Last month I blogged about what looked to be the collapse of the hen harrier brood meddling sham, after hearing persistent rumours that no broods were meddled this year (see here).
I submitted an FoI to Natural England seeking confirmation of this and yesterday they responded and told me, “no requests came in this year” [from any grouse moor owners] and therefore no hen harrier broods were meddled in 2024.
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, in cahoots with the very industry responsible for the species’ catastrophic decline in England. In general terms, the plan involves the removal of hen harrier chicks and eggs from grouse moors, rear them in captivity, then release them back into the uplands just in time for the start of the grouse-shooting season where they’ll be illegally killed. It’s plainly bonkers. For more background see here and here.
I also asked Natural England how many hen harrier broods were available for brood meddling this year. NE claimed not to hold any information about that, but it’s common knowledge that there were multiple broods on Swinton Estate this year, and at least one additional brood on a neighbouring estate, so it seems that brood meddling could have taken place this year, had either of those estate owners chosen to use the opportunity.
So why didn’t they?
I’d suggested a few plausible but speculative hypotheses in my earlier blog (here) but one hypothesis I didn’t examine was that the Moorland Association might have thrown its toys out of the pram and withdrawn from the brood meddling trial in retaliation for the pressure its members were coming under from the NWCU’s new Hen Harrier Taskforce, which is using an approach similar to that used to tackle serious and organised crime and applying it to target those who continue to persecute hen harriers on grouse moors.
The Moorland Association had accused the Taskforce police of “bypassing regulation” (here) but instead of meekly deferring and backing away, as has happened for at least two decades, this time the police told the Moorland Association it was “wasting time and distracting from the real work of the Hen Harrier Taskforce” (see here) and subsequently booted the Moorland Association off the national Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG), see here, a move warmly welcomed by many in the conservation sector.
The Moorland Association isn’t used to this sort of humiliation. It’s been used to getting its own way, benefiting from the power and influence of some of its members, including the dukes and lords who held sway with the establishment figures of the day. It all seems to be falling apart now though, so it wouldn’t come as any surprise to learn that the Moorland Association had decided to pick up the ball and walk off the pitch, leaving DEFRA and Natural England’s brood meddling ‘trial’ in the gutter.
There’s some evidence to support this theory – I’m told that aside from not engaging in brood meddling this year, some grouse moor owners have also refused access to Natural England staff who wanted to go on to estates and fit satellite tags to other, non-brood meddled hen harrier chicks.
In my FoI to Natural England I asked how many satellite tags NE fieldworkers had fitted to hen harrier chicks this year. This is the response:
That’s an interesting (and short) list. I’m guessing that the three nests in Northumberland are at Kielder (non-grouse moor) and I’m pretty sure that the Cumbria nest is subject to an ongoing police investigation and that the ‘singleton’ chick was a rescue job. The inclusion of the nest in Lanarkshire is a bit bizarre because as far as I’m aware, NE fieldworkers aren’t licenced to tag chicks in Scotland.
Anyway, the table is clear that Natural England didn’t satellite tag many (any?) hen harrier chicks on grouse moors in England this year. I guess we’ll have to wait for Natural England’s end of season report to find out more details – that report is expected sometime this month, along with an updated list on the fates of all the satellite-tagged hen harriers that NE has been monitoring for several years, including all those subject to ongoing police investigations.
We can all speculate about why grouse moor owners might not want to support the continued satellite-tagging of hen harriers by NE (here’s a big clue, here’s another, and here’s another) but fortunately there are other landowners who do support it and provide open access to not only NE field staff but also to those from the RSPB, so hen harrier tagging will continue, with or without support from the grouse shooting industry.
The main question now is what will Natural England do about the hen harrier brood meddling ‘trial’? The licence for the seven-year ‘trial’ has now expired and we should expect a robust scientific review of whether it has addressed the questions it set out to answer (spoiler alert – it hasn’t).
It should also include an assessment of why brood meddling didn’t take place this year and whether that reduces the (misplaced) confidence NE senior staff have previously placed in the grouse shooting industry as a ‘partner’ in this ludicrous pantomime.
Raptor Persecution UK 
So let’s hope that this is the end of this disgraceful farce.
I’m looking forward to seeing what NE have to say. I wonder if there will be a published review of ‘brood meddling’? There are sufficient clues in the NE spreadsheet to show that the trial has not succeeded in any meaningful way.
What do Natural England and lets face it- The Environment Agency, do for their respective remits?
When I look back at the last few environment ministers, I can see a pattern emerging, which I’ll leave for others to fill in the blanks.
The mere fact the previous lot ruled out Zac Goldsmith, who was at least a committed environmentalist tells me they were never remotely interested in protecting the environment. The Trumpist lurch to the right seems to actively wish to tear up protections.
I am not convincd by Labour yet either, with its continuation of the badger cull. Five more years will certainly clear more land for potential development.
Regards the NE fieldworkers – having seen them out two or three times in some pretty nasty conditions (staying out after anyone that was just simply after the wage packet would have gone home) I am convinced they are genuinely dedicated and no doubt have knowledge of Hen Harriers way beyond the likes of me. But they made the fatal (human) error of trusting the wrong people. I don’t think they truly understood the culture of life on the top-end grouse moors, but then again the strategic operational plan shouldn’t have relied so heavily on the forming of trusting personal friendships.
“Regards the NE fieldworkers – I am convinced they are genuinely dedicated…”
Agreed.
“But they made the fatal (human) error of trusting the wrong people.”
I’m not sure the field-workers made that choice. I suspect they were instructed to make that choice.
Quite possibly, but on a human level (in my personal opinion, and from two different sources of gossip) they have become friends with people that they just shouldn’t have. I am sure that they will have known already or been appraised of the reputations of all the Estates & the keepers that they work with, but they have become too close to some. This is why going forward it’s no good utilising these fieldworkers* as investigators (like the RSPB have), and a new team should be recruited to work in tandem with the Police on their proposed initiative with cameras / proximity alarms, etc.
*the existing NE fieldworkers should by all means continue with tagging & tracking work, as they are undoubtedly good at it
“Quite possibly, but on a human level (in my personal opinion, and from two different sources of gossip) they have become friends with people that they just shouldn’t have”
Ah. Stockholm syndrome. Quite possibly, as a result of being forced to work with them?
From experience the “befriending” method of raptor monitors types (both professional and amateur) and local birdwatchers to try and change the attitude of a certain keeper or clique of keepers towards certain birds is long established. And is also done by the police i.e. “the quiet word” . It has worked in at least one case I know of, but I would bet probably failed in scores of others. In the long run it does nothing to help the fight to just get the rule of law enforced, and has IMO just promoted a grey area of people second-guessing and mistrusting each other. Personally I prefer honest-dishonesty to dishonest- honesty in people every time!
A bit of an embarrassment for Tony the Tory
“Tony the Tory”
Wrong. Trying to cover up his background again?
Great to hear there are 3 pairs on Kielder. Well done Forestry England, long term raptor protectors.
Hi Roderick, just to clarify, I’m guessing that the three Northumberland nests were at Kielder (given FE’s excellent track record there) but I don’t know for sure because so far there has been very little detail published. Let’s see whether NE’s end of season update provides some clarity (or not!).
Lets be honest!, there is little difference between political parties, when it comes to nature!. They are mainly concerned with people and the economy, house building, wind farms, and everything else that destroys our environment!. The law regarding killing of rare birds, is simply not harsh enough. Jail them!, keeper!, land owner, and anyone else involved in this disgraceful behaviour!. Shoot ur game if thats ur thing!, but leave protected species alone!. Fox and badger, need managing, as they are prolific killers of birds, hedgehogs, and other wildlife!, i have witnessed this many times, but it must be done legally, and humanely, by authorised people, because sadly we are not prepared to introduce their natural predators, the wolf, bear, and lynx.
Rather missed the point that hen harriers choose to nest on the very grouse moors you keep trying to destroy. Where else do theeey nest in appreciable numbers?
Where else? Well, Orkney has been the stronghold for a long time, where the population increased when mainland pops were in decline. Then there’s the Hebrides, Arran, Argyll…. Suggest you read Geary et al (2018) in Bird Study for a very good overview of topography and mosaic habitats used by breeding HHs, including moorland, scrub, open canopy forest and close canopy forest.
“some grouse moor owners have also refused access to Natural England staff”
wonder if there is a publicly available record within NE of all the Estates that have refused access down the years? Redacted or not it would still be a laugh to see the excuses they have made.
This shows what a toothless bulldog NE really is. Surely the official, supposed, guardian of our countryside and wildlife should have unopposed access wherever they might wish to go.
Especially since HH are a Schedule 1 species.
“We can all speculate about why grouse moor owners might not want to support the continued satellite-tagging of hen harriers…”
I agree with your implied motivation for this move being that the implementation of satellite-tagging of Hen Harriers (in particular) has provided important data not only on the way normally-behaving (healthy) raptors simply suddenly go missing, but also where they suddenly go missing.
I suspect that the shooting industry realise this and are deciding to withdraw all co-operation… in the hope that with (far?) fewer satellite-tagged Hen Harriers, there will be less hard data to press for changes in the law, or the way that the law operates.
we have a number of harrier nest here in south west Scotland on private forestery which are looked after by sindicute members which flegged 2 pairs last year
to keep other people and the so-called professionals OUT we work and live in the countryside so we understand it better
“the so-called professionals OUT we work and live in the countryside so we understand it better”
So do the ‘so-called’ professionals.