I’ve blogged recently about a number of illegally-killed Hen Harriers whose deaths have not been publicised by the authorities (Hen Harrier ‘Susie’ who was found dead with gunshot injuries on a grouse moor in the North Pennines, here; and Hen Harrier ‘254843’ who was found dead on moorland in Northumberland National Park with shotgun damage to her satellite tag, here).
Here’s another one. This time found illegally poisoned on a grouse moor in North Yorkshire.
Once again, the details of the illegal killing of this latest Hen Harrier have only become public after careful scrutiny of a national database (this one operated by the Health & Safety Executive) – an entry on a spreadsheet rather than a full-blown press release from the investigating authorities.
Here are the limited details that I’ve found:
HSE Ref number 107/913. Confirmed poisoning, North Yorkshire, January 2025. Chemicals Bendiocarb, Carbofuran, Isophenphos, Alphachloralose. Notes: ‘A dead Hen Harrier was found on a grouse moor. Residues of Bendiocarb, Carbofuran, Isophenphos and Alphachloralose were found in the samples analysed, which is an abuse of these compounds. Case closed as passed to the Police‘.
I haven’t seen ANY police appeal or press release about the illegal poisoning of this Hen Harrier or the discovery of its corpse in North Yorkshire 11 months ago in January 2025. Not a single word.
Where is the publicity from the National Wildlife Crime Unit-led Hen Harrier Taskforce? The specialist group set up explicitly to tackle the ongoing illegal killing of Hen Harriers. Not a single word.
Where is the publicity from the police-led national Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG), one of whose functions is apparently ‘awareness raising‘ and ‘raising the profile [of illegal raptor persecution] via media exposure‘? Not a single word.
Poisoning is not a commonly-used method for killing Hen Harriers because this species is not a routine carrion eater. Typically they are shot when foraging low for live prey or flying towards a roost site, or trapped on or next to their nest sites and then bludgeoned to death instead. Although there was one case of a Hen Harrier being found poisoned on a Pheasant-shoot in County Meath, Ireland in 2019 (here).
The information I’ve gleaned so far about this latest Hen Harrier poisoning just refers to ‘North Yorkshire’. It’s a huge county, with grouse moors in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Nidderdale National Landscape (previously called an AONB), and the North York Moors National Park.
However, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the distinctive combination of chemicals used – a highly lethal mixture widely known as the ‘Nidderdale Cocktail’, so described due to the frequency of use of this nasty combination in Nidderdale, where it has killed a number of birds of prey over the years, particularly Red Kites, and also a pet dog (see here).
That might suggest a Nidderdale grouse moor as the location of the January 2025 Hen Harrier poisoning, although the Nidderdale Cocktail has also been detected in other poisoning cases as far north as Scotland, perhaps indicative of gamekeepers moving jobs, so it’s not conclusive.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve been critical of an apparent lack of action from North Yorkshire Police in relation to a national wildlife crime priority incident. Just a couple of years ago they refused to investigate the circumstances of an illegally poisoned Red Kite that had been found dead on Swinton Estate (see here).
This apparent lack of inertia is in direct contrast to how North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Crime Team used to function a few years ago, under different leadership, when it was proactive and very public about its work (e.g. see here, here, here, here etc).
I’ve submitted a number of FoIs to various agencies about this latest Hen Harrier persecution incident. I’ll report more when they respond.
Raptor Persecution UK 
And STILL the grouse moor owners and their followers say there is no evidence that raptors are killed!
Good luck with your FoI requests.
It seems to me that we are down to just the excellent RSPB investigations team and Channel 4 to actually catch these bastards.
What is the actual track record of North Yorkshire Police, NWCU and Natural England in investigating these crimes properly in Yorkshire and bring people before our courts of justice. It would be a very small list this century I would surmise.
Yep, just when you dare to believe that an institution is going to do something that might actually work (as I did when North Yorkshire police wrote those covert recording permission request letters to landowners in the NP)…what happens? Well, seemingly sweet f.a. happens for a long while but then you learn that stuff like this has been happening and it has simply not been publicised!
Infuriating and motivating in equal measure.
A change of leadership in NYP wildlife crime team is all it took to go from excellent to down the pan.
In my opinion they have no intention of investing any time at all in investigating any of these wildlife crimes they being the wildlife police are a total shambles , too hard a job to get a conviction so they just dont bother to much like hard work for them so they are probably being told from the top brass not to bother as it’s a waste of time and the people who actually care just have to suck it up .The fact that the poison used is banned and actually harmful to more than it’s intended target should make them get thier finger out .The silence from them on these incidents is deafening and tells you everything. Wonder how they would react if it was a dog or cat they owned that fell fowl of the same poison ….