Persecution Incidents in England – Page 5

Peregrine from Charing Cross Hospital found with shotgun pellet in leg

One of London’s resident breeding Peregrines, Tom, from Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith, is receiving veterinary care after an x-ray revealed a shotgun pellet lodged in his leg.

According to reports on social media, Tom was found grounded at the weekend and was taken for assessment at the South Essex Wildlife Hospital. It’s not clear from the information published whether the shotgun pellet was the cause of his grounding or whether it is an old injury that he’d survived.

All photos from South Essex Wildlife Hospital

Hopefully Tom will make a speedy recovery and can be returned to his territory ASAP.

The South Essex Wildlife Hospital has featured a few times on this blog, involved in the treatment and often successful rehabilitation of shot raptors from the south-east. It’s a registered charity – if you’d like to make a donation to support its work, please click here.

Illegal persecution of birds of prey is again a major public concern in Yorkshire Dales National Park

Regular readers of this blog will know that the Yorkshire Dales National Park is a raptor persecution hotspot, and has been for many years.

Hen Harriers, in particular, have been prime targets for illegal killing on the grouse moors of the Yorkshire Dales.

For example, the following quotes are from the RSPB’s recent report, Hen Harriers in the Firing Line:

“Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park is statistically the worst location in England with three Hen Harriers confirmed to have been illegally killed and 14 more satellite-tagged birds suspiciously disappearing between 2016-2023“

and

“The most significant declines in Hen Harrier breeding in England in 2024 were observed in the North Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales, with decreases of 67% and 73% respectively, compared to 2023. Both regions are intensively managed for grouse shooting and have been linked to several confirmed and suspected Hen Harrier persecution incidents in recent years“.

Indeed, the forthcoming trial of a gamekeeper alleged to have been involved in the conspiracy to shoot and kill an untagged Hen Harrier relates to an incident filmed on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales last October (as featured on Channel 4 News, here).

And yet another satellite-tagged Hen Harrier ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park earlier this year (here).

The Yorkshire Dales National Park was also where satellite-tagged Hen Harrier ‘Free’ was found dead. His post-mortem concluded that his ‘leg had been torn off while he was alive, and that the cause of death was the head being twisted and pulled off while the body was held tightly’ (see here).

Hen Harrier ‘Free’ during post-mortem examination. Photo via Natural England.

With all this recent history in mind, I’ve been following the progress of the development of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s latest five-year Management Plan (2025-2030), due to be published shortly.

As part of the Management Plan process, the Management Plan Partnership undertook a six-week public consultation process in January 2024 to find out what issues were important to residents and visitors.

A total of 1,106 responses were received, of which 50% were from people indicating they live and/or work in the National Park; 16% were from younger people (18-34); and 4% were from people identifying as being from non-white ethnic groups.

The online questionnaire identified 18 issues from which people were asked to
rank their top six.

The top two priorities selected by respondents were:

Help nature to recover by creating, restoring and connecting important
habitats;
Protect rare and threatened species, including ending illegal persecution of
birds of prey.

That’s quite a significant result! And this isn’t the first time that the public has identified illegal raptor persecution as a major concern in this National Park (see here).

A second Management Plan consultation ran in January 2025 based on 40 proposed draft objectives, which included:

C6. Support implementation of the national Wildlife Crime Strategy to end the illegal killing and disturbance of birds of prey and other wildlife by 2028.

This proposed draft objective for tackling the illegal killing of birds of prey in the Yorkshire Dales National Park is quite different from the objective listed in the previous Management Plan (2019-2024) which was this:

C5. Work with moorland managers and other key stakeholders to devise and implement a local approach to end illegal persecution of raptors, including independent and scientifically robust monitoring, and co-ordinated hen harrier
nest and winter roost site protection.

The latest draft objective for tackling illegal raptor persecution seems to have shifted significantly, away from the so-called ‘Bird of Prey Partnership’ approach, established in 2020 with representatives from the grouse-shooting industry, the raptor conservation community, RSPB, Natural England, Police, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and the Nidderdale AONB (now renamed Nidderdale National Landscape) Authority.

That ‘partnership’, just like the similar one set up in the Peak District National Park and on which the Yorkshire Dales/Nidderdale Partnership was based, has failed miserably (e.g. see here) and has seen two of the ‘partners’ walk away (RSPB here, Northern England Raptor Forum here), both citing familiar complaints about the behaviour of the grouse moor lobby group, The Moorland Association.

The latest draft objective in the 2025-2030 Management Plan doesn’t mention the ‘partnership’ at all and instead focuses on ‘supporting the implementation of the [Police] National Wildlife Crime Strategy‘, which includes the national wildlife crime priorities of which raptor persecution is a key focus.

Does that mean a formal end to the Yorkshire Dales/Nidderdale Bird of Prey Partnership?

Let’s see.

Pair of Montagu’s Harriers breeds in England after six-year absence

Press release from RSPB (29 July 2025)

BRITAIN’S RAREST BREEDING BIRD RAISED FOUR YOUNGSTERS AT SECRET LOCATION

A pair of Montagu’s Harriers, Britain’s rarest breeding bird, have successfully raised four youngsters at a secret location in England
The pair of birds which arrived in May have been closely monitored by the RSPB who, working closely with a farmer, installed a protection fence around the nest in early July
This week the four chicks have made their first flights, delighting all involved

Montagu’s Harrier juveniles, 25 July 2025. Photo by RSPB

The Montagu’s Harrier is Britain’s rarest breeding bird species and hasn’t successfully nested in the UK since 2019. After a high of nine successful nests in 2011, its population has sadly dwindled – with it being officially placed on the Red List in 2021. But this year a pair arrived in the UK and have gone on to delight conservationists by raising four healthy youngsters.

Montagu’s Harriers winter in Africa and return to Europe to nest, often in agricultural fields, in particular winter sown cereals in the UK, and can return to the same nesting areas each year. Their previous strongholds in Spain and France are diminishing due to intensification of agriculture and earlier harvest dates, as well as wetter summers. Many nests across Europe are protected from predators by the installation of small metal fences by conservationists, volunteers and farmers.

The birds were first seen at the now secret location in May, raising hopes they would breed. Their nest was located in June by the licensed use of a drone and then closely monitored by a volunteer birdwatcher and the RSPB. Photographs indicated that both adult birds were ringed, remarkably the male being a chick from a UK nest in 2015 and the female from a nest in France in 2023.

As soon as their behaviour indicated that youngsters had hatched, the RSPB entered the field under licence and installed a small protective fence to safeguard the nest from ground predators. The chicks were then ringed in mid-July and last week made their first flights, delighting all involved.

Mark Thomas, Montagu’s Harrier species lead at RSPB, said: “We are overjoyed that a pair have returned, they managed to find each other and through the close protection of a dedicated farmer and the RSPB have managed to raise four youngsters. What’s even more remarkable is that we have been able to work out that the male was colour-ringed by the RSPB as a chick in a UK nest in 2015 and that his partner is wearing a ring indicating she is from France. This Anglo-French alliance could just be the springboard needed to save this species in Britain.”

The farmer, who cannot be named in order to protect the location, said: “It’s fantastic to have these amazing birds on the farm and a just reward for the extensive conservation work we have been undertaking for decades.”

It is now hoped the birds will all migrate safely, and the adults will return in 2026.

ENDS

Channel 4 News has also covered this story with an article and a video, here.

What excellent news this is – kudos to the farmer and the RSPB for protecting the nest. Let’s hope the adults and four juveniles manage to get out of England successfully, unlike some of their predecessors (e.g. see here, here and here).

How can the National Gamekeepers Organisation be seen as a credible partner on the Hen Harrier Taskforce after it published this nonsense?

The police-led Hen Harrier Taskforce was launched in 2024 to tackle the ongoing illegal persecution of Hen Harriers on UK grouse moors.

The Taskforce was set up specifically in response to the ‘all time high’ level of Hen Harrier persecution crimes in 2022/2023 (at least 21 known incidents in 2022 and at least 33 known incidents in 2023). The extent of the criminality had become a major source of embarrassment for the police and for the government and they needed to be seen to be doing something.

The main premise of the HH Taskforce is summarised in this excerpt from the press release announcing the launch:

‘The Hen Harrier Task Force is an initiative led by the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit and supported by seven police forces (Cumbria, Derbyshire, Durham, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire), DEFRA, the RSPB, National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), The Wildlife Trusts, GWCT, national parks, Country Land and Business Association (CLA), Natural England and The Moorland Association to combat the persecution of hen harriers in the UK. The taskforce aims to detect, deter, and disrupt offenders involved in wildlife crime by using technology and improving partnership working’.

You’ll note the heavy over-representation of game shooting organisations in this so-called ‘partnership’, including the National Gamekeepers Organisation and the Moorland Association (lobby group for England’s grouse moor owners).

However, several months after the launch, the Moorland Association (or at least its Chief Executive, Andrew Gilruth) was expelled from the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG) and presumably that includes the Hen Harrier Taskforce, for ‘wasting time and distracting from the real work‘ of the RPPDG (see here).

After reading what I’m about to write in this blog, you might be wondering how the National Gamekeepers Organisation can be viewed as a credible ‘partner’ in the RPPDG and on the Hen Harrier Taskforce.

On 26 June 2025, the RSPB published its latest damning report about the extent of Hen Harrier persecution on driven grouse moors across the UK. Called ‘Hen Harriers in the Firing Line‘, the report demonstrated that record numbers of Hen Harriers were illegally killed or went ‘missing’ in suspicious circumstances during the years 2020-2024.

The following day, the National Gamekeepers Organisation posted this response in the News section of its website:

The article starts off well with a statement of truth. That is, that wildlife crimes are ‘non-notifiable’, in England & Wales at least, which means that wildlife crime figures are not officially collected at a national level by the Home Office. (In Scotland, wildlife crime recording became a statutory obligation under the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011).

Most wildlife crimes in England & Wales are recorded as ‘miscellaneous’ offences and are therefore invisible in police records, with no duty to be reported upon. This problem has been the subject of a long-running campaign by Wildlife & Countryside LINK (e.g. here), and others, who for several years now have been urging the Home Office to make at least certain wildlife crimes (i.e. those associated with the National Wildlife Crime Priorities) notifiable so that there’s a better record of offences, allowing police resources to be applied appropriately. If the scale of a crime isn’t known, Police and Crime Commissioners are hardly going to allocate what are already tight police budgets towards tackling a crime that doesn’t look like it has any significance.

So having recognised and acknowledged that police forces don’t have to keep records of wildlife crime offences, the National Gamekeepers Organisation (NGO) then inexplicably announces that it has sent FoIs to all UK police forces to seek information on Hen Harrier persecution incidents.

Eh??!! Where’s the logic in that??

The stupidity doesn’t end there. It gets worse.

Let’s assume that the NGO did write FoIs to all 48 UK police forces and received responses from all of them (highly unlikely to get a 100% return rate but let’s go with it for now). Take a look at this particular statement in the NGO’s news article:

The NGO states that, ‘Having carried out Freedom of Information requests the NGO can state that from 2020 through to 2023, the police across all UK forces recorded eight Hen Harrier investigations in total. One was in Cumbria and the other 7 in Northumberland. Foul play was not cited by the police in any investigation‘. [Emphasis is mine].

Really? According to my data on Hen Harrier persecution recorded between 2020 – 2023, there were 82 recorded incidents across eight UK regions (North Yorkshire & Cumbria: 45; Northumberland: 12; County Durham: 11; Scotland: 7; South Yorkshire: 3; Lancashire: 3; Isle of Man: 1).

That’s quite a few more incidents, and is far more widespread, than the NGO’s claim of 8 incidents in just two police force areas.

The vast majority of those 82 incidents involved the suspicious ‘disappearance’ of satellite-tagged Hen Harriers. The number doesn’t include tags that have been listed as no longer transmitting as a result of possible tag failure, or birds that are known to have died a natural death. The National Wildlife Crime Unit, which leads the Hen Harrier Taskforce (on which the NGO serves so should be fully aware), explicitly uses satellite tag data to identify crime hotspots, i.e. locations where Hen Harriers repeatedly disappear in suspicious circumstances. Here’s another relevant excerpt from the Hen Harrier Taskforce launch press release:

‘Rather than purely focusing on the wildlife aspect of the crime, DI Harrison has tasked his team with taking a holistic view of the criminality and considering all types of offences. Criminals will often steal and destroy the satellite tags to conceal their offending. This could constitute criminal damage, theft and fraud. In the last few years alone, £100,000 worth of satellite tags have been lost in circumstances suspected to be criminal. The apparent use of firearms adds a further level of seriousness to these cases’. [Emphasis is mine].

For the NGO to use the line, ‘Foul play was not cited by the police in any investigation‘ is misleading at best.

Further, in amongst those 82 incidents recorded between 2020 – 2023 are a number of Hen Harriers where police investigations and post mortems explicitly detected ‘foul play’ (I prefer to call it crime, because that’s what this is). These are:

10 February 2022: An unnamed satellite-tagged Hen Harrier ‘disappeared’ in a grouse moor dominated area of the Peak District National Park (here). One year later it was revealed that the satellite tag/harness of this young male called ‘Anu’ had been deliberately cut off (see here).

12 April 2022: Hen Harrier ‘Free’ (Tag ID 201121) ‘disappeared’ at a ‘confidential site’ in Cumbria (here). It later emerged he hadn’t disappeared, but his mutilated corpse was found on moorland in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. A post mortem revealed the cause of death was having his head twisted and pulled off while he was still alive. One leg had also been torn off whilst he was still alive (here).

20 June 2022: Hen harrier chick #1 stamped to death in nest on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park (here).

20 June 2022: Hen Harrier chick #2 stamped to death in nest on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park (here).

20 June 2022: Hen Harrier chick #3 stamped to death in nest on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park (here).

20 June 2022: Hen Harrier chick #4 stamped to death in nest on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park (here).

14 December 2022: Hen Harrier female (brood meddled in 2022, #R3-F1-22) ‘disappeared’ from winter roost (same as #R2-F2-20) on moorland in the North Pennines AONB (here). Later found dead with two shotgun pellets in corpse (here).

9/10 May 2023: Hen Harrier male called ‘Dagda’, tagged by the RSPB in Lancashire in June 2022 and who was breeding on the RSPB’s Geltsdale Reserve in 2023 until he ‘vanished’, only to be found dead on the neighbouring Knarsdale grouse moor in May 2023 – a post mortem revealed he had been shot (here).

29 July 2023: Hen Harrier female (brood meddled in 2020, R2-F2-20) ‘disappeared’ at a confidential site in the North Pennines. Later notes from the NE spreadsheet: “Dead. Recovered – awaiting PM results. Final transmission location temporarily withheld at police request“ (here). Later report stated she’d been found dead with 3 shotgun pellets in corpse (here).

So, clearly the police forces that allegedly responded to the National Gamekeeper Organisation’s FoI requests haven’t been accurately recording Hen Harrier persecution crimes (because they don’t have to) but regardless of that, for the NGO to take that misinformation at face value, when (a) it knows that these crimes are not notifiable so individual police force records have to be viewed as unreliable, and (b) the NGO would have been fully aware of these high profile crimes (because they were all over the press and they’d also have been raised at the RPPDG meetings in which the NGO is a participant) can be viewed as either a measure of the NGO’s stupidity or what I see as an indication of its willingness to deceive.

What’s even more revealing is the lengths the NGO will go in its efforts to tarnish the RSPB’s reputation. Why submit FoI requests to 48 UK police forces to ask for Hen Harrier persecution data when you’re already a member of the RPPDG and the Hen Harrier Taskforce, where those persecution data are reliably recorded and readily available?

The whole premise of the NGO’s ‘news article’ seems to me to be using obviously unrepresentative data it received from an unspecified number of police forces to smear and undermine the reputation of the RSPB. You could paraphrase the NGO’s whole article as:

‘Aha! The RSPB’s Hen Harrier persecution data are clearly fabricated because all UK police forces only recorded eight Hen Harrier persecution incidents in two force areas between 2020 and 2023. There, we told you the RSPB make up the data just to make us gamekeepers look bad. You can’t believe a word the RSPB says. We love all raptors and especially Hen Harriers‘.

It’s half-baked nonsense and exposes the National Gamekeepers Organisation’s real intentions.

The NGO suggests that the RSPB is fabricating persecution data “to damage the public perception of gamekeepers” when actually it’s the NGO mispresenting information to damage the reputation of the RSPB. The NGO is right to suggest that the public’s perception of gamekeepers is poor, but that’s because gamekeepers are consistently linked to raptor persecution crimes. If gamekeepers want to improve their reputation it’s quite simple – stop killing birds of prey.

Three Peregrines fledge successfully at St Albans Cathedral as police investigation continues into trampling of first clutch of eggs

Good news!

Three young peregrines have successfully fledged from St Albans Cathedral in Hertfordshire.

This is the site where the breeding pair’s first clutch of eggs was trampled on in April 2025, as seen on the Cathedral’s livestream webcam overlooking the peregrine’s nest scrape, leading to a man ‘helping police with enquiries’ (see here, here and here for previous blogs).

Two of the three Peregrine fledglings at the cathedral. Photo by Michael Barrett via BBC website

The police investigation is apparently still ongoing, three months after the trampling incident.

According to the St Albans Cathedral website:

‘Hertfordshire Constabulary have today confirmed (Friday 11 July) that “Our investigation is ongoing, and we are working with the Crown Prosecution Service following further lines of enquiry.”‘

UPDATE 19 April 2026: No prosecution after man crushed Peregrine eggs at St Albans Cathedral (here).

Incident update: Buzzard found dead near Goathland in North York Moors National Park ‘was shot’

Last week I blogged about an appeal for information that had been posted on North Yorkshire Police’s Facebook page, in relation to ‘the suspected shooting of a buzzard‘ near Goathland on 2nd May 2025 (see here).

I’d noted that the appeal was quite vague. It wasn’t clear if the appeal was a result of a witness report of someone seen shooting towards a buzzard or whether a corpse had been found and was awaiting post mortem.

I’ve since been informed by a reliable local source that a dead buzzard had been found and an x-ray revealed it had been shot.

Having a corpse with shot in it is a confirmed shooting, not a suspected shooting.

Without seeing the x-ray it’s not possible for us to determine if it had been shot close to where the body was discovered (e.g. if its wing bones had been shattered by the shot then it’s unlikely to have been able to fly any distance) so it may have been shot near Goathland or it may have been shot elsewhere and just succumbed to its injuries close to the Duchy of Lancaster grouse moor.

It’s obviously pure coincidence that the grouse moors near to Goathland just happen to be a raptor persecution hotspot.

It’s pointless asking North Yorkshire Police for further information about this buzzard – they routinely refuse to answer such requests.

Satellite-tagged Hen Harrier ‘Sita’ vanishes in suspicious circumstances on grouse moor in Yorkshire Dales National Park

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.

Hen Harrier ‘Sita’ being fitted with a satellite tag in Bowland in 2024. Photo by Northern England Raptor Forum (NERF).

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)

Two Hen Harriers vanish from RSPB’s Geltsdale Reserve, suspected illegally killed on surrounding grouse moors

Press release from RSPB (20 May 2025)

Vanishing Hen Harriers Point To Yet More Illegal Killing

Two male Hen Harriers have suddenly disappeared from the RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve in Cumbria. It is strongly suspected these birds have been killed illegally.
RSPB says it is ‘sickened by the losses’, as both birds were in attendance at their nests until vanishing.
Fears over losses prompt renewed calls for tougher regulation of grouse shooting industry.

Two rare male Hen Harriers have suddenly disappeared from their nest sites at Geltsdale in Northern England within a few days of each other. This comes on the back of another Geltsdale male Hen Harrier being found shot dead on neighbouring land in spring 2023.

Hen Harriers are a rare, protected species, known for their acrobatic ‘skydancing’ courtship display over the uplands. The Hen Harrier is categorised as a red-listed species in the UK, due to its low breeding population levels, following historic declines.

Despite being legally protected, multiple studies and reports confirm that illegal killing is the main factor limiting the recovery of Hen Harrier in the UK, causing a reduction in nesting success, annual productivity, and survival of breeding females. A recent study which investigated the illegal killing of Hen Harriers in association with gamebird management (Ewing, et al., 2023) has shown that the survival rates of Hen Harriers in the UK is “unusually low” with birds surviving for just 121 days after fledging, and bird persecution accounting for 27-41% of deaths of Hen Harriers aged under one year and 75% of deaths in birds aged between one and two years. It also highlighted a strong overlap between Hen Harrier mortality and the extent of grouse moors.

Although this pattern of male birds disappearing from breeding sites has been seen before, the RSPB is particularly concerned and upset by these males going missing within a matter of days of each other. Observations show that the males haven’t returned to their nests since going missing and the RSPB local team is now providing food to the female at one of the nests in a desperate attempt to save the chicks. Male Hen Harriers hunt for prey several miles away from their nest sites and it is this activity which causes conflict with those who might wish to kill them in order to protect their grouse stocks used for commercial shooting.

RSPB Geltsdale is surrounded by grouse moors and male birds from Geltsdale have gone missing time and time again, most recently when a male was found shot dead on a neighbouring grouse moor in 2023 when the Police unable to prove who had killed it [Ed: Hen Harrier ‘Dagda’ found shot on the Knarsdale Estate, here. Other Geltsdale HHs that have ‘disappeared’ in recent years whilst away from the reserve hunting include males in 2020, 2021 and 2023, here].

Beccy Speight, RSPB Chief Executive, said – “Although sadly we are used to crimes against Hen Harriers, it is truly sickening to lose these particular birds from Geltsdale in such a short space of time and with them our hopes of a successful breeding season. The last five years have seen a high count of crimes against Hen Harriers with 102 suspected or confirmed incidents, the majority happening on or close to grouse moors. If these magnificent birds are ever going to have a sustainable population in England, this killing has to stop. We need the immediate introduction of a licencing system for grouse shooting, so estates proven by the Police and Natural England to be linked to raptor persecution would simply lose their licence to operate.”

The disappearances have been reported to the Police. The RSPB is currently campaigning for England to follow Scotland’s lead and licence grouse shooting. The wildlife charity says that any grouse shoot which breaks wildlife protection laws to the satisfaction of the Police and Natural England should risk closure for a defined period to provide a meaningful deterrent to such activities. With such a system, responsible shoots would have nothing to fear, while those who commit crimes can be held to account.

This week RSPB is asking the public to contact their MP and ask for action to be taken to protect our precious uplands, and to make crime against birds of prey a thing of the past.

Find out more here: Email your MP – Call time on moor crime | RSPB

If you notice a dead or injured bird of prey in suspicious circumstances, call the police on 101 and fill in the RSPB’s online reporting form: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/wild-bird-crime-report-form/

If you have information about anyone killing birds of prey which you wish to report anonymously, call the RSPB’s confidential Raptor Crime Hotline on 0300 999 0101.

ENDS

Police appeal for info about suspected shooting of buzzard in North York Moors National Park

Appeal for information from North Yorkshire Police on Facebook (12 May 2025):

Did you see anything suspicious?

Our Rural Task Force is appealing for information following the suspected shooting of a buzzard in the North York Moors National Park.

The Buzzard is thought to have been killed near to, Beck Hole Road, Goathland on Friday 2 May, and we are appealing for anyone who may have seen any suspicious people or vehicles in the area to please come forward.

Buzzards and all other birds of prey are legally protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. To intentionally kill or injure one is a criminal offence which could result in an unlimited fine or up to six months in jail.

If you have any information that could help please email Chris.Unsworth@northyorkshire.police.uk or call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2 and ask for Chris Unsworth.

If you wish to remain anonymous you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 via their website.

Please quote NYP reference 12250082575 when passing on information.

ENDS

Goathland is probably best known to many as the filming location of the TV series ‘Heartbeat’. To me it’s known as one of a number of raptor persecution hotspots in the grouse moor-dominated North York Moors National Park.

Goathland is almost surrounded by intensively-managed driven grouse moors and in 2020 video footage emerged purporting to show a gamekeeper killing a Goshawk that had been trapped inside a Jackdaw-baited trap on one of the Queen’s grouse moors, part of the Duchy of Lancaster (see here and here).

Channel 4 News did a very good follow-up piece here.

A couple of years earlier, a group of local residents from Goathland got together and called a series of public meetings to discuss their concerns about the environmental damage caused by driven grouse moor management in their area, and particularly their concerns about ‘disappearing’ wildlife, notably satellite-tagged Hen Harriers. The North York Moors National Park has been identified in an excellent scientific paper based on Hen Harrier satellite tag data as the place with the highest risk of HH death/persecution in any of our National Parks – it’s no coincidence that the NYMNP also holds the largest expanse of grouse moors within its boundary.

Notes from the Goathland community meetings of disgruntled residents can be read here, here and here.

If you look at the map showing the distribution of signatures on Wild Justice’s recent Ban Driven Grouse Shooting petition, it’s worth noting the high number of signatures in this area. I hope they’ll be making their voices heard again if/when the Government’s petitions committee announces the date for a debate in Westminster Hall.

The latest appeal from North Yorkshire Police about the suspected shooting of a buzzard near Goathland is a bit vague. It’s not clear if the appeal is a result of a witness report of someone seen shooting a Buzzard or whether a corpse has been found and is awaiting post mortem.

The police appeal says, ‘The Buzzard is thought to have been killed near to, Beck Hole Road, Goathland on Friday 2 May…‘.

Here is an annotated map from Guy Shrubsole’s brilliant website Who Owns England, showing the extent of the Duchy of Lancaster grouse moors (purple) around Goathland. I’ve added the approximate location (in red) of the Beck Hole Road.

UPDATE 22 May 2025: Incident update – Buzzard found dead near Goathland in North York Moors National Park ‘was shot’ (here).

87-year-old man pleads not guilty to 11 charges relating to alleged raptor persecution in Lincolnshire – case now goes to trial

Brian Chorlton, aged 87, of Morkery Lane, Castle Bytham appeared at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court yesterday (8 May 2025) to answer 11 charges relating to the unapproved or unlawful storage of the chemical Aldicarb, possession of a poisoners kit, and possession and use of four pole traps.

These charges are a result of a police investigation in to reports that birds of prey were being poisoned in the Castle Bytham area.

Mr Chorlton pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges and this case will now proceed to trial, scheduled for October 2025.

NB: Comments are turned off as this case is live.

UPDATE 26 September 2025: Trial of 87-year-old man accused of 11 offences relating to raptor persecution is put on hold as defence applies for Judicial Review of judge’s ruling (here)

UPDATE 23 April 2026: Update on prosecution of 87-year-old William Brian Chorlton, accused of 11 offences relating to alleged raptor persecution in Lincolnshire (here)

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