Category: 2024 persecution incidents

Commentary on the conviction of gamekeeper Thomas Munday (bludgeoned Buzzard to death on Hovingham Estate, North Yorkshire)

On Monday this week, former gamekeeper Thomas Munday appeared at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court where he was convicted of killing a Buzzard in March 2024 on land owned by the Hovingham Estate in North Yorkshire and was fined £1,215 (see RSPB press release here).

The case drew wide media attention, not least because it centered on disturbing footage captured on an RSPB covert camera showing Munday brutally beating to death the Buzzard that had been captured inside a Crow cage trap. The violence was appalling, and according to a piece on ITV news, even Munday’s solicitor told the court that his client had done “an incredibly cruel thing, it was a disgusting aberration“.

Thomas Munday (on the left) leaving court with his solicitor (screengrab from ITV News footage)

I said I’d return to this case to provide some commentary. I’m interested in three different aspects of the case: the charge against Munday, the sentence he received, and the location of the crime.

THE CHARGE

Munday was charged with intentionally killing a protected wild bird, a Buzzard. That’s an obvious offence and was clearly evidenced by the RSPB’s video footage. Munday pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity.

But to my mind there were other charges that could have been brought against Munday. For example, using a cage trap to kill or take a protected wild bird, possession of an article (the stick) capable of being used to commit an offence, and perhaps even going equipped (the ATV) to commit an offence.

However, the main additional charge I would have expected to see, based on the video footage, was that of causing unnecessary suffering to the Buzzard (Section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006).

It’s beyond doubt, to me, (and apparently to Munday’s solicitor – see above) that that Buzzard suffered unnecessarily due to the two bouts of inhumane and cruel beating caused by Munday.

The courts are expected to treat animal cruelty seriously, as evidenced by the guidelines provided by the Sentencing Council – see here.

If you follow the step-by-step process outlined by the Sentencing Council, Munday’s actions could be determined as being of either High Culpability or Medium Culpability, and the harm caused (death) falls under Category 1 (the most serious level of harm caused).

Sentencing guidelines for offences determined to be High Culpability Category 1 start at two years’ custody. For Medium Culpability Category 1 offences, the starting point is 26 weeks’ custody.

I wonder why the CPS chose not to bring any charges other than that of intentionally killing a protected wild bird (the Buzzard)? Or maybe the CPS did bring other charges and there was a plea bargain? Along the lines of, ‘My client will plead guilty if the other charges are dropped’? That’s a common and legitimate feature of many criminal prosecutions but if that did happen in this case, why did the CPS accept? Was it a case of getting a quick and easy conviction in the bag and let’s move on to the next case?

This is all conjecture, of course, and until there’s better (any!) transparency about charging decisions then we’ll never know.

THE SENTENCE

Munday was fined a total of £1,215 for killing the Buzzard. This amount was broken down as follows:

£807 – fine

£323 – surcharge

£85 – costs

Some people, and I’m one of them, will consider that this level of fine does not reflect the seriousness of the offence and is at the lower end scale available to the courts. As the RSPB stated in its press release after Munday’s conviction, ‘This penalty provides little deterrent to others who may consider committing similar crimes and fails to reflect the casual and callous acts of cruelty involved‘.

I’ve seen some argue that the other consequences Munday faced (i.e. losing his firearms and shotgun certificates, losing his job, losing his home), in addition to the fine, is sufficient penalty for him. I disagree. Losing a job and home is no different to someone being made redundant, through no fault of their own, and having to relocate to find work.

According to media reports, Munday has re-trained (now a tree surgeon, apparently, so need for firearms/shotgun certs), is employed and has moved away from the house he was renting. Paying off a £1,215 fine shouldn’t be too much of a burden to him.

In addition, this case utilised forensic expertise (including examination of the bloodied stick to identify Buzzard DNA, and swabs taken from the vehicle in to which the bludgeoned Buzzard had been thrown). This work was conducted by the Wildlife DNA Forensic Unit at SASA in Scotland, paid for by the Forensic Analysis Fund (to which organisations like Wild Justice, Northern England Raptor Forum, Tayside & Fife Raptor Study Group, Devon Birds, Rare Bird Alert and many individual donors, including this blog’s readers, have contributed – see here).

One of the conditions of using the Forensic Fund for raptor persecution cases is that if the case progresses to court and costs are recoverable, an application must be made to the court to recover those costs, and any amounts recovered must be reimbursed back into the Forensic Fund to be used for other cases.

In this case, an application was made to the court to recover the costs of the forensics work but the magistrates said that a reimbursement wasn’t possible because the forensics work ‘wasn’t necessary’ to the case.

To explain – Munday committed his offence in March 2024. The RSPB passed on the video evidence to North Yorkshire Police who executed a search warrant (date unknown) at an address and retrieved several items for forensic examination. However, Munday wasn’t interviewed at that time (for reasons best known to North Yorkshire Police).

Munday was only interviewed by North Yorkshire Police in December 2025, some 21 months after the crime was committed. Had he been interviewed in 2024, Munday’s solicitor told the court that his client would have held up his hands and pleaded guilty. Hence, in the magistrates’ opinion, the forensics work wouldn’t have been needed.

THE LOCATION OF THE CRIME

If you’ve read a lot of the media reports about this case, including the RSPB’s press release and North Yorkshire Police’s press release, you might have noticed that the name of the estate where this crime took place has not been reported. It’s invariably been described as ‘near Hovingham’ and ‘near Malton’ – even the CPS charge apparently described the location as being ‘near Ripon’, which is unusual as typically the exact location is included in the charge. The exception was an article on the BBC’s website, which stated, ‘Thomas Munday was filmed killing the buzzard on land which is part of the Hovingham Estate, in North Yorkshire, in March 2024‘.

The court was told that Munday was employed by a ‘management company’ (un-named) who leased the land on an estate for a Pheasant shooting syndicate. According to an observer in court, Munday’s solicitor ‘spent a long time’ telling the court that the estate had nothing to do with the Pheasant shoot, and that as soon as the estate found out about the Buzzard being killed, it terminated the lease. Apparently he went as far as to say he hoped the press would report this sensitively. That’s bizarre – it’s almost as though the solicitor was acting for the estate.

I was intrigued by this apparent reluctance to name the estate and did some digging.

Hovingham Estate (also known as Hovingham Hall) has been in the ownership of the Worsley family for over 450 years. Sir William Worsley (6th Baronet) apparently resides there with his family. He’s big into forestry and conservation, according to Wikipedia, being the former Chairman of the National Forest Company, the former Government’s National Tree Champion, and is the current Chair of the Forestry Commission.

The estate has won awards for its woodland management, including winning a silver award in the 2023 Bede Howell Award for Excellence in Silviculture (the year before the Buzzard was beaten to death in the woods). The judges commented:

“We were impressed by the co-ordination achieved between the several estate departments. For example, the woodlands present an attractive landscape of high amenity and biodiversity character. They also host an important pheasant shoot by paying especially close attention to the character of woodland edges. The result is a profitable woodland enterprise containing excellent stands of timber. this integrates effectively with sporting and other estate priorities“.

I can see why a man of this standing would want to distance the estate from the disgusting and barbaric crime committed by gamekeeper Thomas Munday, and the estate deserves full credit for immediately terminating the shooting lease. I wish more landowners would follow this example and act so quickly and decisively when dealing with sporting agents.

But that Bede Howell awards committee statement about Hovingham Estate made me pause for thought. “They also host an important pheasant shoot….” (emphasis is mine).

If you look on the Hovingham Hall website, it includes a statement about what goes on at the estate:

It says the estate includes ‘a shoot’, which suggests to me that the estate may be more involved in Pheasant shooting than simply renting the land to a tenant sporting agent.

However, when I looked around the rest of the website, I couldn’t see any further mention of ‘a shoot’, until I looked at the estate’s privacy policy (dated 2024).

This privacy policy lays out how the estate handles its responsibilities under the Data Protection Act and how personal information is used. There’s an interesting entry under the header ‘Shoot’, which suggests the estate is involved in the administration of the ‘shoot syndicate and Let Days’.

Hmm.

I decided to phone the estate and ask them about their involvement in Pheasant shooting and whether they still had a Pheasant shoot after terminating the shoot lease in 2024.

I spoke to a nice lady in the main office who gave me a prepared statement, as follows:

“Hovingham Estate is aware of an incident involving one of our tenant’s employees. We take a zero tolerance approach to issues of this kind and therefore we took immediate action to terminate the tenant’s lease. We must emphasise that none of our employees are involved in any way“.

That’s pretty clear, but didn’t answer my questions. I asked the questions again and the nice lady told me:

“I’m sorry, I’m not at liberty to comment“.

To be absolutely clear, there is no evidence to suggest that Hovingham Estate knew about the criminal activity of gamekeeper Thomas Munday, and when it did become aware, it acted responsibly and terminated the lease.

If this estate is still hosting Pheasant (or Partridge) shooting, whether leased to another tenant or managed by the estate, I hope that lessons have been learned and close attention is paid to what might be going on in those award-winning woodlands.

Kudos again to the RSPB’s Investigations Team for securing the evidence that led to this conviction.

Gamekeeper Thomas Munday convicted after brutally clubbing trapped Buzzard to death on a Pheasant shoot at Hovingham, North Yorkshire

Further to last week’s blog about a gamekeeper being due to appear in court charged with killing a Buzzard on a Pheasant shoot at Hovingham, North Yorkshire (here), the case was heard today at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court and Thomas Munday pleaded guilty.

Here is a press release from the RSPB:

GAMEKEEPER FILMED BRUTALLY KILLING PROTECTED BUZZARD

  • In March 2024, secret RSPB filming caught gamekeeper Thomas Munday brutally killing a protected Buzzard whilst it was caught in a cage trap on a pheasant shoot near Hovingham, North Yorkshire.
  • Today, at Scarborough Magistrates Court, Munday pleaded guilty to killing a Buzzard and was fined £1,215.
  • Although cage traps can be legally operated under government licences, they have a history of being repeatedly used in unlawful ways to catch and kill birds of prey on land managed for gamebird shooting. These incidents are generally related to attempts by the operator to remove any potential threat to gamebird stocks, reared for commercial shooting.
  • The RSPB is urging the UK Government to introduce a licensing scheme for all gamebird shooting to deter bird of prey persecution and to promote better practices.

On 30 March 2024, a covertly deployed RSPB camera caught a gamekeeper brutally beating a protected Buzzard to death inside a cage trap set in woodland near Hovingham, North Yorkshire.

Screengrab from the RSPB’s covert footage showing gamekeeper Thomas Munday clubbing the Buzzard to death, having already bludgeoned it inside the crow cage trap. The casual level of brutality and the suffering he caused is very disturbing.

The footage shows a Buzzard entering the crow cage trap. Four hours later, a masked and hooded individual arrives at the trap in an all-terrain vehicle. He enters the trap and is seen repeatedly striking the Buzzard with a stick. The injured and incapacitated Buzzard is then removed from the trap – clearly still alive – and beaten several more times with the same stick. The individual then picks up the bird by its wing and throws it into the vehicle before driving away from the site.

The RSPB shared the footage with North Yorkshire Police, who later identified the individual in the footage as Thomas Munday – employed as a gamekeeper.

Of all individuals convicted of bird of prey persecution-related offences between 2009 to 2023, 75% were connected to the gamebird shooting industry and 68% were gamekeepers.

A police-led search of the land, assisted by the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), resulted in a number of items being seized including the stick used to kill the Buzzard. Forensic testing by the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA) funded by the Partnership against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Forensic Analysis Fund found traces of Buzzard DNA on the stick. Munday was subsequently charged with the illegal killing of the Buzzard, an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. 

On 12 January 2026, at Scarborough Magistrates Court, Thomas Munday pleaded guilty to killing a Buzzard and was fined £1,215.

Crow cage traps can be legally used under Government General Licence, issued by Natural England, to control corvid species such as Carrion Crows or Magpies, on condition that licence conditions are adhered to. Under these conditions, if a bird of prey or any other non-target species is caught in the trap, on discovery the bird must be released at point of capture without undue delay.

Sadly, this method of targeted killing of birds of prey is a persistent problem in the UK particularly on land managed for gamebird shooting. In a period of ten-years (2015-2024), 30 confirmed incidents of birds of prey being caught and/or dying in unlawful crow cage traps were recorded in the UK. 97% of these incidents were associated with land managed for gamebird shooting. 34 birds of prey were involved in these crimes with Buzzards, Goshawks and Sparrowhawks the most common victims associated with these crimes.

Howard Jones, RSPB Senior Investigations Officer: “The casual and brutal killing of the Buzzard is extremely upsetting to watch and it’s clear that Munday has a complete disregard for the law, and the legislation that protects these birds. Frustratingly, this incident isn’t a one off but is just the latest example of the cruel and disturbing lengths some individuals will go to in order to illegally kill birds of prey.

“These crimes and the wider issue of bird of prey persecution is significantly linked to the gamebird shooting industry. Without long overdue regulation of gamebird shooting we expect to see these crimes continue.”

James Robinson, RSPB Chief Operating Officer said: “Although we welcome Defra’s recent announcement of a review of corvid traps, this latest incident underlines a far wider and deeply entrenched issue for our protected birds of prey.

“For decades, these species have been illegally killed on land managed for pheasant, partridge and grouse shooting. More than half of all 1,529 confirmed persecution incidents recorded from 2009-2023 were linked to gamebird shooting. These crimes will continue without meaningful legislative change.

“Through the introduction of a robust licensing system for all gamebird shooting across the UK, the illegal killing of birds of prey could be effectively deterred. Scotland took this welcome step in 2024 when it introduced licensing for grouse shooting. We need the Government to take action, now.”

Though we welcome the guilty verdict in today’s case, we are disappointed that the sentence imposed is at the lower end of the provisions available to the court. This penalty provides little deterrent to others who may consider committing similar crimes and fails to reflect the casual and callous acts of cruelty involved.

The RSPB thanks the North Yorkshire Police, the NWCU and the Crown Prosecution Service for their vital role in investigating and prosecuting this case.

Members of the public are urged to report any suspected incidents of bird of prey persecution by contacting the police on 101 and by submitting a report to the RSPB.

This can be done via the RSPB’s online reporting form at www.rspb.org.uk/report-crimes or by calling the RSPB’s confidential Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101. Reports via the RSPB’s reporting form and Raptor Crime Hotline can be made anonymously.

ENDS

The RSPB covert footage can be viewed here, but BE WARNED, it includes animal cruelty, suffering and death.

My commentary:

I’ll keep this brief because I’m short of time today but I’ll be returning to this particular case later in the week as there are several important points that were not covered in the RSPB’s press release.

For now, the RSPB deserves huge credit for capturing this horrific crime on camera and ultimately securing a conviction. It’s interesting that the defence did not challenge the admissibility of the RSPB’s video footage and the court accepted it without question.

More soon…

UPDATE 16 January 2026: Commentary on the conviction of gamekeeper Thomas Munday (bludgeoned Buzzard to death on Hovingham Estate, North Yorkshire) here

Gamekeeper due in court charged with killing bird of prey on a Pheasant shooting estate in Yorkshire

Gamekeeper Thomas Mundy is due to appear at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court next week after being charged with killing a Buzzard on a Pheasant shooting estate at Hovingham, North Yorkshire in April 2024.

Buzzard photo by Ronnie Gilbert

No plea has been entered yet and this will be the first hearing in this case.

NB: As criminal proceedings are live, comments have been turned off.

UPDATE 12 January 2026: Gamekeeper Thomas Munday convicted after brutally clubbing trapped Buzzard to death on a Pheasant shoot at Hovingham, North Yorkshire (here)

UPDATE 16 January 2026: Commentary on the conviction of gamekeeper Thomas Munday (bludgeoned Buzzard to death on Hovingham Estate, North Yorkshire) here

Another Hen Harrier suspected illegally killed on a grouse moor, her satellite tag had been ‘removed’

Over the last few weeks I’ve blogged about a number of illegally-killed Hen Harriers whose deaths have been barely publicised by the authorities, but instead have been quietly entered onto a Government spreadsheet, months, and sometimes over a year later, with little effort to draw the public’s attention to this ongoing criminality.

Hen Harrier photo by Pete Walkden

There was 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 the Northumberland National Park with shotgun damage to her satellite tag, here; and a Hen Harrier (ref # HSE 107/913) who was found poisoned on a grouse moor in North Yorkshire having ingested a lethal combination of toxic chemicals known as the ‘Nidderdale Cocktail’, so called due to the frequency it is used as a poisoned bait in the Nidderdale National Landscape, killing multiple birds of prey and even a pet dog, here.

Well, here’s another one.

This time its a young Hen Harrier named Margaret, who was fitted with a satellite tag (Tag ID 254844) by Natural England fieldworkers just prior to her fledging from a nest in Northumberland on 5 July 2024.

Natural England staff ‘lost contact’ with Margaret just three months later on 19 October 2024.

The first we knew about this was in Natural England’s intermittent spreadsheet update in December 2024 about the fate of the Hen Harriers that had been satellite-tagged using public funds. Margaret’s entry read as follows:

‘Lost contact 19 October 2024, Northumberland. Missing Fate Unknown, site confidential – ongoing investigation‘.

Whether that meant her tag had suddenly and inexplicably stopped transmitting, or whether the data showed an unusually long period of being static in one place, wasn’t clear.

We didn’t hear anything more until Natural England quietly updated its spreadsheet in October 2025. Margaret’s entry now reads:

‘Missing Fate Unknown. Suspected illegally killed. Tag found removed. Carcase not found. Grid ref NY878497‘.

So, a year after Natural England ‘lost contact’ with this Hen Harrier, we’re finally given a few more details.

This grid reference is in the North Pennines National Landscape (formerly called an AONB), a region that has long been identified as a Hen Harrier persecution hotspot (e.g. see the RSPB’s damning 2025 report, Hen Harriers in the Firing Line, here).

When you zoom in on this map, you’ll be unsurprised to see it is an area dominated by moorland intensively-managed for driven grouse shooting (as demonstrated by the obscene expanse of geometric strips).

According to Guy Shrubsole’s excellent website, Who Owns England?, this grid reference (approximately marked as a red dot on map below) sits on property described as part of the Allendale Settled Estates:

There’s no suggestion that anyone connected to the Allendale Estate is responsible for ‘removing’ Margaret’s satellite tag and/or killing this Hen Harrier. It’s simply a fact that her ‘removed’ satellite tag was found on a grouse moor at this location without any sign of her carcass.

I haven’t seen ANY appeal or press release from Northumbria Police about the suspected illegal killing of this Hen Harrier or the circumstances that led the police to believe her satellite tag had been ‘removed’, presumably cut, over a year ago in October 2024. Not a single word.

I haven’t seen ANY publicity from the National Wildlife Crime Unit-led Hen Harrier Taskforce. This is the specialist group set up explicitly to tackle the ongoing illegal killing of Hen Harriers in England. Not a single word.

I haven’t seen ANY 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.

Natural England, who used public funding to pay for the tag, public funding to pay for the fieldworkers to fit the tag to the bird, and public funding to monitor the tag’s subsequent data output, chose not to draw attention to this suspected illegal killing and instead just quietly updated its tag spreadsheet a year later, probably hoping nobody would notice.

I’ve been told by a number of sources that the decision about whether to publicise a crime lies solely with the investigating police force (in this case, Northumbria Police). I’m told that nobody else (e.g. Natural England, National Wildlife Crime Unit’s Hen Harrier Taskforce, the RPPDG) can do this until, or unless, the investigating police force agrees.

That’s understandable in the immediate period after the police have become aware of the crime. They’d want (you’d hope) to be launching an immediate investigation and wouldn’t want the suspects to be alerted because evidence could be removed/hidden before the police have turned up to do a search.

What’s utterly farcical though, is that the investigating police force can ‘sit’ on a case for months, sometimes for over a year, and do nothing, either because (a) their officers are overstretched and don’t have the resources to investigate, (b) their officers are inexperienced or even incompetent, or (c) their officers are corrupt with direct vested interests. Meanwhile, no other organisation, including a specialist police unit, is allowed to mention the suspected crime or appeal for information.

This happens again and again and again with some police forces tasked with investigating raptor persecution on private sporting estates (and some other wildlife crime offences, too, notably fox-hunting). It’s not all police forces by any means – some of them are exemplary and their wildlife crime officers routinely push the limits to try and bring offenders to justice, but some other forces simply aren’t up to the job, for any of the reasons described above.

If it is a ‘rule’ that the investigating police force has supremacy over media output, and other agencies have to sit and wait for a green light that might never come, then this needs to be challenged and changed, especially when there’s a specialist police team waiting on the sidelines ready to act but is effectively handcuffed, blindfolded and gagged. What’s the point of having a specialist team if it doesn’t have the authority to lead on an investigation?

But hang on, Natural England has ‘published’ some details about some of these incidents, albeit very quietly in a spreadsheet that most people don’t even know exists. I suspect they have a duty to do this because public funds are involved.

So why then, in those cases, can’t Natural England accompany that spreadsheet update with a blog, or a press release, or something/anything that would alert the media/public to the ongoing criminality faced by Hen Harriers?

And what’s to stop the other agencies doing likewise? Hen Harrier Margaret ‘disappeared’ and her tag was ‘removed’ over a year ago – you can’t tell me that any publicity now is going to hinder a police investigation!

And besides, I’m blogging about the case, legitimately, using information that’s in the public domain. There’s no reason whatsoever that those agencies can’t do the same.

You’ll be unsurprised to know that Margaret isn’t the last Hen Harrier I’ll be writing about that has ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances in recent months.

I’m also aware that I haven’t recently updated the running ‘death list‘ of missing/dead Hen Harriers…I plan to do this soon but may not get to it quickly as there’s a lot going on right now.

Hen Harrier found dead in Northumberland National Park with shotgun damage to satellite tag

This is a blog about one of those dead Hen Harriers for whom we’ve been waiting over a year for Natural England to confirm the cause of death.

A Hen Harrier (photo by Pete Walkden)

The young Hen Harrier in question (Tag ID: 254843) was fitted with a satellite tag when she was a nestling in Northumberland on 5 July 2024.

In Natural England’s HH spreadsheet that was updated in August 2024, her status was given as follows:

Date of last contact: 29 July 2024

Location of last contact: Northumberland

OS reference: Recovered awaiting PM

Status: Dead

There were no further details provided until 14 months later, when Natural England quietly updated its spreadsheet in October 2025. This bird’s status was now given as follows:

Date of last contact: 29 July 2024

Location of last contact: Northumberland

OS reference: NY824937

Status: Dead

Notes on Loss: The recovered carcass was not suitable for any PM owing to level of decomposition

The grid reference places the last location in an upland area of Northumberland National Park, to the north east of Kielder Water. This area of moorland is not known to be a raptor persecution hotspot – indeed it’s one of the few strongholds for Hen Harrier breeding attempts in England – and there was nothing in Natural England’s spreadsheet notes to suggest she had been killed illegally. So we’re led to conclude it was a probable natural death.

Last known location of Hen Harrier 254843 according to Natural England info

But hang on a minute.

I’ve recently found a fascinating blog posted within the depths of the National Wildlife Crime Unit’s (NWCU) website that tells a very different story. It was published on 10 October 2025 and is entitled, ‘Cracking the Case: How Experts Uncovered the Truth Behind a Hen Harrier’s Mysterious Death‘.

The original blog can be read here, and I’ve copied it here incase the link is broken in the future:

When a young female hen harrier known as 254843 took her first flights over the moorlands of Otterburn, Northumbria, in July 2024, she became part of a vital conservation effort. Fitted with a satellite tag by Natural England (NE), this small device would help scientists track her journey, monitor her wellbeing, and contribute to the protection of one of the UK’s most threatened birds of prey.

But just weeks later, her signal stopped. What initially appeared to be a tragic but natural loss of a young bird soon revealed something far more sinister and set in motion a remarkable multi-agency investigation into suspected wildlife crime.

When NE staff noticed that 254843’s satellite tag had stopped transmitting, they followed established procedures to locate her. The bird’s remains were found roughly 1.2 kilometres from her nest close to where she had been learning to hunt under her parents’ watchful eyes. At first, the team suspected natural predation.

The remains of HH 254843 (photo Natural England)
HH 254843 with damaged tag (photo Natural England)

However, during recovery, one small detail caught their attention — a small, round dent and hole in the satellite tag. It was an anomaly that couldn’t be ignored.

This discovery triggered the involvement of the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) and the Harrier Task Force (HTF). Working closely with Natural England, the Northumbria Police Rural Crime Team, and scientific experts, they began piecing together what had really happened.

The first step was to send the remains and the tag to the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) for a detailed postmortem. Due to the bird’s advanced decomposition, the pathologists couldn’t confirm a cause of death, but their findings were enough to justify further forensic testing.

Radiograph of the carcass of HH 254843 and her satellite tag (photo by ZSL)

From there, the investigation moved to Nottingham Trent University (NTU), where specialists used CT scanning and chemical analysis to examine the damaged tag. Their results revealed elevated levels of lead around the hole a crucial clue pointing toward a lead-based projectile.

Finally, the tag was analysed by a ballistics expert from the Scottish Police Authority (SPA). The verdict: the damage was consistent with being struck by a shotgun pellet, likely from a birdshot cartridge fired from below the flying bird. Tests confirmed traces of lead, and the impact trajectory supported the theory of a shotgun discharge at an estimated distance of up to 30 metres.

The conclusion was clear. This was no accident of nature. It was a deliberate act of wildlife crime.

Shotgun damage to HH 254843’s satellite tag (photo by Scottish Police Authority)

Thanks to the combined expertise of scientists, conservationists, and law enforcement, the incident has been officially recorded as criminal damage. Each satellite tag costs around £2,800, not including the significant resources dedicated to fitting and monitoring them but the real loss is far greater, representing another blow to hen harrier conservation efforts.

The investigation also led to important lessons for future responses. New procedures now ensure that if anything suspicious is discovered during a bird recovery — no matter how small — the process halts immediately, and police take over to conduct a forensic recovery. This prevents potential evidence from being lost and strengthens the chance of bringing perpetrators to justice.

This case demonstrates the high level of skill, coordination, and dedication required to detect and investigate wildlife crime. From the precision of CT imaging and chemical testing to the meticulous work of forensic ballistics experts and the vigilance of conservation field teams every partner plays a crucial role.

It also serves as a reminder that wildlife crime is not victimless. Each illegal act damages not only individual animals but also the broader ecosystem and the tireless efforts of those working to protect it.

The public can play their part too. If you have any information about this incident or any suspected wildlife crime please report it.

Every report helps protect the wild places and species that make our countryside unique and ensures that those who threaten them are held accountable.

ENDS

It’s clear from the NWCU blog the extent of the effort, by multiple partners, to determine what happened here, and I applaud them for it.

I’m less impressed that this information hasn’t been given the media attention it deserves, nor that a link to the NWCU blog hasn’t been added to Natural England’s spreadsheet entry about the circumstances surrounding this Hen Harrier’s death. It really isn’t difficult.

I’m also interested that the NWCU blog states, “…the incident has been officially recorded as criminal damage“. This is presumably in reference to the shotgun damage caused to the satellite tag.

I wonder, though, how the death of Hen Harrier 254843 has been officially recorded…’Unknown’? ‘Suspicious’? ‘Illegally killed’?

The blog says, “The conclusion was clear. This was no accident of nature. It was a deliberate act of wildlife crime”. So why doesn’t Natural England’s spreadsheet reflect this?

Hen Harrier ‘Susie’, whose chicks were stamped to death in 2022, has been found dead on a North Pennines grouse moor with gunshot injuries

If ever there was an example demonstrating the high level of persecution faced by Hen Harriers on UK grouse moors, the lack of consequences for the offenders, and the lack of justice for the victims, the short life of a Hen Harrier called ‘Susie’ illustrates it all.

Hen Harrier (photo by Pete Walkden)

Susie hatched in Cumbria in 2020 and was satellite-tagged by Natural England on 21 July 2020. She first bred in Bowland in 2021, and the following year she moved up to a grouse moor near Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales National Park where she produced four chicks.

The Whernside nest was being monitored (nest camera) by Natural England as part of the ludicrous Hen Harrier Brood Meddling Trial. On 20 June 2022, NE researchers noticed that Susie’s satellite tag was unexpectedly and abruptly shown tracking approximately 35km away from her nest. An adult female should be attentive and close to her nest during this period. Her sudden exit from the nest area was worrying.

The following day, Natural England field staff visited the nest and made the grim discovery of three dead Hen Harrier chicks.

Reviewing the nest camera footage, they saw that after dark, at 9.54pm on 15 June 2022, the camera showed the nest site appeared normal with Susie settled in the nest with her chicks. However, at 9.59pm a sudden irregular ‘whiteout’ of the camera occurred, blinding the camera.

The camera used was movement-activated, and it was not triggered again until the following morning when footage captured apparently dead chicks in the nest and Susie attempting to feed them.

She could be seen removing her dead chicks from the nest. Three of these were found just outside the nest, and it is not known where she deposited the fourth.

Post-mortem examinations of the three chicks were subsequently conducted and showed that each suffered with multiple fractured bones including the humerus in one chick, both femurs in the second chick, and in the third chick, the humerus and a crushed skull. The fractures were complete and showed a considerable trauma had taken place for each chick.

It’s quite clear that ‘someone’ had visited the nest, disabled the camera, and stamped the chicks to death.

Six months later (!), in December 2022, North Yorkshire Police laid out the evidence and issued an appeal for information (see here).

Representatives from the grouse shooting industry responded by trying to manipulate the narrative of this brutal and sadistic crime (see here) and of course, nobody came forward with any information that could identify the person / people responsible.

The following year, in 2023, the story featured in a three-episode podcast by The Guardian, called ‘Killing the Skydancer’ (here, here and here). Meanwhile, Susie bred successfully (unknown location) and fledged five chicks. It was to be her last breeding season.

In April 2024, Natural England published its latest update on the fate of its satellite-tagged Hen Harriers. It did so quietly, without any publicity whatsoever. Susie’s entry on that spreadsheet read,

‘Last known transmission 12 February 2024, Northumberland. Found dead. Site confidential. Recovered, awaiting post mortem’.

Nothing more was heard about Susie’s fate until a year later, in another spreadsheet update in April 2025. Susie’s entry now read:

‘Ongoing police investigation, final transmission location temporarily withheld at police request‘. 

Again, there was no publicity about Susie, or about any of the other Natural England-tagged Hen Harriers that had either ‘vanished’ or had been found dead in suspicious circumstances.

Over one and a half year’s after Susie was found dead, the details have finally emerged, and once again Natural England has slipped them out quietly, without fanfare or commentary, in its October 2025 spreadsheet update. Susie’s entry now reads:

‘Found dead 12 February 2024, Northumberland, Grid reference NY759585. Confirmed dead, had been victim of shooting. When found dead remains would not allow determination of whether the bird died as a result of being shot. Bird died between 25 November 2023 and 12 February 2024‘.

Susie’s corpse was found on a grouse moor in the North Pennines National Landscape (a so-called protected landscape, formerly known as the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, AONB), and the grid reference places her on what I believe to be the Whitfield Estate:

Susie had been shot at some point, but where, and when, is not known.

There is no suggestion that she was shot and killed on the Whitfield Estate – she could have been shot many months earlier and survived for a while before succumbing to her injuries. Without seeing the post mortem and x-ray results (which have not been published), it’s impossible to know whether her gunshot injuries caused any broken bones that could have impeded her ability to fly any distance.

That Susie was the victim of at least two separate persecution incidents (that we know about) during her three-and-a-half-year life, illustrates the severity of threat this species still faces in the UK. This should come as no surprise to anybody who has been following this blog for any length of time, nor to those who may have read the RSPB’s damning 2025 report, Hen Harriers in the Firing Line.

These appalling crimes continue because hardly anyone is ever brought to justice. There is rarely any consequence for the offenders, which gives them the green light to carry on.

There has been a change in tactics by the raptor killers in recent years, as we saw in the RSPB’s covert footage in Oct 2024 where three individuals were caught plotting, and then apparently shooting, a Hen Harrier on a grouse moor in Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. They specifically targeted the Hen Harrier that was not carrying a ‘box’ (a satellite tag) because they thought that by doing so their crime would be undetected. A gamekeeper is standing trial in January 2026 for his alleged involvement – he denies it – it will be up to the court to decide whether he was involved or not.

That case is a very uncommon prosecution, reliant on evidence provided by the RSPB’s excellent Investigations Team.

There won’t be a prosecution for the shooting of Hen Harrier Susie because there’s no evidence (that I’m aware of) that links an identified individual to that crime. Just as there was no prosecution of the person(s) responsible for stamping her chicks to death in their nest in 2022.

We all get it – finding sufficient evidence to prosecute those responsible for committing crimes in remote landscapes is incredibly difficult, but the investigating authorities could, and should, be doing much more to publicise these offences to raise awareness and help the general public spot suspicious activity.

The police’s appeal for information about the chick-stamping crime in the Yorkshire Dales National Park came six months after the event – that’s pathetic.

I haven’t seen ANY police appeal or press release about the shooting of Susie or the discovery of her corpse in Northumberland in February 2024. 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 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.

Natural England has remained tight-lipped, as it always does, claiming that it requires the go-ahead from the police to issue any media. Why? Sure, in the early stages of a police investigation keeping quiet is often necessary to avoid alerting the perpetrator who may take the opportunity to remove/hide evidence before the police turn up. But 18+ months of silence, about a crime that relates to a publicly-funded project, and then to quietly slip out the information buried deep inside a spreadsheet?

Honestly, this needn’t be so bloody difficult.

Trial of Scottish gamekeeper accused of killing Goshawk now delayed until March 2026

The trial that was due to start at Perth Sheriff Court yesterday, relating to a Scottish gamekeeper accused of killing a Goshawk, has been delayed.

The case didn’t call yesterday due to another trial over-running. The next available court date is not until March 2026.

Perth Sheriff Court (photo by Ruth Tingay)

This case relates to the alleged killing of a Goshawk on a shooting estate near Blairgowrie on 12 February 2024.

For background details, see here.

NB: As this case is live, comments are turned off until legal proceedings have ended.

Trial begins today for Scottish gamekeeper accused of killing a Goshawk on a Perthshire shooting estate

A trial begins today at Perth Sheriff Court for a Scottish gamekeeper accused of killing a Goshawk on a Perthshire shooting estate.

The alleged incident took place on 12 February 2024 on a shooting estate near Blairgowrie.

Goshawk with a Pheasant. Photo by Ronnie Gilbert.

Police Scotland, with the assistance of partners from the RSPB and Scottish SPCA, executed a search warrant on the estate on 29 February 2024, leading to the arrest of a 47-year-old gamekeeper and subsequent charge (see here).

He has pleaded not guilty.

NB: As this case is live, comments are turned off until legal proceedings have ended.

UPDATE 12 November 2025: Trial of Scottish gamekeeper accused of killing Goshawk now delayed until March 2026 (here)

BBC’s Highland Cops programme features investigation into shot out Goshawk nest in Cairngorms National Park

The BBC’s Highland Cops programme has entered its third series and episode 2 features the police investigation in to an active Goshawk nest that had been shot out on a sporting estate near Kingussie, on the western side of the Cairngorms National Park.

This investigation took place in June 2024 – see here for the police’s appeal for information at the time.

Screengrab from BBC Highland Cops programme

Officers had received a report of the active Goshawk nest being found abandoned in suspicious circumstances in a forest near Loch Gynack, and the programme follows experienced wildlife crime officer PC Dan Sutherland throughout his investigation.

The commentary from Dan is excellent – he speaks calmly and with authority about the link between illegal raptor persecution and gamebird shooting estates, and how the criminals have been getting away with their crimes for so long. That’s not opinion or conjecture, it’s based on factual evidence, and I applaud him for being prepared to say it on camera, knowing full well that it will attract vicious retaliation from some within the gamebird shooting industry, including, I have no doubt, official letters to his superior officers demanding punitive action against him.

Dan visits the abandoned Goshawk nest where he finds empty shotgun cartridges at the base of the tree and a shotgun wad is found lodged in the bottom of the nest.

The nest is removed for forensic examination, along with several nearby tree branches. They’re taken to the Kincraig Wildlife Highland Park for x-rays, which reveal a large number of shotgun pellets:

As Dan says, the evidence is damning.

He then teams up with PC Gavin Ross from the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) and they set out to visit all the people who legally own shotguns in the area, to either rule them out of the enquiry or to see if they can provide assistance.

The first person they visit is a gamekeeper who lives on the estate. They knock at his house and a woman speaks to them through a crack in the door, telling them he’s not in. As the officers leave to go and visit the next person on their list, Dan gets a phone call from a solicitor who tells him that none of his clients will be talking to the police without him being present.

“It’s the nature of the beast”, says Dan.

Dan and Gavin comment to one another that the speed of the solicitor’s phone call is probably some kind of record – coming in less than ten minutes after they’d knocked on the gamekeeper’s door. Their wry smiles tell you this is a common occurrence and was not unexpected. It puts a halt to their investigation until they can organise a time to meet with the shotgun owners and their legal representative.

PC Gavin Ross & PC Dan Sutherland take a call from the gamekeeper’s solicitor (screengrab from BBC Highland Cops).

If someone had shot out a Goshawk nest on my land, potentially killing any adults or chicks present on the nest, and the police knocked on the door to see if I could assist, I’d be welcoming them in with open arms, breaking out the tea and posh biscuits and offering up all the assistance I could muster to help them find the culprit, especially if there was evidence that armed criminals had been active on my property. I certainly wouldn’t be calling in my attack dog solicitor to warn off the cops. Why would I?

At the end of the programme there’s an update on the case – the police did meet with the shotgun owners and their solicitor. The text on the screen says:

‘However, with no new leads the case has been closed‘.

I guess it was probably the usual ‘no comment’ interviews, then.

According to Andy Wightman’s excellent Who Owns Scotland website, Loch Gynack is situated on the Glenbanchor & Pitmain Estate, whose owner, Pitmain Holding Ltd, is registered in Grand Cayman:

It’s not the first time a police investigation has taken place there in relation to suspected wildlife crime. In 2019, four Greylag Geese were found poisoned at Loch Gynack – toxicology results showed they’d ingested the banned pesticide Carbofuran, so dangerous that it’s an offence to even possess this chemical in Scotland, let alone use it.

The birds had been found by estate workers who reported the incident to the police. There wasn’t any information about whether poisoned bait had been discovered and so no information about where they’d come in to contact with the Carbofuran, although given how fast-acting it is and the fact the geese were found dead together in one place, I’d think it unlikely they’d been poisoned far away.

Nobody was charged and the estate was not subject to a General Licence restriction.

Back to the Goshawk case…

The police were first notified about the abandoned Goshawk nest on 8 June 2024. This was after the enactment of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 on 30 April 2024, which introduced a licence for grouse shooting in Scotland.

I don’t know whether the Glenbanchor & Pitmain Estate applied for a grouse shooting licence in 2024. I don’t even know if they still shoot Red Grouse there (they certainly have done previously – e.g. see here and here) or whether they’ve switched to Red-legged Partridges and Pheasants as alternative quarry due to low grouse stocks, in which case they’d be exempt from needing a grouse shooting licence because the Scottish Government refused to include the shooting of RLPs and Pheasants as part of the requirement for a grouse shooting licence, despite being warned about this massive loophole.

It would be interesting to know whether (a) Pitmain Estate did apply for a grouse shooting licence in 2024, (b) if so, did NatureScot grant them a licence even though this wildlife crime investigation was ongoing, and (c) if the estate does have a five-year grouse shooting licence, will the licence be withdrawn following this incident or was the Goshawk nest beyond the area where the licence applicant indicated Red Grouse are ‘taken or shot’ (yet another loophole)?

Aside from the questions around a potential grouse shooting licence, I’ve been interested in whether NatureScot would impose a General Licence restriction following the police investigation in to the shot out Goshawk nest.

In June this year I submitted an FoI to NatureScot to ask about the status of any pending General Licence restriction decisions. My main focus was on the case concerning a Golden Eagle called ‘Merrick’ who had been shot and killed whilst she was sleeping in the Scottish Borders in October 2023.

You’ll already know that NatureScot has still not made a decision on whether to impose a General Licence restriction as a result of that crime, two years after it happened (see here).

But as well as asking about the Merrick case, I also asked how many other cases were pending.

NatureScot wrote back to me in July and said this:

You can see that the case involving the shot out Goshawk nest is included on the list (‘an incident that occurred in the Highland Council area in June 2024‘).

NatureScot says it asked Police Scotland in December 2024 for the information package NS would need to begin the process of considering whether to impose a General Licence restriction.

Seven months on, in July 2025 when NatureScot responded to my FoI, Police Scotland hadn’t provided the information to NatureScot.

The Highland Cops programme demonstrates the evidential difficulties faced by the police when investigating suspected wildlife crimes, particularly those that take place on privately-owned gamebird shooting estates, and the lengths the police will go to to find out who was responsible. It was the very reason that the Scottish Parliament introduced grouse shoot licensing as part of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.

The efforts made by PC Dan Sutherland and his colleagues were exemplary in this case. But someone, somewhere, has dropped the ball in the later stages of the enforcement process by not providing an information package in a timely manner. That’s just not good enough.

The Highland Cops episode (series 3, episode 2) is available on the BBC iPlayer here. It’s well worth an hour of your time.

29 ‘missing’ Hen Harriers & nearly 40 birds of prey poisoned, trapped or shot in Yorkshire Dales National Park since 2015

Media attention has been drawn to the Yorkshire Dales National Park this week, following the RSPB’s press release on the suspicious disappearance of a satellite-tagged Hen Harrier named ‘Sita’.

When it comes to the illegal killing of birds of prey, the Yorkshire Dales National Park is rarely out of the news, and that’s hardly surprising when 29 satellite-tagged Hen Harriers have gone ‘missing’ there and 39 other raptors have been found poisoned, trapped or shot there since 2015, including Peregrines, Hen Harriers, Red Kites and Buzzards.

Yorkshire Dales National Park. Photo by Ruth Tingay

Given these appalling figures, the RSPB has described the Yorkshire Dales National Park as a ‘no-fly zone for birds of prey’.

High profile cases within the National Park have included the conviction of a gamekeeper who was filmed shooting two Short-eared Owls on a grouse moor and then stamping the corpse of one of them into the peat and shoving the other one inside a drystone wall (here); a gamekeeper filmed on a grouse moor using a tethered Eagle Owl to attract Buzzards that he then shot and killed from close range (here); the stamping to death of four Hen Harrier chicks in a nest on a grouse moor (after obscuring the camera pointing at the nest, here); the grisly death of a Hen Harrier caused by his head and leg being pulled off whilst he was still alive (here); and three individuals caught on camera on a grouse moor discussing the shooting and killing of a Buzzard and a Raven before apparently shooting and killing a Hen Harrier (here) – one gamekeeper has been charged with conspiracy to kill a Hen Harrier, he has pleaded not guilty and his case will proceed to trial in January 2026 after his barrister failed in his attempt to have the case thrown out on a legal technicality.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has also long recognised the extent of this criminal activity and has responded to public concern (e.g. see here and here). Earlier this year the Park Authority terminated its five-year ‘partnership’ with the grouse shooting industry to tackle these crimes, after recognising the futility of this endeavour. Two conservation organisations (the RSPB and the Northern England Raptor Forum) had already walked away from the sham in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

In an article published a couple of days ago by the Craven Herald & Pioneer, Mark Corner, a member of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is quoted saying the continued illegal killing of raptors in the Park was “a crying shame“.

He added: “As the member champion for the natural environment, I’m personally embarrassed that we are the worst spot in the country in terms of the illegal killing of birds.”

In the same article, there’s an hilarious quote from the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group, which is one of a number of regional groups set up in 2015 to represent local grouse moor owners and their gamekeepers in an attempt to counter the bad publicity about ongoing illegal raptor persecution. I think that members of most of these regional moorland groups have been, or still are, the subject of police investigations into illegal raptor persecution.

A spokesperson for the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group reportedly told the reporter that ‘hen harrier numbers were at a 200-year high across the uplands’.

That’s simply not true – Hen Harrier breeding attempts on grouse moors across the north of England have been in sharp decline over the last two years – the only areas where they remain stable is on land managed for conservation rather than for Red Grouse shooting.

According to its FaceBook page, the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group claims to have “around 100,000 acres of managed uplands here in the Dales where the estates are members of this group (virtually all of the moors)“.

Why is it then, there were only two Hen Harrier breeding attempts in 2025 across the whole of the Yorkshire Dales and neighbouring Nidderdale? I’d like the Moorland Group to provide a plausible explanation for these absences.

The Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group also told the Craven Herald reporter:

“Our keepers have and will always assist the police in searches for missing persons, lost dogs or missing birds. Tag failure is rare but not unheard of.

“The default accusation that persecution is responsible is regrettable. The conservation work undertaken by moor keepers is commendable as can be seen by the abundance of raptors and other rare species in the Dales“.

What “abundance of raptors” are those then? All the dead ones? Or just the ones that are allowed to breed because they don’t pose any threat to Red Grouse stocks?

And if these grouse shooting estates are so keen to help the police, how many of them signed the letter last year agreeing to allow the police to enter the land and use equipment for the purposes of crime prevention and detection? Did any of them sign it?

And if these gamekeepers are so keen to help police investigations, how many of them have given ‘no comment’ responses when interviewed about suspected raptor persecution crimes on these moors? Maybe it’d be quicker to count how many gamekeeper didn’t give a ‘no comment’ interview.

The article also quotes Alex Farrell, Head of Uplands at BASC:

“As a committed conservation organisation, we are taking progressive steps with our partners to oversee the continued recovery of hen harriers.

“Figures released by Natural England today show that collaborative effort resulted in 106 fledged hen harrier chicks in England this year – up from 80 last year“.

What “progressive steps” is BASC taking?

Oh, and those figures released by Natural England show that the small increase in Hen Harrier fledging rates are in spite of, not because of, any so-called ‘collaborative effort’ from the grouse shooting industry.

The data couldn’t be any clearer (see here).