The news yesterday was all about the conviction and sentencing of Head Gamekeeper Racster Dingwall for his part in a conspiracy to kill Hen Harriers at a roost on the Conistone & Grassington Estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
But there’s another story in amongst the details of that case, and it’s about the satellite-tagged Hen Harrier that Dingwall and his accomplices discussed shooting and killing as it came in to the roost site, but then chose instead to “fleg it” (scare it off with warning shots) because they deduced it was wearing “a box” (a satellite tag) and killing it would draw unwanted attention from the authorities to their grouse moor.
In the RSPB press release issued yesterday in response to Dingwall’s conviction and sentencing (here), the RSPB say that this satellite-tagged bird was actually one of theirs (presumably they could tell from the tracking data that this bird was on Grassington Moor at the same time that Dingwall was out committing crime with his shotgun). She was called Ataksak and had fledged from a nest in the Forest of Bowland just three months previously.
It seems that Ataksak’s satellite tag saved her from being shot on Grassington Moor on that early October evening in 2024. But it didn’t save her from being illegally poisoned near another Yorkshire grouse moor, just three months later in January 2025.
The RSPB press release says:
‘Toxicological analysis revealed that she had died after ingesting a highly toxic mixture of pesticides known by experts as the Nidderdale cocktail, which has been associated with numerous bird of prey persecution incidents in recent years. This incident is yet another crime against a Hen Harrier and is also under investigation by North Yorkshire Police. There is no known connection between the two incidents‘.
Some of you may recall this is a persecution incident I blogged about on 1st December 2025 (here), after discovering the poisoning incident listed in a toxicology database compiled by the Health & Safety Executive as follows:
‘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 didn’t know at the time that this was the same Hen Harrier that had been “flegged” on Grassington Moor. She was almost the bird that got away.
The RSPB had also mentioned this poisoning incident in a press release about a number of Hen Harriers either ‘missing’ or poisoned in 2025, published on 20 January 2026 (here). They noted that:
‘The area where Ataksak’s body was found is recognised as a bird of prey persecution hotspot. In the last ten years 25 confirmed bird of prey persecution incidents have been recorded in this area, including Ataksak. These included four Hen Harriers, 13 Red Kites and five Buzzards. A satellite tagged Hen Harrier also disappeared in this area in 2024‘.
Given it’s been a year since Ataksak was found poisoned, and I haven’t seen any media or appeals for information from North Yorkshire Police, in November 2025 I submitted a series of FoI requests to various authorities to ask about the progress of any investigation into this crime.
I’ve had some responses back, and I’ll write about those in a separate blog, probably next week.
Meanwhile, the RSPB has now published an extended ten minute version of the covert footage it captured of Dingwall and his accomplices on the Conistone and Grassington Estate, including the period they were discussing whether to kill or scare away Ataksak when she was trying to come in to her evening roost site on the moor. You can watch it here:
Raptor Persecution UK 
The Conistone/Grassington estate where the shooting happened is literally on the border with Nidderdale. Was there a grid reference where Ataksak was found? xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx. Anyway, another sickening case
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx ………. I should be Chief Inspector of Police you clearly need the IQ of a gnat.
Be interesting to know if we eventually do which moor that Ataksak was poisoned on. The first known use of the “cocktail” for sometime I had thought it might have gone elsewhere with a couple of keepers changing jobs. xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx.
The fact that they talked so casually about what they were up to, for example the shooting of the Raven and Buzzard being mentioned almost as an afterthought, suggests to me that killing birds of prey was an everyday occurrence.
I bet the RSPB Inv. team could hardly believe their eyes and ears when they first played the tape back. Very well done.
I watched the video then went back to look at what the defendant’s legal representative said about him in court; “DJ Lower said it was clear from the character references that Dingwall’s latest offending was “completely out of character“”! I assume the judge watched the video. How could he possibly then believe anything other than that Dingwall was acting in anything but a well-practiced routine and using gamekeeper’s dialect in a very familiar way? Dingwall’s behaviour on the video shows this was very much “in character”. The judge had to find him guilty.
If it was down to me [Ed: rest of comment deleted as libellous]
Just a thought but it is feasible to legislate for anyone convicted of an offence of wildlife cruelty, or killing, to be fitted with a tag so as their movements can be tracked?
Yep, this really brings home the “Running the Gauntlet” aspect of an ordinary Hen Harriers life in the North of England – more like living on a prayer really.
For those of us that have always known that there exists an archipelago of really “hard” persecution estates (interspersed with a few soft ones and/or unknown quantities) that stretches right from the southerly Y.Dales right up well into Scotland this is no suprise whatsoever.
Throws the futility of the whole conceptual rationale of Brood Meddling scheme in stark relief!
It stretches further south than the Yorkshire Dales….there are some grouse shooting estates in the Peak District National Park who are right up there on the ‘hard persecution’ scale.
Why aren’t the Land owners of these estates brought to justice as they ‘own’ the land and employ these OYK’s to go about their killing… surely the head of the snake needs dealing with as well as the monkeys… 😡
Most legislation covering wildlife crime is disappointingly quite clear in that only the person who commits the crime(s) can be prosecuted not those who commission it. In this case much of the “estate” is held by the YDNP because the ownership cannot be proved by anyone, although the sporting rights are owned by the employers of these keepers. Also worth noting there is no vicarious liability in England or Wales. That of course desperately needs to be changed, write to your MP.
I do not think that the YDNP “holds” land or Estates in the National Park to any extent at all. This is why they are so powerless. I agree it is vicarious liability that is missing but any meaningful legislation on this is a pipe dream. We have got to a position, after years and years of trying, that active and direct campaigning is now needed. I think we need to follow the example of the Hunt Saboteurs Association who do things legally but with great effect. Just got back from Arkengarthdale; attitudinally not much has changed at all over the years that I have been going!
“In this case much of the “estate” is held by the YDNP because the ownership cannot be proved by anyone, although the sporting rights are owned by the employers of these keepers.”
Not true…. according to the Yorkshire Dales National Park:
“Over 95% of the Yorkshire Dales National Park is in private ownership.”
“The National Park Authority owns less than 0.4 per cent of the land. This includes car parks, woodland and small nature reserves.”
https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/about/about-the-national-park/
“Also worth noting there is no vicarious liability in England or Wales. That of course desperately needs to be changed, write to your MP.”
I wouldn’t waste my time:-(
Vicarious liability has been a failure in Scotland: why would it be any different in England and Wales?
“Why aren’t the Land owners of these estates brought to justice as they ‘own’ the land and employ these OYK’s to go about their killing…“
Because vicarious liability doesn’t work.
it’s about time the employers were deemed culpable. xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx.
“it’s about time the employers were deemed culpable.”
Vicarious liability hasn’t worked in Scotland – why should it in England and Wales?
In the vast majority of cases it is not known who the employer might be. It is a great shame that there is no comeback in those very few cases in which the employer is identifiable beyond doubt. A question I have asked myself is what might have happened in this case if licensing of grouse moors for shooting had been in place?