A few weeks ago just before Xmas, Natural England published an update on the fates of three brood meddled satellite-tracked hen harriers: one that had been found dead in north Devon on 5th March 2024 (it died of natural causes) and two that had both vanished within a week of each other from a winter roost site in the North Pennines in December 2022 and whose gunshot-riddled corpses were later found in April and June 2023 (see here).
Both of these shot hen harriers were found in the North Pennines National Landscape (previously known as an AONB, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and the North Pennines NL was quick to highlight these ongoing crimes by posting a statement on its website the following day.
The Director of the North Pennines NL, Chris Woodley-Stewart, has long been proactively involved in raising awareness about raptor persecution in the area (e.g. see here) and he’s quoted in the North Pennines NL statement as follows:
“It has taken some time to come to light and given that the bodies were on the ground for months before being found, the precise cause of death is uncertain. However, the two birds were found with lead shot in them, near to a North Pennines roost site.
“Whatever the conclusion about the explicit cause of death, the shotgun pellets tell an unequivocal story of illegality. Someone shot these birds with the intent of ending their lives; why else do it? This, regardless of the ultimate cause of death, is evidence of ongoing illegal raptor persecution in the North Pennines.
“This has to stop. We will continue to work with others to raise awareness and support practical action where we can. We’re asking, as always, for anyone with information about any incidents of raptor persecution, to come forward using the confidential hotline“.
The confidential hotline Chris mentioned is the RSPB’s Raptor Crime Hotline, Tel: 0300 999 0101, for sensitive information specifically relating to the illegal targeting of birds of prey.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for Natural England to provide updates / post mortem results on four other satellite-tagged hen harriers that were found dead during the first eight months of 2024, and all four of them in Northumberland:
Hen harrier ‘Susie’, female, Tag ID 201122. Last known transmission 12 February 2024, Northumberland. Found dead. Site confidential. In NE’s April 2024 update, Susie was listed as, ‘recovered, awaiting post mortem‘. In NE’s August 2024 update her listing says, ‘Ongoing police investigation, final transmission location temporarily withheld at police request‘. You might remember ‘Susie’ – she’s the hen harrier whose chicks were brutally stamped on and crushed to death in their nest on a grouse moor in Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, in June 2022 (here).
Hen harrier ‘Edna’, female, Tag ID 161143a. Last known transmission 7 June 2024, Northumberland. ‘Recovered, awaiting post mortem‘.
Hen harrier, female, Tag ID 254843. Last known transmission 29 July 2024, Northumberland. ‘Recovered, awaiting post mortem‘.
Hen harrier, male, Tag ID 254839. Last known transmission 5 August 2024, Northumberland. ‘Recovered, awaiting post mortem‘.
Natural England last updated its online database of satellite-tagged hen harriers in August 2024. That was five months ago, so who knows how many more may have ‘disappeared’ or been found illegally killed since then?
We know of at least one more killed, as revealed exclusively by Channel 4 News in October 2024 when it published covert footage filmed by the RSPB of three gamekeepers on an undisclosed grouse moor in northern England discussing the shooting of an untagged hen harrier and casually chatting to one another about other protected species they’d shot that same afternoon (see here). The police haven’t released any information about a subsequent investigation.
My current running tally of hen harriers that have either been illegally killed or have ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances, most of them on or close to grouse moors, since 2018 stands at 130 birds and this list doesn’t include any of the four Natural England-tagged hen harriers listed above because their causes of death have not yet been revealed.
Raptor Persecution UK 
These poor birds don’t stand a chance to they? Nothing, not even satellite tagging deters moorland criminals who kill them.
entitled thugs dressed up as guardians of tradition..sweep them into history..
And, do not forget that these figures relate to the cases in which it was possible to tell that something was amiss – ie that the birds were tagged (or ‘had a box on’ in gamekeeper parlance). Pro rata, the true figure of casualties is undoubtedly several times greater than the 130 recorded here – probably somewhere around the 500 mark. Truly shocking!
How do you get from 130 to around 500?
are you assuming there are over 500 hh in that one area of the country. Are there even 500 chicks born each year throughout the UK.
Don’t know if you misread it Gareth – as I had assumed Quercus estimate is relating to the full time period of the RPUK list i.e. from 2018. If so, then Quercus personal estimate of 500 harriers killed in England & Wales over 5 or 6 years is about 90 birds per year – which seems a reasonable ball-park figure to me. Just think how many fledge in Scotland only to meet a grisly fate in the north of England within a couple of years, never mind those few that do fledge in England.
A fair and no doubt genuinely felt statement from the NL Director. But fine words once in a while won’t work in that part of the world. The problem is that while it may be true to say that half of the population of that area would be (if they were to give it much thought) against raptor persecution, the other half are ‘for’ the status quo of having large estates that employ small armies of keepers, subscribing – whether right or wrong – to the view that DGS shooting is an important part of the economy and social life of the area. And I would estimate that 50% of the half (therefore 25% of the whole) that are in favour of intensive DGS would (if asked privately) be in favour of more raptor persecution, and/or scrapping the laws that protect raptors! As an organisation (not the NL Director personally), this body is not focussed on this issue, nor are it’s staff and in common with most similar groups including National Parks – they are as fluffy as a cloud floating along on a summer’s breeze. They provide no practical opposition out on the fells to the committed and dedicated individuals pulling the triggers with impunity, nor in challenging the skewed mindset behind the significant wider societal support that the killers have in the area.
And its not just the raptors, we rightly focus on them because killing them is illegal, but these moors are kept deliberately bare of wildlife because the people who currently monopolise them HATE nature. Then they talk a load of bol***ks about managing the environment. I reckon a very moderate proposal would be to nationalise moorland by compulsory transfer to state ownership, no compensation. Then simply leave it alone, or volunteers can plant trees/sphagnum. Cost to taxpayer: zero. Gamekeepers: move to city and get an actual economically viable proper job.
the moorlands have a lot more wildlife present than you think.
actually go out and sit and watch it.
Govt ownership would result in 1000s of wind turbines.
cost to taxpayers would be high as who maintains the tracks that you all use when you visit the moors. The increase in wildfires would cost to be controlled.
At the moment it’s all private money used to upgrade and maintain
“the moorlands have a lot more wildlife present than you think”
No, they do not.
“cost to taxpayers would be high as who maintains the tracks that you all use when you visit the moors”
Not needed.
“The increase in wildfires would cost to be controlled”
Not at all. You shooters have to drain the moors so that the heathers do not rot. All we have to do is block the drains to re-wet the moorland. Wet moorland does not easily burn… unlike your dried-out habitat.
What you say maybe right or maybe wrong. Let us say for arguments sake that you are right – is that justification enough to ignore wildlife crime as an inherent tool of land management? Of course not. To me, anyone who is at heart a supporter of ‘shooting in general’ must (a) strongly and vocally advocate a new model of land management that is by design entirely within the law instead of partly (30% or so is my guess) outside of it and (b) do something practical and/or online to stop the bad stuff – even just commenting on the regular cases / corpses / convictions that are reported on here. Then you may have a basis to argue the ‘positives’. Otherwise your argument is a non-starter. People will just assume you are just an apologist in favour of perpetuating the current situation on behalf (unwittingly no doubt) of powerful people who think that bending the ear / twisting the arm of their political friends and chucking money to PR consultants to go out and greenwash the media is the best solution.
the idea that there’s lots of people employed on these estates is also a myth propagated by the estates, just like the supposed nature they maintain. Land would be best left to go back to woodland than the stripped bare landscape the shooting maintains. It’s no better than the mining it has replaced.
Excellent solution…If only.
Since these raptors were all shown as having their last transmission in Northumberland my guess is that they were all in the same vicinity, more or less. This was probably in, or close, to one of the shooting estates in that area. It is of concern that it took so long to disclose the deaths of these raptors. This will impede any witnesses, or evidence gathering. The slaughter continues unabated.
Once upon a time their was several very busy winter roosting areas and a good number of nesting pairs in the hills around Slaggyford, probably the best in the North Pennines. But about thirty years ago it all came to a very swift end over a 2/3 year period and they have seldom been left in peace in those hills since. Even the RSPB reserve has to use volunteers to watch over it’s (usually 2) nest sites 24/7 in order to deter persecution. But they lose parent birds to persecution outside of their boundary. Alex Thomson / Channel 4 has covered this not long ago. People may also want to conduct their own research into the history of land management in that area, and draw their own conclusions.
Coincidentally I have just finished reading Mark Avery’s ” Inglorious ” which was published in 2015. It seems nothing has changed – our raptors are still being exterminated. The hen harrier especially was close to disappearing altogether in the UK then. Too much talk, too little action, too much vested interest. Apart from the raptors many other kinds of wildlife classed as vermin by the Estates are being killed in large numbers as well.
[Ed: off topic]
There is a simple answer! the punishment has to fit the crime!, these people are destroying rare and precious creatures, to improve their bags of grouse, or whatever game they are targeting!. I have nothing personally against there sport, or the running of the countryside in general!, but they have to accept that wild and rare creatures cannot be killed, so they can improve their lot!. Long jail sentences are the only answer!, for keepers, and yes!, owners of these estates, no matter who they are!, then it will stop!
lots of passionate valid points Dave Phil sphagnum and you are very right Keith our moors in North Yorkshire are bleak barren places devoid of nature no trees no wild life yet on the edges as soon as you leave the moor the farmland and woods on the out skirts are brimming owls deer loads of red kites we watched last autumn. Grouse moors are empty bleak sad places xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx what an existence like you say Gareth mann I drive to the moors every week to pub and we tour round regularly binoculars in hand miserable and bleak xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx .
One of the saddest things I ever read was Hen harrier chicks stamped on in a camera’d nest at Whernside then to hear of their mother Suzie’s fate I vote with my feet and money I don’t go there bleak miserable places .Skipton Leeds Harewood house Bramham Hull over that area again woods and farmland the skies are a delight full of buzzards kites kestrels.