Last Friday afternoon, Natural England quietly published its latest sporadic update on the status of its satellite-tagged hen harriers. This is essentially an excel spreadsheet that provides the public with little more than the bare minimum of data about tagged individuals.
The latest update was done without fanfare; indeed NE appears to have said absolutely nothing at all about it. I’m not surprised, given what the data show. NE was probably hoping that nobody would notice but that’s a gross underestimation of the level of public interest in this species, and the illegal persecution of it, on many driven grouse moors across the UK.
It won’t come as a surprise to any regular reader of this blog that Natural England’s April 2025 update reveals that four more satellite-tagged hen harriers have ‘vanished’ since the start of this year.
That’s four more in addition to the one we already knew about this year – a young female hen harrier called ‘Red’, named by local schoolchildren. Red had hatched on the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve at Langholm in 2024 and was being tracked by the RSPB until she ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances in Janaury 2025, on a grouse moor in Co Durham, from where another tagged hen harrier had also previously vanished a few years earlier in 2022 (see here).
Here are the details of the latest four to ‘disappear this year’:
- Female hen harrier named ‘Dina’, Tag ID 254837. Date of last contact: 12 January 2025 at grid reference NT 681512, near a grouse moor in the Lammemuirs, south Scotland.
- Female hen harrier, brood meddled in 2022 (R3-F2-22), Tag ID 213924. Date of last contact: 3 February 2025 at grid reference SE 759996, a grouse moor in the North York Moors National Park.
- Female hen harrier named ‘Bonnie’, Tag ID 254841. Date of last contact: 4 April 2025 in Scotland. ‘Site confidential – ongoing investigation’.
- Female hen harrier named ‘Gill’, Tag ID 240294. Date of last contact: 10 April 2025 in Scotland. ‘Site confidential – ongoing investigation’.
I haven’t seen any publicity about these four disappearances – no press releases, no appeals for information, just silence.
I’ll shortly be adding these four to my rolling list of dead/missing hen harriers.
In addition to these four ‘missing’ birds, a hen harrier has been found dead in the Yorkshire Dales National Park this spring and is listed as ‘awaiting post mortem’. This is another female, brood meddled in 2022 (R1-F4-22), Tag ID 232636. The date of last contact was 2 April 2025.
This death may or may not be suspicious/confirmed persecution – we’ll have to wait for the results of the post mortem. But don’t anyone hold your breath – there are six other hen harriers, found dead in 2024, and yet are still listed on Natural England’s spreadsheet as ‘awaiting post mortem’. One of them, ‘Susie’, was found over a year ago. Those six are:
- Female hen harrier named ‘Susie’, 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‘. Now 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).
- Female hen harrier named ‘Edna’, Tag ID: 161143a. Last known transmission 7 June 2024, Northumberland. Listed by NE as ‘Recovered, awaiting post mortem‘.
- Female hen harrier, Tag ID: 254843. Last known transmission 29 July 2024, Northumberland. Listed by NE as ‘Recovered, awaiting post mortem‘.
- Male hen harrier, Tag ID: 254839. Last known transmission 5 August 2024, Northumberland. Listed by NE as ‘Recovered, awaiting post mortem‘.
- Male hen harrier named ‘Chance’, Tag ID: 254840, last known transmission date 8 August 2024 in Cumbria. Listed by NE as ‘Recovered awaiting PM‘.
- Female hen harrier named ‘Sofia’, Tag ID: 34346, last known transmission date 3 October 2024 in Northumberland. Listed by NE as ‘Recovered awaiting PM‘.
Again, I haven’t seen any publicity about any of these deaths – no press releases, no appeals for information. Why is that? How come the RSPB can put out timely press releases/appeals for information about the hen harriers they’re tracking but Natural England can’t/won’t?
Surely the post mortems on these birds would have been completed months ago? And if they showed the birds had died of natural causes then surely the NE spreadsheet would have been updated to indicate this by now? The fact they are all still showing as ‘recovered awaiting PM’, months and in once case, over a year later, suggests to me that either NE needs new admin staff or that those hen harriers were illegally killed and NE and/or the police are withholding this information. It would be understandable if this was for operational purposes and in the case of the dead hen harrier found earlier this month, then ‘awaiting post mortem’ is obviously reasonable. But I find it very hard to believe that investigations into wildlife crimes that happened between six and 14 months ago are going to be jeopardised by telling the public that an offence was committed and an investigation is underway.
There’ll (hopefully) be a debate in Westminster Hall later this year following Wild Justice’s petition passing the 100,000 signature threshold. It would be helpful if up to date persecution figures were available to inform that debate.
Raptor Persecution UK 
This is all so depressing disgusting despicable and unacceptable in this day and age this should not be happening it’s heartbreaking Suzie chicks stamped on she’s dead it’s tormenting for all of us caring compassionate folk and you Ruth. I’m shedding a tear as I read all of this and reply decent people who care for their pets animals wildlife. I feel at a loss big article in RSPB magazine on Raptor persecution but until these shooting estates are held to account licence revoked prosecuted and grouse shooting banned. Speechless
Sounds like the mafia. These grouse moors need to end now
I am new to this channel so apologies for my probably naivety but why are NE not providing more data? Under DEFRA’s obligations, pressure can be applied for greater clarity? If they say they are doing a PM, do they not have to disclose the findings? All very tragic.
Hi Andrew,
Yes, NE will have to disclose the PM results at some stage but typically they’ll say they are waiting for permission from the police to release the info, so as not to compromise any investigation.
That’s perfectly reasonable in the early days/weeks/months after a suspected crime but six to 14 months later? I just don’t believe that releasing a PM result at that stage would compromise an investigation.
Because it embarrasses the driven grouse shooting industry and causes more of the general public to look into it more closely and usually become opposed to it. Many elected politicians and many people high up in our civil service support the driven grouse industry for various reasons and therefore they bring their influence to bear – they don’t want NE publicising its fieldwork if that shows bad things are happening which erodes the credibility of the narrative (s) that they cling to. (The above is all my personal opinion of course.)
There seems to be a conspiracy of silence surrounding these incidents. Could be the powers dealing with these matters are hoping we will forget after a period of time elapses. Wrong! It worries me that in three cases there is a refusal to state where the Hen Harriers were found dead. The norm would be to publish this in the hope someone may come forward with information. Who are they protecting? As you say, on the balance of probabilities they would have undertaken post mortem investigations within a short period of time after death, or discovery. Once more this appears to be cause for concern and very suspicious. It has the rank and pestilent odour of corruption.
As one of the poorest countries in the world for ecological diversity, I find it shocking and reprehensible that the people (choose your more appropriate words – mine begins with C) are allowed or even enabled to commit these crimes against nature (and the normal people of this country) without fear of retribution or further punitive actions that will not be made to go away by ‘the lord’.
Who presumably has friends in or is indeed a member of the house.
Were these or other animals hunted for food by immigrants the Tories and landed gentry would be calling for lynchings, as it’s for ‘sport & land management -ra ra ra’ they’re allowed to get away with these barbarisms.
Disgraceful (choose your own appropriate word).
This culture of apparent reluctance to be open about the facts surrounding dead and missing birds has been going on for far too long. I would have thought that Tony Juniper would have got this sorted out long ago – he has had time to do so. We all know that this is a priority species which warrants proper, urgent, attention and it is high time that this happened. Why doesn’t NE formally announce updates such as this with suitable condemnatory comment, rather than slipping the information out unannounced. Thank goodness we have RPUK to keep tabs on this. Maybe that’s why NE doesn’t bother!
its terrible,another grouse moor casualty.Surrly they should be sent a5 year notice of immediate closure if any more of these Hen Harriers disappears in the Grouse moors.They will be served the Noticeby DEFRA.They will sign to agree to the Terms..No more licence if this happens again..There should be No more chances ..We know what is happening and this must be their last chance…
Natural England needs to be replaced, it is structurally pro developers and land owners, and not what the public expects it to be.
hardly surprising that they go missing on or near a grouse moor, since they spend almost all their lifes on the moors.
It’s like saying its suspicious when someone goes missing in a city.
“hardly surprising that they go missing on or near a grouse moor, since they spend almost all their lifes on the moors.”
That much is true.
“It’s like saying its suspicious when someone goes missing in a city.”
But this isn’t.
These missing – vanished – birds are satellite-tagged. Suddenly, the highly reliable tags stop transmitting without any prior signs of radio failure. And when the police and Natural England officials search the last known transmission locations – sometimes using sniffer dogs – they cannot find any signs of either the bird or its satellite-tag. And no-one sees the bird again:-(
That is why it is suspicious.
When people go missing in a City, they are never wearing satellite-tags and being actively tracked, are they?
Actually, Gareth, they spend their time in all sorts of habitats. Some of it is grouse moor. But guess what? The more time that hen harriers do spend on grouse moors, the more likely they are to ‘disappear’ and/or be illegally killed. In fact they’re ten times more likely to ‘disappear’ and/or be killed on a grouse moor than in comparison to any other type of habitat they use.
How do we know this? It was the findings of an excellent scientific paper, based on an analysis of hen harrier satellite tag data and published in one of the world’s top science journals.
Perhaps if you spent more time reading instead of hurling insults and being generally vile on social media (yes, I’ve seen your posts about me and my colleagues) you’d be better informed.
https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/widespread-illegal-killing-of-hh-on-british-grouse-moors.pdf
hardly surprising indeed – (but Keith’s pointed that out better)
Also, if you do pick on Ruth + her colleagues it won’t help your cause so you may as well go find something else to do instead of showing how sick minded you are if that is what you do. Where do you get off picking on women – if that is what you do. They stick up for animals which as far as I can see makes them good people and it takes a sick mind to abuse someone for doing so.
NE are not a serious organization – need to be binned and start again with people actually interested and capable of doing their job!!
The ‘sport’ of grouse shooting needs banning. I’m all for traditions, but some things cross the line. I’d like to think that as today’s younger generation(s) see what is happening, they might turn their backs on blood sports. They seem so ‘right-on’ about climate change etc, hopefully they will see that raising wild animals, just to have them shot by fat, boozed up, hooray Henrys paying thousands per gun, is barbaric. Trouble is they are usually ‘blooded’ by their teens, so will be influenced by mummy and daddy’s ‘allowance’. Perhaps naming and shaming them might be an idea.
These grouse shooting estates need to end