Further to yesterday’s news about the disappearance of two breeding male Hen Harriers from the RSPB’s Geltsdale Reserve in Cumbria, suspected to have been illegally killed whilst away hunting on neighbouring grouse moors (here), there’s news of another suspicious disappearance.
This time it’s a young female Hen Harrier called ‘Sita’ who was satellite-tagged in Bowland in 2024, using a tag paid for by public funds raised by the charity Hen Harrier Action.
Sita spent her first winter in the Yorkshire Dales National Park but her tag suddenly and unexpectedly stopped transmitting on 27 February 2025 from a roost site on an unnamed grouse moor within the National Park.
Apparently her disappearance is being investigated by North Yorkshire Police and presumably the Hen Harrier Taskforce, run by the National Wildlife Crime Unit, but three months later I haven’t seen any public appeal for information or announcement about her suspicious disappearance in what is one of the UK’s worst raptor persecution hotspots.
I’ll be updating the HH kill list shortly.
UPDATE 1 October 2025: More information about the suspicious disappearance of Hen Harrier ‘Sita’ who vanished on a grouse moor in Yorkshire Dales National Park (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
When will the police and government start taking this crime seriously? Three months with no appeal? It is beyond a very, very bad joke!
Time to start calling out North Yorkshire Police, failing to do their duty.
Marvellous how you muppets assume fowl play.Seeing as some of these shooting estates have had breeding programs for these,and have had success from egg to fledgeling,with the correct land management which includes a predator control program.Something the RSPB is reluctant to do on a regular basis,by the time it’s stopped dithering predators have decimated their eggs and chicks on the ground.They could have been had by wind farms which has been the case but again you muppets don’t right that in,could have cluttered off for any amount of reasons,as far as I know they are not hefted.Remember seeing is believing,assumptions arn’t worth jack shit
it’s a pity you choose to be rude and offensive in your reply.
Avian Predators just as Prey Species die…. that’s ‘Life’ but… when a ‘Pattern’ emerges questions need to be asked.
“They could have been had by wind farms which has been the case but again you muppets don’t right that in,could have cluttered off for any amount of reasons,as far as I know they are not hefted.Remember seeing is believing,assumptions arn’t worth jack shit”
What a stupid response:-( This bird was satellite-tagged with proven, reliable, equipment and was being actively tracked. Suddenly, the transmissions stop without any previous signs of equipment failure.
A search at its last known transmission location is undertaken immediately – sometimes they even use sniffer dogs – yet no sign of either the bird or the equipment has ever been found.
The bird has never been seen since (three months and counting…)
Why did the transmission equipment suddenly stop? Why couldn’t the equipment be found? Why has the bird never been seen since (with all those bird watchers?).
Bird and equipment just vanish into thin air overnight, never to be seen again… And why did this mysterious event take place at a known roost site on a known grouse moor?
were these shooting estates just breeding more targets with these so called breeding programs??
Hello Peter, You are correct, as at this moment in time, it might not be fowl play, however your, correct land management which includes a predator control program, is not working then.
No shooting estate has had “breeding programmes” for Harriers although some ( a mere 9) have been involved with Brood meddling a system designed not to increase harriers but to limit their density. RSPB wardened sites have 25X the density of nests on commercial grouse moors and a 3X lower failure rate, with none of those failures investigated by the police. There are NO WIND FARMS in the YDNP. When birds die naturally the tag continues to work and the corpse or remains are found, oh a before you claim otherwise these tags are about 95% reliable. so take your ignorance , bile and your criminal apologist views elsewhere.
Predator control program, would that be get rid of the shooting fraternity then? Another educated, well structured response from the pro hunting team
“fowl play”! Your hilarious accidental pun aside, which one are you? Kermit?….Miss Piggy?….Or the hairy one that just makes unintelligible noises?
I find it ‘interesting’ (in a worrying, un-nerving way) that pro shooting people have found this site, it is titled Raptor Persecution after all. Their demonstrating a keen interest in raptor persecution that they try to claim isn’t happening. I could understand them finding it if this site was solely an anti bird shoot site.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx Be patient these retched people and their sport’s will go the same way as Fox hunting
Wow! Peter Wright you could not have written a more dishonest response if you tried. Mind you, given that you do not know the difference between “fowl” – belonging to the Galliformes or Anseriformes, and “foul” – deeply unpleasant, just like your nonsensical rant, and do not know how to spell “fledgling” I will take it that you aren’t the most intelligent person on this thread.
my bet is that a peregrine has killed it .they will not tolerate another bird of prey in there nesting area.most of these missing tagged henharriers are killed this way.we have a large population of peregrine falcons and it must be a mine field for young or old harriers to negotiate through territories. Also wind farms are a total menace to flying birds not just rare ones.
“my bet is that a peregrine has killed it” and “most of these missing tagged henharriers are killed this way”
Another mindless, knee-jerk, response:-(
Tell me, how – exactly – do Peregrines manage to turn off the satellite tag transmissions so deftly? Do they attend technology lessons, perhaps? Are they then supplied with screwdrivers and sent out ‘on patrol’… ?
And how do they dispose of this equipment? Considering all the monitoring of Peregrine nests that goes on, you’d think that some of this equipment would turn up…
“we have a large population of peregrine falcons…”
I don’t believe you. The BTP report a 43% decline in Peregrine numbers overs the years 1995 to 2022.
https://data.bto.org/trends_explorer/?species=Peregrine
“Also wind farms are a total menace to flying birds not just rare ones”
How does that account for the sudden loss of satellite tag responses and the subsequent disappearance of both bird and equipment, then?
I suspect PW was sitting in the pub having a “laugh”. We all know, and the Grouse industry knows that this is common practice. Near me, parts of the Peak District these beautiful birds don’t survive and yet they thrive on the margins of the Peak. Licenses and prosecutions are the answer but I am unaware of any in relation to the Peak area recently.
Peregrines are decidedly scarce in grouse moor areas for the same reasons Hen Harriers are. Where is your proof or indeed any evidence of Peregrine predation in this or any other case that somehow disables a functioning satellite tag. Peregrine predation of harriers is also relatively rare and in the area of the YDNP there are NO WIND FARMS.
Have any of the young peregrines at Malham Cove ever been tagged down the years? If that was done regularly, I think a clear pattern would soon emerge that would not be a surprise to anybody but would be good scientific evidence.
Last time I was there which is admittedly a little while ago they weren’t even ringed and that may still be the case.
Sorry but I find your comment tiresome Skylark – Keith has already explained about tags failing to transmit and the lack of being able to locate carcasses as have countless others. Do you not read the comments?
Always around Grouse Moors!! Says it all really, even if these birds were got by wind farms or predated the satellite tag would still be working. Human persecution, shot, satellite destroyed all to protect game birds for vile scum to shoot. Time this was banned and our Raptors were safe and free to fly without being killed by Gamekeepers or landowners. So much of our wildlife gets trapped/shot and poisoned just to protect Game birds.
The quality of apologist-troll is really getting poor these days. I think those with half a brain have retreated to grumble in their own ignorant and/or self-deceiving circles on certain YT channels and the like. I think the RSPB / Channel 4 video of a very typical evening out for the lads “biffing” harriers (a scenario likely being repeated an hour ago tonight – as every night as twilight descends), on a lot of upland Estates each night might have something to do with that? https://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive-secret-filming-reveals-the-killing-of-rare-hen-harriers-on-grouse-moors
Some group of peeps are looking into ways of making blades more visible to birds …there’s a leading thoughts that strips of some other painting of turbine arms ..it’s worked in Sweden/Denmark way
In view of all the technology available these days I wonder whether there is an alternative to satellite tagging? It needs something that continues to emit a signal no matter what happens. Would a microchip be feasible?
It is a pity that this site has been targeted by trolls, that is the polite version. Could it be that we are having an impact on those who engage in blood lust pastimes?
Tags continue to work on dead birds if they are not interfered with.
“In view of all the technology available these days I wonder whether there is an alternative to satellite tagging? It needs something that continues to emit a signal no matter what happens. Would a microchip be feasible?”
If you want to track an object/subject you need to be able to transmit, and to transmit you need electrical power. The problem with size/weight is that although the electronics can be miniaturised (ie microchiped), the aerial with which you transmit has to be significantly larger, and we have yet to discover/invent any microscopic electrical power sources (so the battery is the heaviest item by far).
In everyday, modern, highly advanced, tracking technology, things like an Airtag contain a lithium ‘coin’ battery. But… Airtag uses Bluetooth communication protocols which transmit just metres… satellite tags have to transmit around 500 miles to reach low earth orbits, and their batteries have to be significantly more powerful, and therefore bigger. It is common, I believe, to use small solar panels attached to satellite tags.
Animal microchips do not transmit at all: they are passive devices, with no battery power whatsoever. They contain little else other than a micro-circuit which will ‘reflect’ an ID only – no location or other information – when placed within a powerful radio field of a very nearby scanning device.
It is impossible to emit a signal ‘no matter what’: all any nefarious party need to do to stop transmitting is remove the aerial and/or battery. And if these components were armoured (imagine the weight), just smash the thing to pieces.
[Ed: off topic]
Well Peter Wright you have certainly been shot down in flames pardon the pun by very clever intelligent people a bit like Sita the poor unfortunate hen harrier bless her like previously said reliable equipment disappeared into fresh air like I hope you and grouse shooting fraternity do ban grouse shooting.