Natural England has finally published data for the 2026 Hen Harrier breeding season, showing yet again that Hen Harriers are not tolerated on most English grouse moors.
Of 45 recorded breeding attempts this year, only nine were on privately-owned grouse moors: the rest were on land managed for conservation.
And although the number of breeding attempts showed a slight increase this year (39 attempts were recorded in 2025), 33 of this year’s 45 attempts were successful, the same as last year.
When you consider that there are estimated to be between 150-190 grouse moors in England (there’s no official register for a precise number), with an estimated capacity for 330 pairs of breeding Hen Harriers, then only having nine breeding attempts (2.7% capacity) is really nothing to celebrate.
Although to be fair, that capacity for 330 breeding pairs doesn’t just include grouse moors – there are other types of moorland available. But even when that’s all included, then current breeding numbers still only amount to 13.3% of that capacity – so still nothing to be proud of.
Natural England has published a blog about this year’s results, attributed to Matthew Heard, National Delivery Director, but just as last year, it’s either carelessly worded or deliberately designed to let the criminal grouse shooting industry off the hook.
Here’s a copy of Natural England’s blog, with commentary from me below:
My commentary:
It’s telling, I think, that the words ‘persecution’ or ‘illegal killing’ do not feature anywhere in Natural England’s blog, despite illegal persecution, over many decades, being the sole cause of this species’ precarious conservation status.
Instead, Natural England describes the cause as “conflicting land management priorities“.
Nope, it’s crime, committed by criminals, on grouse moors.
Natural England’s opening sentence says, “Hen Harriers… after decades of decline, have gradually returned to northern England as their population has recovered“. The population hasn’t recovered, it’s still recovering, and it’s only returned to parts of northern England – it’s still missing as a breeding species in vast areas of grouse moor in the North Pennines, North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales, Nidderdale, and the Peak District.
As last year, once again Natural England has listed a regional breakdown of HH breeding attempts, but has failed to distinguish between those attempts on privately-owned grouse moors and those on moorland managed for conservation.
So for example, the figures for Bowland this year are 11 breeding attempts. That looks quite good, until you realise that nine of those breeding attempts were on land managed by the RSPB for United Utilities. So how many breeding attempts were there on the nearby and much larger Abbeystead Estate, for example?
Figures for the North Pennines are 8 breeding attempts; we know that at least three of those were on the RSPB’s Geltsdale Reserve, where unusually this year the breeding males didn’t ‘disappear’ or weren’t found shot on neighbouring grouse moors, probably because the RSPB used diversionary feeding to try and keep the males on the reserve.
In Northumberland, there were 22 breeding attempts. I’d guess that, like last year, the vast majority of those were on land managed by Forestry England, not on privately-owned grouse moors.
In the Peak District there was a single breeding attempt (that subsequently failed), and once again this was on land owned by the National Trust. There was also another pair prospecting on NT land this year but they vanished in April before a breeding attempt got underway – again, a familiar pattern in this National Park.
In the whole of the Yorkshire Dales, there were only three breeding attempts, and not one in the whole of Nidderdale. I’d be interested to learn whether any of those breeding attempts in the Yorkshire Dales were successful.
Last year I provided a table to show the differences between HH breeding attempts on land managed for grouse moors and land managed for conservation:
This year I don’t yet have the data to be able to distinguish between the different types of land use but I’ve asked Natural England to provide it. I’ll blog when I receive it.
The funniest part of Natural England’s blog has to be this statement:
“The relatively small number of breeding attempts on grouse moors could be due to the reduced monitoring of grouse moors in 2026 in comparison to previous years“.
Yes, I suppose that might be plausible, if you’re six years old with no previous knowledge of this subject and willing to accept anything you’re told.
Does Natural England honestly think that grouse moor owners wouldn’t be shouting from the rooves of their stately homes if they were hosting breeding Hen Harriers on their grouse moors?!
Raptor persecution, and especially Hen Harrier persecution, is one of the biggest criticisms against the grouse shooting industry and these are crimes that they simply can’t justify, so industry leaders usually just deny it’s happening, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
If Hen Harriers were nesting on grouse moors all over northern England, the industry would make sure every single media outlet and every single Defra minister knew about it!
If you’re a raptor fieldworker, or a birdwatcher, and you’ve spent any time fruitlessly looking for breeding Hen Harriers on grouse moors, then this is the type of evidence/experience you could submit to Defra’s Call for Evidence on gamebird shooting. All the better if you can provide dates and locations. You don’t need to fill in the technical Call for Evidence submission form; you can simply write an email to Gamebirds@defra.gov.uk and write ‘Call for Evidence’ in the subject line. The Call for Evidence closes at midnight on 1st November 2026.
Well done Ruth. A truly excellent article and very informative analysis.
It looks likely that there were no successful hen harrier nests at all in our 3 northern National Parks or Nidderdale. There should be loads of hen harriers flying about here. The previous investment by Natural England in this significant area of our country has come to nought.
What hold do you think the Moorland Association has over NE?
DEFRA provides the funds and oversees the governance of Natural England. No knowledge of other Board Members but Heather Hancock is the Lead Non-Executive Board Member in DEFRA. Her husband owns grouse moors and other property in Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales N.P.
I rather like or otherwise the bit in the NE report that talks about the crash of 2024, because if you look carefully at the figures there was barely any decline in the populations in Bowland ( on UU land) or in Northumberland (Mainly Forestry England land). however there was a major decline everywhere else where most nests were on grouse moors. The cynic in me looks ant that and notes 2023 was the last year of ” brood meddling,” so to me it is more than likely that the “crash” was almost entirely down to the usual suspects going back to stopping breeding in whatever way they deemed effective and two fingers up to the law. The poorest numbers are still on grouse moors with breeding densities over 25X lower than those elsewhere, that to me says it all whatever spin the grouse moor lobby groups put on it. As I recall they claimed the 2024 crash was down to a poor prey spring and bad weather. Of course we all know grouse moors have their own climate different from the often adjacent protected populations.
Yes it is great the population survives and is growing but let no man kid us otherwise persecution is still a huge problem for harriers away from those protected areas.
Also notable is that the area where brood meddling took place in almost all years of the experiment, Swinton estate in the Nidderdale National Landscape has had a change of management and for whatever reason birds no longer breed there, having moved to other estates not far away that are within the Yorkshire Dales NP. I look forward to the day that Hen Harriers are found on most grouse moors rather than as now when grouse moor nesting is most unusual ( I wonder why!)
Peregrines are also largely absent as successful breeders from the very same English Grouse moors and it doesn’t take a high intellect to know why.
‘……no longer breed there, having moved to other estates not far away that are within the Yorkshire Dales NP’.
Yes, and we all know what sort of a welcome they would have got there, as evidenced by the successful prosecution of a gamekeeper for plotting the shooting of a HH at a Wharfedale roost site. Incidentally, I still marvel at the RSPB Investigations team’s achievement in obtaining such incredible footage in that case, the location being no great distance from the former Nidderdale nest site as the harrier flies.
Actually no they breed successfully there.
With respect, I never said that they don’t. I simply alluded to the documented evidence of HHs having a potentially rough time in the YDNP.
yes that is generally true but on the moor in question, which I won’t name they are allowed to breed.
One could be forgiven for thinking that much of the NE report had been drafted using AI,. the absence of any mention of ‘persecution’ or ‘illegal killing’ (as highlighted by Ruth) suggesting that it had been instructed to exclude any references which might provoke conflict with certain other interested bodies.
The same could be said of the reference to ‘conflicting land management priorities’, anyone not familiar with the basic issues here being likely to interpret this term as relating to the balancing of legitimate issues and activities and not including illegal activity which is a serious offence under the WCA.
I would pose the same question as that recorded by Swaledale above, except that I would go further and ask just who is NE afraid of upsetting? Who is calling the tune?
I suspect that may be the landowners that currently allow them on, as ridiculously they have to ask for access permission even on SSSIs. It is certainly time that was changed.