The Scottish Government’s nature advisory agency, NatureScot, has been now been procrastinating for over 18 months on whether to impose a sanction on an estate in relation to the ‘shooting and killing’ of a sleeping Golden Eagle called Merrick. But apparently a decision is now expected “in the next few weeks”.
Merrick was a young satellite-tagged Golden Eagle, released in south Scotland in 2022 as part of the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project, a lottery-funded conservation initiative which translocated young Golden Eagles from various sites across north Scotland to boost the tiny remnants of the Golden Eagle breeding population in south Scotland that had previously been decimated by illegal persecution and had become isolated by geographic barriers.
Camera trap photo of golden eagle Merrick in 2022, from South Scotland Golden Eagle Project
A year after her release, which had seen her fly around south Scotland and down into northern England and back, on 12 October 2023 Merrick’s satellite tag suddenly and inexplicably stopped transmitting from a roost site in the Moorfoot Hills in the Scottish Borders where she’d been sleeping overnight.
A project officer from the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project went to her last known location where he found Merrick’s feathers and blood directly below her roost tree. Police Scotland later determined from the evidence that she’d been ‘shot and killed’ and that someone had then ‘removed her body and destroyed her satellite tag’ (see here).
There was limited scope for anyone to be charged and prosecuted for killing this eagle unless someone in the know came forward with sufficient evidence to identify the individual(s) responsible. In addition, the prospect of an estate having its grouse-shooting licence withdrawn as a consequence of this crime was zero, given that this offence took place prior to the enactment of the Wildlife & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, the legislation that introduced grouse moor licensing.
That just left a General Licence restriction as a possible sanction. Not that I’d describe a GL restriction as an effective sanction, for reasons that have been explored previously on this blog (e.g. here and here). Nevertheless, it’s still something and, given the high-profile of Merrick’s death, you might think that making a decision on whether to impose a GL restriction would be a high priority for NatureScot.
Not so.
I wrote about NatureScot’s procrastination on this case in August (see here), after receiving a response to a Freedom of Information request I’d lodged in June 2025. That response confirmed that NatureScot had received an information package from Police Scotland, on which it would base its General Licence restriction decision, in April 2024.
I blogged again in September, highlighting that NatureScot had now procrastinated for 17 months. Unbeknownst to me at the time, that blog prompted two blog readers to write to NatureScot, and one of them lodged a formal complaint against the agency.
Blog reader Stuart Wilson has kindly given permission for me to share the response he received recently from NatureScot in relation to his complaint, which is almost identical to the response blog reader SusanH shared on this blog a few days ago on an unrelated post.
A young Buzzard was found in a field in Leominster, Herefordshire last week, unable to fly.
An x-ray revealed at least two shotgun pellets lodged in its body. It’s not known when the bird was shot, or where.
Photo by Sasha Norris
Photo via Sasha Norris
The Buzzard is currently receiving expert veterinary care from Dr Sasha Norris of Hereford Wildlife Rescue with assistance from Holmer Veterinary Surgery in Hereford and Battle Flatts Veterinary Clinic in Yorkshire.
Sasha reports that the Buzzard was ‘alert, bright and eating well’ this morning.
The absurd claim that White-tailed Eagles had ‘snatched’ five Shetland pony foals on South Uist hit the headlines at the end of August.
A crofter / farmer named Donald Cameron said that five of his Shetland pony foals had disappeared between May and July when they were a few weeks old, and that he could see ‘no other explanation’ other than they’d been taken by White-tailed Eagles.
The average healthy weight for a Shetland pony at birth would be around 20-27kg, with rapid daily weight gain up to around 36-45kg at a month old. White-tailed Eagles in the Western Palearctic weigh between 3.5-5kg (males) and 4.5-7kg (females).
The premise that an eagle could ‘snatch’ and then carry away something that is three times heavier than itself is plainly nonsensical.
On hearing Donald Cameron’s claims about the loss of his five Shetland ponies, NatureScot organised for expert eagle biologists to examine the prey remains in two White-tailed Eagle nests closest to Cameron’s croft. There was no trace of any Shetland pony body parts (and even if there had been, it still wouldn’t mean that the eagles had killed the ponies; it’s far more plausible that they could have scavenged a carcass). The only mammalian prey found were rabbits and Brown Rat, with most of the remains being seabirds, ducks and geese.
This fits with the findings of a recent and extraordinarily robust recent scientific paper, examining the diet of breeding White-tailed Eagles across Scotland over a 20-year study (1998-2017), where seabirds and wetland birds featured prominently in the diets of eagles on the Uists:
The same paper demonstrated that the number of lamb remains found in eagle nests has declined over the last 20 years:
On the rare occasion where eagles may still take the odd live lamb, there’s a Sea Eagle Management Scheme, run by NatureScot, where support is available for those who experience sea eagle predation impacts.
But Donald Cameron is not satisfied. He claims that the examination of the two closest White-tailed Eagle nests was ‘inconclusive’ and also claims that the eagles are “decimating everything we have”.
In the most recent sensationalist scaremongering article from The Telegraph on this subject (6th October 2025 – they’re really dragging out this story), it says that Mr Cameron believes the White-tailed Eagles are responsible for the so-called ‘eerie silence’ on Loch Druidibeag.
The article begins with this:
‘Visiting Loch Druidibeag 20 years ago, you might have spotted swans perched on the water, geese on the banks and curlews surveying the sheep grazing the slopes that rise dramatically from the water’s edge.
‘But today, the waters have fallen silent. Eerily so. Now, the only thing that moves in the loch, on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, is a battered rowing boat bobbing beside a jetty as waves lap against the shore.
‘Donald John Cameron’s family have farmed this land for generations. But he believes an ancient foe is responsible for the eerie silence – and that it has also snatched away some of his most cherished animals‘.
I put this claim to an ecologist who has lived and worked in the Outer Hebrides for many years:
“All bollocks! No change to the bird life in the Druidibeag area as far as I can see. It’s a great place for wildlife. Several hundred Mute Swans on Loch Bi just to the north“.
Funnily enough, a few years ago a journalist was sniffing around on a story about Loch Bi. A local farmer / crofter had told him that he’d seen White-tailed Eagles feeding on the carcasses of dead Mute Swans on Loch Bi, and he reckoned the eagles had killed them all. The story never appeared in the media after NatureScot informed the journalist that Bird Flu had killed the swans, and the eagles were doing what they do best – scavenging the remains.
Back to the latest article..
It continues: ‘… there are thought to be 150 pairs of the bird [WTE] now living on the island. In fact, the eagles are now an all too familiar sight for farmers.
‘Lambs have allegedly been abducted in the dead of night, dogs have been attacked and Mr Cameron claims his Shetland pony foals were snatched by the eagles.
‘Although conservationists have insisted there is no evidence eagles took the foals, it is easy to understand Mr Cameron’s concern. The White-tailed eagle’s wingspan can go to eight feet and it’s sharp talons mean it’s thought to be capable of snatching animals weighing up to 12kg‘.
FFS. There aren’t 150 pairs of WTEs on South Uist! Back to my ecologist friend:
“There are seven known territories on South Uist, with one or two other locations where pairs may be establishing so 7-10 pairs would be the best estimate. In the areas where the ponies are there are two territorial pairs“.
And since when have ‘sharp talons’ had any bearing on the weight that an eagle can carry?! The main physiological features that determine how much a raptor can lift/carry are primarily related to muscle strength, wing surface area and body weight. It’s utter nonsense to argue about the sharpness of its talons in this context.
It’s farcical to be writing about these things, and talking about lambs being ‘abducted in the dead of night’, but it all plays into the demonisation of raptors in general, but particularly of White-tailed Eagles.
It’s just the latest in a long history of baseless accusations made about this species, although this is the first time that the eagles have been accused of taking Shetland ponies – usually they’re accused of being a threat to babies and toddlers (e.g. see here and here), which of course feeds into sensationalist headlines that editors know will sell copy.
Mr Cameron told one journalist that the ponies were ‘like my pets’. Yep, if there’s one thing that will stir up irrational fear in the public, apart from threats to babies and toddlers, it’s threats to people’s pets. Just ask Donald Trump – I suspect he knew exactly what he was doing when he falsely accused immigrants from Haiti of killing and eating dogs and cats in Ohio:
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
False hysteria would be funny if it didn’t have real world consequences. There are horrific consequences for those immigrants, of course, and for the eagles, those consequences are also very real. The Telegraph article claims that Jon Gillies, the Chief Executive of the company that manages the South Uist Estate, is calling ‘for the right to shoot down the eagles‘.
The article says: ‘He says this year’s attacks have led him to stop taking his show cocker spaniel on walks with him in the hills because “I don’t want my dog to be killed”. And he thinks the law that allows crofters to shoot a dog if it attacks animals should be extended to sea eagles.
‘Mr Gillies says: “I think that a crofter should have the right to protect their livestock, and I don’t believe that livestock should be sacrificed to protect another species.”
‘The 62-year-old, who grew up on the island, said: “I remember as a boy when local people would take matters into their own hands by going into the hills and burning out golden eagle nests because everybody thought they were taking sheep. Once the fear gets into people’s minds, that’s how they respond“‘.
EXACTLY! It’s all about generating fear and the media has a lot to answer for.
That photograph of a White-tailed Eagle standing on a bloodied dead lamb, with the eagle’s beak covered in blood and wool, is a case in point. It’s used over and over again whenever there’s a scare story about eagles killing lambs but the context is never provided by the newspaper.
Photo taken from The Telegraph article published 6 Oct 2025
I think this photo is used to add ‘credibility’ to the scare stories – a reader will look at it and think, ‘Oh, well there must be some truth in this story because look, there’s a photo of an eagle that’s killed a lamb ‘on a hillside in Scotland”.
But that photograph is staged, using a captive eagle and a dead lamb. The scene was set up by Pete Cairns, a brilliant conservation photographer who, ironically, uses powerful imagery to explore conflicting attitudes towards predators. Here he is on Twitter (X) in 2022, responding to the mis-use of this very photograph:
I have no idea what happened to Mr Cameron’s five Shetland ponies. Maybe they were stolen? Locals tell me the ponies are left to roam freely across miles of rugged moorland and they’re small enough to shove inside a van without anyone noticing. There are credible reports of Shetland pony theft in southern England in recent years (e.g. here, here, here, here and here).
Maybe it’s those pesky translocated sea eagles from the Isle of Wight? Cue journalist from The Telegraph making some phone calls…
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.
The Northern England Raptor Forum (NERF) is the representative body of voluntary raptor fieldworkers across the north of England, including in many of the raptor persecution hotspots in this region.
NERF is a well-respected organisation in conservation circles and has been at the forefront of the fight against the illegal killing of birds of prey, with its members often the first to raise the alarm to the police when suspected raptor persecution incidents have been uncovered.
NERF has also been involved in the many ‘partnership’ efforts over the last few decades that have tried, but failed, to tackle these pervasive crimes.
The group has standing, experience, and real skin in the game.
Steve Downing, NERF Chair, is a man who doesn’t mince his words. He’s written an open letter to Defra Ministers, including the newly-appointed Secretary of State for the Environment, Emma Reynolds, laying out previous Government failures to get on top of this issue and telling her that enough is enough, the time for talking is over.
If Steve’s letter resonates with you, it wouldn’t hurt for you to write to your own MP in support of NERF’s stance. There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. Politicians won’t act if they don’t know that illegal raptor persecution is an issue of concern amongst their constituents.
If you haven’t written to your MP before, why not give it a go? If you’re not sure who your MP is, you can find out here.
Following the recent collapse of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Bird of Prey Partnership (due to its failure to tackle crimes against birds of prey), and the news that since 2015, 29 Hen Harriers have gone ‘missing’ in suspicious circumstances and almost 40 other raptors have been found poisoned, trapped or shot in the Yorkshire Dales National Park since 2015, including Peregrines, Hen Harriers, Red Kites and Buzzards, there’s some welcome news from a local community who has had enough and has decided to do something about it. Bravo!
Friends of the Dales, the environmental campaigning charity, is launching a powerful new campaign − Eyes on the Skies − calling for an end to criminal killing of birds of prey in the Yorkshire Dales. The campaign kicks off with a high-profile live webinar on Tuesday 21 October at 5.30pm, featuring leading conservation expert Kate Jennings, UK Head of Site Conservation & Species Policy at the RSPB.
Kate will highlight the long history of bird crime in the Yorkshire Dales, drawing on evidence and case studies from the RSPB’s Investigations Team which works in support of the police and statutory agencies to bring criminals before the courts.
“We are delighted that Kate is joining us at the Eyes on the Skies launch event,” said Jonathan Riley, Chair of Trustees at Friends of the Dales. “She will shine a spotlight on Bird Crime in the Yorkshire Dales and the illegal and inhumane methods criminals use to trap, shoot and poison birds of prey − crimes that persist despite more than seventy years of legal protection.”
The Yorkshire Dales remains a blackspot for raptor persecution, with species such as hen harriers, short-eared owls, and red kites especially targeted. Just last week the RSPB issued a press release about the disappearance of Sita, a one-year-old female satellite-tagged Hen Harrier. The RSPB said that Sita is the 29th hen harrier “to suspiciously disappear in the national park since 2015” and that the bird “is likely to have been shot”.
“It is appalling that the hen harrier, one of the UK’s rarest birds, continues to be shot, trapped, and poisoned in our National Park, which should be a sanctuary for wildlife,” added Jonathan.
Public concern for these crimes is growing. In early 2024, more than 1,000 people responded to the first consultation on the new Management Plan for the Yorkshire Dales National Park, with ending the illegal persecution of birds of prey emerging as one of the top priorities.
David Butterworth, Chief Executive of the Authority also confirmed: “The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is unwavering in its commitment to raptor conservation. We will continue to collaborate with landowners, managers and organisations sharing our vision. We applaud those whose efforts have helped some species recover. But we must also confront the grim reality that criminal persecution still occurs.”
Friends of the Dales Eyes on the Skies campaign supports one of the core objectives of the new management plan for the Yorkshire Dales National Park, as well as the vital work of other organisations such as the National Wildlife Crime Unit, RSPB and Hen Harrier Action. The campaign will amplify messages around the scale and nature of these appalling crimes, educate people in how to spot and report any suspicious or illegal activity they might see and also inspire people to learn more about the birds themselves and why they are vital to a healthy, biodiverse ecosystem.
David Butterworth added: “The uplands of the Yorkshire Dales National Park should be a stronghold for a diverse range of raptor species. As apex predators, their presence signals a healthy environment. Their absence, conversely, is a warning.”
Summing up Jonathan Riley said: “Our Eyes on the Skies campaign will incorporate many more events including further webinars from insider experts, outdoor educational events and even some more creatively focussed activities. So, on behalf of the charity, I would encourage anyone who is interested in learning more to register for the free launch event on Tuesday 21 October at 5:30 pm, and sign up to our monthly email newsletter so they can be kept updated.”
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 Scottish Government’s nature advisory agency, NatureScot, has been now been procrastinating for 17 months on whether to impose a sanction on an estate in relation to the ‘shooting and killing’ of a sleeping Golden Eagle called Merrick.
Merrick was a young satellite-tagged Golden Eagle, released in south Scotland in 2022 as part of the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project, a lottery-funded conservation initiative which translocated young Golden Eagles from various sites across north Scotland to boost the tiny remnants of the Golden Eagle breeding population in south Scotland that had previously been decimated by illegal persecution and had become isolated by geographic barriers.
Camera trap photo of golden eagle Merrick in 2022, from South Scotland Golden Eagle Project
A year after her release, which had seen her fly around south Scotland and down into northern England and back, on 12 October 2023 Merrick’s satellite tag suddenly and inexplicably stopped transmitting from a roost site in the Moorfoot Hills in the Scottish Borders where she’d been sleeping overnight.
A project officer from the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project went to her last known location where he found Merrick’s feathers and blood directly below her roost tree. Police Scotland later determined from the evidence that she’d been ‘shot and killed’ and that someone had then ‘removed her body and destroyed her satellite tag’ (see here).
There was limited scope for anyone to be charged and prosecuted for killing this eagle unless someone in the know came forward with sufficient evidence to identify the individual(s) responsible. In addition, the prospect of an estate having its grouse-shooting licence withdrawn as a consequence of this crime was zero, given that this offence took place prior to the enactment of the Wildlife & Muirbun (Scotland) Act 2024.
That just left a General Licence restriction as a possible sanction. Not that I’d describe a GL restriction as an effective sanction, for reasons that have been explored previously on this blog (e.g. here and here). Nevertheless, it’s still something and, given the high-profile of Merrick’s death, you might think that making a decision on whether to impose a GL restriction would be a high priority for NatureScot.
I wrote about NatureScot’s procrastination on this case in August (see here), after receiving a response to a Freedom of Information request I’d lodged in June 2025. That response confirmed that NatureScot had received an information package from Police Scotland, on which it would base its GL restriction decision, in April 2024.
Seventeen months on and we’re now at the end of September 2025 and there’s still no sign of a decision from NatureScot.
What’s the hold up? Why hasn’t this decision been a priority for NatureScot?
What sort of message does NatureScot’s procrastination send out to others who might be thinking of ‘getting rid’ of a Golden Eagle in south Scotland, or any other part of Scotland for that matter?
The consequences became very clear yesterday when it was announced that two more satellite-tagged Golden Eagles from the South Scotland project had ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances.
Earlier this month a judge ruled that covert video surveillance obtained by the RSPB is admissible evidence in the prosecution of gamekeeper Racster Dingwall, who has been charged in relation to the alleged shooting of a Hen Harrier on a grouse moor (Coniston & Grassington Estate) in the Yorkshire Dales National Park on 2nd October 2024.
Mr Dingwall pleaded not guilty to two charges at an earlier court hearing at Skipton Magistrates’ Court in May 2025. Those two charges are:
Possession of an article capable of being used to commit a summary offence under Section 1 to 13 or 15 to 17 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act;
Encourage/assist in the commission of a summary offence believing it will be committed.
The pre-trial hearing at York Magistrates’ Court on 9 September 2025 was specifically to hear legal argument about the admissibility of the RSPB’s video evidence, on which this prosecution is based.
I wrote briefly about the judge’s decision to accept the RSPB’s video evidence at the hearing on 9 September and said I would elaborate further when I had the time.
The following commentary seeks to provide more information about the judge’s decision and is based entirely on the notes I made during that hearing.
York Magistrates’ Court. Photo by Ruth Tingay
This pre-trial hearing was held before District Judge Adrian Lower. The involvement of a District Judge (professionally and legally qualified) is perhaps the reason why this case moved from Skipton Magistrates’ Court to York Magistrates’ Court.
District Judges don’t tend to sit in the smaller, or rural courts, but where a case is legally complex then there is often a request to move the case to another court to be heard before a District Judge rather than the lay magistrates (also known as Justices of the Peace) in a smaller court, who are volunteers and not legally trained/qualified to the extent of a District Judge.
Mr Dingwall and his solicitor did not attend the pre-trial hearing at York on 9 September 2025 – District Judge (DJ) Lower acknowledged that Mr Dingwall had been excused (the reason for his absence wasn’t given in open court).
The sole representative in court for Mr Dingwall was his barrister, Mr Justin Rouse KC. Long-term blog readers may recognise this name – Mr Rouse KC represented a gamekeeper from the Bleasdale Estate in Bowland, Lancashire in 2017-2018 who had been charged with nine offences relating to the alleged killing of two Peregrines on this grouse-shooting estate in 2016 in appalling circumstances. The prosecution had relied heavily on covert surveillance provided by the RSPB but the case collapsed when the presiding District Judge accepted Mr Rouse’s defence argument that the evidence should be ruled inadmissible (not necessarily on the strength of Mr Rouse’s arguments but more likely on the weakness of the prosecution lawyer, who was hopelessly underprepared for court- see here for detailed commentary on that case).
Appearing for the prosecution (CPS – Crown Prosecution Service) at York Magistrates’ Court on 9 September 2025 was Mr Jody Beaumont.
The hearing opened with DJ Lower stating that he’d read the submissions from both sides (about the admissibility of the RSPB’s video surveillance) and that he didn’t intend to hear a repetition of those submissions in court. He asked whether Mr Rouse KC and Mr Beaumont had anything new to add and both replied that they didn’t.
No doubt DJ Lower wanted to save valuable court time, but his decision not to have the legal arguments presented in open court makes it very difficult to provide an informed commentary on what happened next, because I don’t have the benefit of knowing the exact details of each side’s position.
Nevertheless, a general sense of the defence’s argument could be gleaned from some of the remarks made later by DJ Lower and it became apparent that there were two main issues to be discussed – the admissibility of the video evidence and an issue about disclosure.
The interpretation that follows is based on my understanding of what was said and should be viewed with appropriate caution given the circumstances just described.
It was clear that Mr Rouse KC for the defence had made an application to the court to exclude the RSPB’s video evidence (and thus have the case dismissed), under Section 78 of the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE).
Section 78:
‘…..In any proceedings the court may refuse to allow evidence on which the prosecution proposes to rely to be given if it appears to the court, that, having regard to all the circumstances, including the circumstances in which the evidence was obtained, the admission of the evidence would have such an adverse effect on the fairness of the proceedings that the court ought not to admit it’.
DJ Lower said that Mr Rouse’s view was that the RSPB should be viewed as a public authority in the way it gathered evidence (i.e. regulated by various legislation such as the Human Rights Act 1998 & Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) which controls the manner of covert surveillance operations) – this is a very similar argument to the one Mr Rouse used in the Bleasdale case and, if accepted by the court in this latest case, would result in the RSPB’s evidence being ruled inadmissible because the RSPB hadn’t operated by the provisions required of a public authority in undertaking covert surveillance on private land (i.e. needing authorisation).
DJ Lower said he could not agree with the submission that the RSPB was a ‘public authority’. He said that the RSPB is arguably a substantial business, “a charity like no other“, but that although the RSPB was involved in the investigation, the material had been handed to North Yorkshire Police. He continued, “There is bound to be close coordination between the RSPB and North Yorkshire Police but that doesn’t mean that the RSPB becomes a public authority and is regulated as such by various legislation“.
DJ Lower agreed that there needs to be consideration about whether the RSPB should be considered a public authority but that this was not a decision a judge could make – it should be for Parliament to consider.
He said that the crux of the S.78 application was – regardless of whether the RSPB is or isn’t a public authority – would submission of the evidence have such an adverse effect on the fairness of proceedings? He said this was a discretionary judgement for the court to make and in his judgement, “there would be no adverse affect“.
He continued: “The RSPB evidence has been subject to review by the CPS and it is their decision to prosecute or not. I cannot see how admitting the evidence gathered from the RSPB would have an adverse effect on the fairness of proceedings. I am not prepared to dismiss the case“.
DJ Lower then referred to an alleged abuse of process, claimed by the defence (the details of this are unknown). DJ Lower asked Mr Rouse whether he had anything more to say on that allegation and Mr Rouse accepted that it had been addressed by the judge.
The legal argument then moved on to the disclosure issues (the details of which are unknown, which made the discussion confusing).
There seemed to be an argument about the defence not yet having had access to between 70-80 hours worth of RSPB video footage. Mr Beaumont (CPS) told the court that there was an ongoing discussion about how to manage the files and send them to the defence, but given that ‘senior management’ were involved, “this should be sorted out very soon“.
The defence was interested in a series of photographs taken by the RSPB between 16 September – 19 October 2024 consisting of “vehicles, houses, males, dogs and moorland“. Mr Rouse thought they may be capable of undermining the defence.
Mr Rouse said that because the RSPB investigators say they were acting on intelligence, the defence had asked for that intelligence material that led the RSPB to installing the surveillance equipment.
Mr Rouse continued, saying the defence’s principal concern about the disclosure of footage was the extent of “data breaches for the defendant and others recorded when they should not have been recorded” because “the RSPB were trespassing and the capture of data was unlawful“.
Mr Rouse also raised concerns about the police’s Section 19 (WCA) search of the moor. He asked how the police knew where to search, was the RSPB involved in that search, and if so, the identities of any RSPB staff involved should be disclosed. DJ Lower and Mr Beaumont agreed.
DJ Lower dismissed Mr Rouse’s concerns over privacy because any images captured by the RSPB could be “pixellated to protect the identity of members of the public“.
He suggested the discussion about disclosure should be continued between the defence and the prosecution, and that disclosure of all relevant evidence should take place within 28 days, and at the latest by 4pm on 7th October 2025.
DJ Lower set a two-day trial date (29th-30th January 2026, pending witness availability) at York Magistrates’ Court and said the case would be reserved for him.
He granted Mr Dingwall unconditional bail and asked his representative to ensure Mr Dingwall understood the consequences of non-attendance at court on 29 January 2026.
NB: Because criminal legal proceedings are live, the comment facility has been switched off.
It’s been a long time coming, but today Natural England has announced it is finally pulling the plug on its project to ‘reintroduce’ Hen Harriers to southern England.
It may sound odd that a pro-raptor conservationist sees this as good news, but I have long argued against this project, for a number of reasons, but predominantly because I saw it as an unhelpful distraction to tackling the real issue – that of the illegal killing of Hen Harriers on the grouse moors of northern Britain.
Natural England has been planning a so-called ‘reintroduction’ of hen harriers to southern England since 2016, as part of DEFRA’s ludicrous Hen Harrier Action Plan.
I think the proposed reintroduction project was initially supported by the pro-grouse shooting lobby because they thought that Hen Harriers could be removed from the northern grouse moors (under the equally ludicrous brood meddling scheme) and released into southern England, thus removing what they saw as a ‘problem species’ to the other end of the country, leaving them to get on with killing Red Grouse for fun (and money) without those pesky Hen Harriers ruining their sport (and profit).
An apt cartoon depicting what many of us saw as the intentions of the stakeholders in Defra’s Hen Harrier Action Plan. Cartoon by Gerard Hobley.
However, that plan was thwarted when it was pointed out that it would be a breach of international legislation to remove Hen Harriers from Special Protection Areas (SPAs) that had been designated specifically for Hen Harriers, and release them elsewhere.
I suspect that the pro-grouse shooting lobby continued to support the proposed ‘reintroduction’ into southern England because they knew that if even a handful of Hen Harriers were successful in the south, it would take the heat / attention off the continued illegal killing in the north.
We saw exactly this, when the brood meddling trial resulted in a few more pairs of Hen Harriers being allowed to breed – the ongoing illegal killing was simply brushed under the carpet by the grouse shooting lobby, and in many cases, outright denied using comically farcical logic (e.g. here) or grotesquely distorted reasoning (e.g. here).
But Hen Harriers don’t need to be ‘reintroduced’ to southern England, or anywhere else in the UK for that matter. They are perfectly capable of breeding in the wild and recolonising their former range, over a relatively short space of time, IF, and only IF, their survival isn’t curtailed by grouse moor gamekeepers shooting, trapping and poisoning them, pulling off their heads and legs, or stamping on their eggs and chicks.
Instead of wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds on this distraction project over many years, those funds could instead have been directed towards a focused enforcement plan to bring those criminals to justice.
For those interested, I’ve written extensively about this project since November 2016 and you can find links to the key blog posts here.
Here is today’s announcement from Natural England about the conclusion of the project:
NATURAL ENGLAND HEN HARRIER PROGRAMME – UPDATE TO SOUTHERN REINTRODUCTION PROJECT
By Sofía Muñoz, Senior Officer, Hen Harrier Southern Reintroduction
Background
The Hen Harrier Southern Reintroduction Project was set up in 2018 with the aim of establishing a wild, farmland-nesting population of hen harriers (Circus cyaneus) in southern England.
The hen harrier is an iconic species and one of the UK’s rarest and most persecuted birds of prey. The combination of its beauty, charisma and rarity make this a highly cherished and valued bird. Hen harriers were once common across the UK but were driven to extinction across most of the British Isles during the 1800s. More recently, Natural England and many organisations have put great effort into helping them recolonise parts of Scotland and northern England.
In England, their numbers are now estimated to have risen to 50 territorial pairs recorded in 2023, from four territorial pairs in 2016 – an increase of 1150%. Despite this increase in numbers, hen harriers remain at risk from illegal killing and disturbance, which is where human activities disrupt nesting sites, which can cause parent birds to abandon their nest and lead to failed eggs or chick deaths.
Increasing hen harrier numbers is a particularly challenging task as they have a strong inclination to return to the same place they have hatched and fledged, meaning they don’t spread areas easily.
Project timeline
In 2018, the Hen Harrier Southern Reintroduction project was conceived to encourage recolonisation of hen harriers further south in the UK. The project initially sought to translocate young hen harriers from continental Europe for release in the UK. However, collaboration between EU states and new importation rules for animals following the UK’s exit from the EU meant that translocation of young fledging birds became unfeasible due to extensive quarantine periods.
Instead, a pioneering captive conservation breeding programme was developed which focussed on releasing offspring bred in the UK from adult birds imported from France and Spain. Beginning in late 2022, this ambitious programme hoped to boost the number of hen harriers in the UK with minimal impact on wild populations. The project sought to release a minimum of 100 juvenile hen harriers over a five-year period to ensure the best chances of success.
In continental Europe, hen harriers nest on farmland which is directly comparable to much of the arable landscape across southern England. As part of the project, release pens were situated among an arable crop and these would be used to introduce chicks to the site from the captive breeding facility several weeks before fledging. It was hoped that this would enable them to familiarise themselves with the habitat and area around the release site, leading to them returning to breed in this same location in subsequent years.
Latest situation
The third breeding season for the captive birds began in 2025. While the adult birds had not bred successfully in the first two years of the programme, advances in their breeding behaviour over the two years (2023; 2024) had been noted. This meant that the team were optimistic that that things were moving in the right direction to eventually produce chicks for release. However, to the team’s disappointment, the females unfortunately laid infertile eggs in 2025, meaning that no chicks would be released this year.
Following a thorough review, it has become clear that Natural England is no longer in a position to provide the long-term funding and resource needed to continue delivering the Hen Harrier Southern Reintroduction project, despite the progress to date. The difficult decision has therefore been made to conclude this project.
The welfare of the hen harriers held in captivity for the conservation breeding programme remains the priority for the project through its closing phase. A number of options exist for the birds, and these will be explored in full. As they are unsuitable for release into the wild, they will be transferred into the care of a suitable host organisation. Organisations will be considered suitable where they are able to ensure the ongoing welfare of the birds for the remainder of their natural lives. In addition, Natural England would not preclude continuation of the conservation breeding programme under the leadership of the chosen organisation if the priority of welfare is maintained.
Informing future conservation
Knowledge acquired through the delivery of this project can help to inform other conservation projects and expand our understanding of hen harrier biology. We have, for instance, gained a deeper insight into the health, genetics, and migratory patterns of hen harriers.
We would like to express our gratitude to all our partners, who have contributed their time, expertise, and commitment to this project over the years.
ENDS
I’ve asked Natural England for a copy of what it calls its “thorough review” of this failed project.
I’ll report if/when Natural England sends it to me.
Don’t hold your breath though, I’m still waiting for NE to send me a copy of its Hen Harrier Brood Meddling Social Science report that I asked for in April 2025 (here).
Oh, and we’re STILL waiting for NE to release this year’s Hen Harrier breeding figures, AND to release the details of at least seven post-mortem reports on dead Hen Harriers, many of them dating back over a year (here). More commentary on that from me to come shortly…
Raptor Persecution UK 