Hen Harrier 'disappears' near proposed reintroduction site in Wiltshire

A young male Hen Harrier from Northumberland has disappeared in suspicious circumstances in Wiltshire, south west England.

The harrier, named Vulcan, was one of 11 chicks to fledge from nests in Northumberland last summer, which were being protected by the Northumberland Hen Harrier Protection Partnership. He was fitted with a satellite tag as part of the RSPB’s EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE project, which enabled the nature conservation charity to track his movements.

Vulcan is the second satellite-tagged Hen Harrier from Northumberland to disappear since last summer. In August 2018, female Hen Harrier Athena vanished in suspicious circumstances in Inverness-shire.

Vulcan was tracked by the RSPB moving from Northumberland down to the Peak District where he remained throughout September. He then continued to head further south through Hampshire and Dorset. On 16 January 2019, Vulcan’s tag sent out its final transmission, from a location south of the village of Calstone Wellington, in Wiltshire.

RSPB Investigations staff searched the area, which is farmland and heavily managed for pheasant and partridge shooting, but there was no sign of Vulcan or his tag. He has not been heard from since and the matter was reported to Wiltshire Police.

Satellite tagging technology is commonly used to follow the movements of birds. Tags continue to transmit regularly, even when the bird dies, and until the tag reaches the end of its lifespan. Vulcan’s tag was providing regular updates on the bird’s location, so the sudden and unexpected ending of transmission is suspicious and could suggest criminal interference. Vulcan is the 11th satellite-tagged Hen Harrier to disappear since last summer.

Hen Harriers are one of the UK’s rarest birds of prey with only nine successful nests recorded in England in 2018 despite sufficient habitat for over 300 pairs. An overwhelming body of scientific evidence suggests that the main reason for their low numbers is illegal killing associated with driven grouse shooting.

1st March

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Hen harrier feared to have been deliberately killed

13 November 2018

A rare hen harrier has disappeared in North Yorkshire, prompting fears it may have been deliberately killed.

The bird of prey was fitted with a satellite tag after hatching in the Peak District in the summer.

It was in the North York Moors National Park on 26 October when the signal was lost.

The bird, named Arthur, is the ninth hen harrier to disappear in suspicious circumstances in the last 12 weeks, according to RSPB records.

The charity had been monitoring Arthur's movements as he flew from the Brecon Beacons in South Wales to Nidderdale.

The bird's last registered location was north of Lowna Bridge, near Hutton-le-Hole, with no body or tracking tag recovered.

More than 30 hen harriers have been tagged in England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man in 2018 by the RSPB.

Despite being protected by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, numbers of hen harriers remain consistently low, a spokesperson for the charity said.

Sgt Kevin Kelly, of North Yorkshire Police, said: "This is an unwanted addition to the already concerning and ever-raising numbers of hen harriers that are just 'vanishing'.

"I encourage any information that could help me forward this investigation, these rare birds are one of the jewels in the crown of the English countryside."

In recent months, satellite-tagged hen harriers have also vanished suddenly in the Peak District, north and central Scotland, north Wales and Northumberland.

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Three critically endangered hen harriers disappear in ‘suspicious circumstances’, says RSPB

Birds of prey 'vanish without a trace' within months of hatching, raising suspicions of illegal killing

Three critically-endangered birds of prey have disappeared from the British countryside “in suspicious circumstances”, raising fears they have been illegally killed.

The young hen harriers all “vanished without a trace” months after hatching, said the RSPB, which had tagged the birds with satellite trackers as part of a conservation programme.

Police are investigating the birds’ presumed deaths in Northumberland, the Peak District and North Wales.

“While we don’t yet know what has happened to these three birds, we do know that the main factor reducing the hen harrier population in the UK is the illegal killing of birds associated with the intensive management of grouse moors,” said Cathleen Thomas, project manager of the RSPB’s Hen Harrier Life project.

She said tags attached to each raptor had “inexplicably stopped” working. The devices typically continue to send details of their location if a bird dies of natural causes.

Hen harriers are one of the UK’s rarest birds of prey, with only nine successful nests recorded in England this year despite sufficient habitat for 300 breeding pairs.

Illegal persecution linked to moorland grouse shooting is thought to be principally to blame for their low numbers.

Two of the three birds that recently vanished were last known to have been over land that was managed for driven grouse shooting.

A young female harrier known as Hilma was recorded at moorland near Wooler, Northumberland, on 8 August, before going missing.

Another female, Octovia, vanished in the Peak District weeks later. She had hatched alongside three other chicks from a nest in the National Trust’s High Peak Moors in June, the first time the species had bred in the area for four years.

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RSPB appeal after three hen harriers disappear in Scotland and Cumbria

22nd May

Police and the RSPB are appealing for information following the disappearance of three protected, satellite-tagged hen harriers in Scotland and Cumbria.

After monitoring her progress since she fledged last June, a hen harrier named Saorsa suddenly ceased sending transmissions in February 2018 whilst located in the Angus Glens, Scotland. She has not been seen or heard of since.

A male bird, named Blue, then raised concerns in March this year when his tag, which had also been functioning perfectly, suddenly and inexplicably cut out near Longsleddale, South Lanarkshire.

In the same month, a tagged bird named Finn – after young conservationist Findlay Wilde – vanished near Moffat, Scotland. Finn was tagged as a chick in 2016 from a nest in Northumberland, one of only three hen harrier nests to fledge young in the whole of England that year.

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Sir Ian Botham accuses RSPB of being 'dishonest' and 'milking' the disappearance of a rare bird of prey

 Daniel Thomas 

28 OCTOBER 2017 • 4:07PM

Sir Ian Botham has reopened a row with one of Britain’s leading wildlife charities, accusing it of being "dishonest" and "milking" the disappearance of a rare bird of prey.

The former England cricketer said the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) had “milked it” when a bird in Scotland, believed to have been a golden eagle, went missing in March, and then “swept it under the carpet” when a landowner claimed to have spotted the bird a month later.

The RSPB maintains the eagle is still missing and accused Sir Ian, an advocate of grouse shooting, of “PR spin”.

The case bears similarities to an incident in February when the charity revealed that a rare hen harrier, also thought to have been hunted illegally, had been seen alive and well after going missing for 10 months.

Asked what changes he would make to the organisation in an interview with the Shooting Gazette, Sir Ian said: "I think they [the RSPB] need to be more honest.

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Fourth hen harrier’s disappearance sparks fears of extinction by persecution

Conservationists link grouse shooting to a spate of mysterious vanishing of England’s most endangered breeding bird of prey

Patrick Barkham

@patrick_barkham

Tuesday 2 June 2015 17.19 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 2 June 201517.21 BST

The mysterious disappearance of a fourth hen harrier from a nest in the Pennines this spring has renewed fears that England’s most endangered breeding bird of prey is being persecuted towards extinction.

The RSPB and Cumbria Police have launched an appeal for information after the male bird vanished on 23 May from the RSPB’s Geltsdale reserve, where it had established a nest with a female. Without the male providing food for the incubating female, her clutch of five eggs was abandoned.

Wildlife campaigner Mark Avery called for driven grouse shooting to be banned after the latest spate of disappearances, which many conservationists fear are linked to the management of moors for grouse, a prey species for the hen harrier.

“Nobody knows what’s happened to these four birds but these disappearances just don’t happen in a normal hen harrier family,” said Avery, former conservation director at the RSPB . “We know it’s the most persecuted bird in Britain. There should be about 2,600 pairs in the UK and there are 600-800 pairs. The reason that there are so few is because of persecution and the only people interested in persecuting hen harriers are people who run grouse moors.”

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