing fanatic)
Lots of truth in your statement though.
Thousands of people were employed in the slave trade.
Thousands are currently employed in the illegal drugs trade…
people trafficking…
child prostitution/pornography…
the manufacturing of bombs which are dropped on Ukraine…
You don’t really have a point, do you? And have you asked the “livestock” what they feel?
I breed schedule 4 birds and am a shepherd in the SW this has been too long a winter and many immature birds have perished this winter.
Its very easy to point a finger but their is no evidence that these birds have been killed illegally.
Their is also the effects of bird flu which have killed many birds.
So until you have actual PROOF look at what has actually been killing birds nationwide first.
Too long a winter
Bird flu
Lack of quarry
Accidents
Illness.
Its veen a hard 12 months a long dry summer followed by a long winter and cold damp spring.
I can assure you it really has taken its affect on all wildlife.
Especially birds and my black redstarts, Hawfinchs, snow buntings and Yellow hammers in avairies are miles behind were they usually are and they are avairy bred birds.
The fieldworkers would be able to find the dead birds and the satellite tag in nearly every case where a bird had just croaked through natural causes or been predated.
“Oh, but a fox or a badger could have taken them deep underground,” a man in the pub said. Yes, well once or twice it is not impossible I suppose – but consider where these birds are routinely lost time and again – on intensively keepered prime grouse moors. Not wild and neglected tracts of hill grazing infested with “vermin”. In most cases foxes and badgers are (at the localities of the final tag signals) about as rare or even rarer than the hen harriers are themselves!
And for exactly the same reasons.
Just about every bird spethas declined this winter from avian flue.
By the time a bird looks unwell it infecting buddy has died. 24 hour that’s about the infection to death time scale of the strain in the UK the last 14 months .
Read my post above as to why Persecution is the most likely cause.
Perhaps the harriers have been vaccinated with lead shot???
When I worked for the NE marine team a fww years ago, I found it strange how commercial fishing interests were considered more important than the actual species itself. I suspect they’re just another corrupt government funded department.
What I don’t understand is why NE continue with this charade of a venture? Do they not have the right to leave? Or is there pressure elsewhere for them to continue? I just don’t understand why any conservation organisation can be so silent on this issue when so many hen harriers are disappearing.
So many brood-meddled birds dead – what’s the point in spending all that money when they die so young? Especially when moorland owners don’t seem to be upholding their side of the bargain and welcoming raptors on their land. Sad 4 birds died in the Yorkshire Dales – these could have been beautiful birds I’ve seen flying magnificently over the national park. Not much of a safe haven for them
So sad for these birds. I used to live and work in Langholm and many of us were proud to have these birds breeding on our doorstep. 82 is a shocking number. Just think how many more of them we could be seeing if they had been allowed to breed. Time to stop the shooting completely. It’s ridiculous it’s still happening
It’s painful, isn’t it? We will be reading these sickening updates from now until the crack of doom until and unless driven shooting is banned.
Anyone who has ever seen a harrier, of any species, quartering an area for prey knows that a competent gunman can kill one very easily. The idea that keepers and shooters aren’t by a country mile the most serious threat to Hen Harriers is too painful for words
I know that not everyone likes to bring politics into conservation, but in my very sincerely held opinion, nothing is ever going to change until Labour (and maybe the Lib Dems)make it party policy to ban driven shooting, at least with regard to Red Grouse. It’s a straightforward issue- why should the leisure pursuits of the wealthy be allowed to flout the law?
Time to ban grouse shooting a ludicrous way to spend a day outside for the very privileged
few. I don’t think this is ‘bird flu’. Perhaps some estate staff xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Were these persicuters of birds and animals as a sport/ murder. We have clay shooting grounds all over the uk and Europe which would test their skill, but the ultimate test would be to do practical shotgun, it tests speed accuracy and fitness over 12 asult courses. But I think most would not get through training course. There are comps all over UK and Europe and the USA.