Press release from RSPB (20 May 2025)
Vanishing Hen Harriers Point To Yet More Illegal Killing
- Two male Hen Harriers have suddenly disappeared from the RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve in Cumbria. It is strongly suspected these birds have been killed illegally.
- RSPB says it is ‘sickened by the losses’, as both birds were in attendance at their nests until vanishing.
- Fears over losses prompt renewed calls for tougher regulation of grouse shooting industry.
Two rare male Hen Harriers have suddenly disappeared from their nest sites at Geltsdale in Northern England within a few days of each other. This comes on the back of another Geltsdale male Hen Harrier being found shot dead on neighbouring land in spring 2023.
Hen Harriers are a rare, protected species, known for their acrobatic ‘skydancing’ courtship display over the uplands. The Hen Harrier is categorised as a red-listed species in the UK, due to its low breeding population levels, following historic declines.
Despite being legally protected, multiple studies and reports confirm that illegal killing is the main factor limiting the recovery of Hen Harrier in the UK, causing a reduction in nesting success, annual productivity, and survival of breeding females. A recent study which investigated the illegal killing of Hen Harriers in association with gamebird management (Ewing, et al., 2023) has shown that the survival rates of Hen Harriers in the UK is “unusually low” with birds surviving for just 121 days after fledging, and bird persecution accounting for 27-41% of deaths of Hen Harriers aged under one year and 75% of deaths in birds aged between one and two years. It also highlighted a strong overlap between Hen Harrier mortality and the extent of grouse moors.
Although this pattern of male birds disappearing from breeding sites has been seen before, the RSPB is particularly concerned and upset by these males going missing within a matter of days of each other. Observations show that the males haven’t returned to their nests since going missing and the RSPB local team is now providing food to the female at one of the nests in a desperate attempt to save the chicks. Male Hen Harriers hunt for prey several miles away from their nest sites and it is this activity which causes conflict with those who might wish to kill them in order to protect their grouse stocks used for commercial shooting.
RSPB Geltsdale is surrounded by grouse moors and male birds from Geltsdale have gone missing time and time again, most recently when a male was found shot dead on a neighbouring grouse moor in 2023 when the Police unable to prove who had killed it [Ed: Hen Harrier ‘Dagda’ found shot on the Knarsdale Estate, here. Other Geltsdale HHs that have ‘disappeared’ in recent years whilst away from the reserve hunting include males in 2020, 2021 and 2023, here].
Beccy Speight, RSPB Chief Executive, said – “Although sadly we are used to crimes against Hen Harriers, it is truly sickening to lose these particular birds from Geltsdale in such a short space of time and with them our hopes of a successful breeding season. The last five years have seen a high count of crimes against Hen Harriers with 102 suspected or confirmed incidents, the majority happening on or close to grouse moors. If these magnificent birds are ever going to have a sustainable population in England, this killing has to stop. We need the immediate introduction of a licencing system for grouse shooting, so estates proven by the Police and Natural England to be linked to raptor persecution would simply lose their licence to operate.”
The disappearances have been reported to the Police. The RSPB is currently campaigning for England to follow Scotland’s lead and licence grouse shooting. The wildlife charity says that any grouse shoot which breaks wildlife protection laws to the satisfaction of the Police and Natural England should risk closure for a defined period to provide a meaningful deterrent to such activities. With such a system, responsible shoots would have nothing to fear, while those who commit crimes can be held to account.
This week RSPB is asking the public to contact their MP and ask for action to be taken to protect our precious uplands, and to make crime against birds of prey a thing of the past.
Find out more here: Email your MP – Call time on moor crime | RSPB
If you notice a dead or injured bird of prey in suspicious circumstances, call the police on 101 and fill in the RSPB’s online reporting form: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/wild-bird-crime-report-form/
If you have information about anyone killing birds of prey which you wish to report anonymously, call the RSPB’s confidential Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101.
ENDS
Raptor Persecution UK 
It is not surprising to me that Geltsdale hen harriers are specifically targetted for killing. There is a certain segment of society which hates the RSPB so much that it must get a particular thrill from preventing hen harriers from breeding there.
This really has to stop Will it even with a license scheme ? I doubt it.We all know who is responsible for the shootings , scumbag gamekeepers who are under orders from the grouse moor owners Common knowledge. So why does this continue , evidence ! Bullshit , the numbers speaks volumes , the areas they mysteriously disappear speaks volumes .I thought we already had a license scheme it’s called the LAW .These cowardly people make me sick Total ban no less !!!!
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Stevenmoffatt1 absolutely this has to be taken seriously. This is so upsetting xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx The government need to act xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx we need to ban driven grouse shooting and the law needs to come down quicker and more effectively no messing. I cant believe it. Xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx p>
this is getting ridiculous, the government has to step in now. It’s obvious who the perpetrators are. grouse shooting needs to be banned altogether if they won’t stop killing our raptors.
What excuse has Labour not to get tough with criminal Grouse Botherers???
No excuse that Labour would publicly admit to without a sense of shame – but IMO behind the scenes they are turning a blind eye (as ever) because they need to keep very cosy with key figures (grouse botherers) in the City, and also with major sources of international inward investment (very serious grouse botherers) in the US and the Middle East.
It is pretty clear what is happening here: at the end of the season the usual apologists for the killers will claim that the RSPB reserves have produced far fewer chicks than those on grouse moors and accuse them of being incompetent and how it is only with the gamekeepers / criminals that birds are safe.
It needs banning now: and, in my opinion, shotgun licences for gamekeepers and farmers need revoking – there is nothing in the British countryside that needs controlling with a shotgun, a snare, a pole trap, a spring trap or a poison bait.
Well said Simon Tucker “There is nothing in the British countryside that needs controlling” – If farmers ‘MUST’ / ‘HAVE’ to control rats get a few rescue farm cats or a couple rescue Jack Russells. I know one farmer, he says his and his dad’s shotgun is redundant.
Simon sphagnum and everyone hit the nail on the head they are not bothered by the cruelty involved as long as they get their day out with pals to shoot whatever get drunk the minions behind the scene like hunting are low level scumbags who think they are well in with the upper class which they are not . Breaking the law is breaking the law like you say they shouldn’t be allowed guns as part of the job .
I hope none of you ever sit on a jury in crown court guilty before trial would be my bet.you never try to look for other reasons.those birds could be harbering high tick infestation which would soon sicken a bird to die.my bet with disappearance is the peregrine has killed them wandering into its nesting territory. They don’t like any bird of prey hunting in thier patch.also wind farms over all the moorlands must kill a good percentage as those blades swing at 200mph and it’s a lottery to get through.
i’d like to see a tick remove a tag??
“those birds could be harbering high tick infestation which would soon sicken a bird to die.”
How does that stop the satellite tag from transmitting? Why does both the bird and the tag vanish into thin air?
“my bet with disappearance is the peregrine has killed them wandering into its nesting territory. “
You’ve just lost your bet, then. A fool and his money…
“also wind farms over all the moorlands must kill a good percentage”
So why do both the carcasses and the satellite tags disappear into thin air?
Same old disingenuous nonsense.
@Skylark Problem is the reasons you suggest are inconsistent with the data – if a bird died of natural causes or was predated the tag continues to transmit, and in a very rare case of wind turbine strike the last transmission will be from … a wind turbine. It is rather ironic that your presumptions are the only one posted on this thread that we can be absolutely sure are wrong, along with those being pumped out by xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx who states “a digital device that stops working always does so ‘suddenly’… it is perfectly normal for wildlife to suffer losses…” and, worse, “or “raptor numbers across the UK are at record levels”! The clear implication is he wants his friends to kill as many HH as possible, just as long as no-one can catch them, and he, and you, continue to defend the raptor killers…
laughable comments , bird flu is still rampant in wild birds. You lot are so blinkered
“laughable comments , bird flu is still rampant in wild birds. You lot are so blinkered”
Yet these birds were under observation and apparently not showing signs of sickness before disappearing. At least one set of chicks and one female are also being fed and are apparently still well (how would that be?)
You do know that Hen Harrier is not on the list of UK species affected by bird flu, don’t you?
See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/avian-influenza-in-wild-birds
So sat tags now perish along with the birds? Also, I just checked Table 2 in Atkinson et al (2025)* and it confirms that no Hen Harriers tested positive in a sample of 27 between Oct-22 and Sept-24 – so seems not quite as rampant as you imply? Since you apparently know better than the scientific community who are researching the subject can you also outline your science qualifications, why we should listen to you first?
* Philip W. Atkinson, Dawn E. Balmer, Ashley C. Banyard, Jean Duggan, Marco Falchieri, Teresa M. Frost, Elizabeth M. Humphreys, Rebecca Jones, Samuel Langlois Lopez, Will T.S. Miles, Matty Murphy, Ronan Owens, James W. Pearce-Higgins, Scott M. Reid, Claire Smith & Constance J. Tremlett (21 May 2025): Evaluating the use of carcass and testing data to assess the high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) related mortality in wild birds in the United Kingdom and Crown Dependencies between 2021–2023, Bird Study, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2025.2492902
Stephen Holmes Skylark the only ticks the birds are carrying are blinkered people like you and bird flu isnt helped by the release of cruelly raised cage reared birds who are non native to this country who are probably contributing to the spread of avian flu laughable poultry is kept under strict rules.