Investigation launched after hen harrier disappears without trace from moorland

Published: 11:05 Thursday 18 October 2018

A rare hen harrier has mysteriously disappeared from moorland in Lancashire prompting a police and RSPB investigation. The bird, called Thor, was last monitored on October 3 at Goodber Common, near Salter in Lancashire. Read more: Poignant video of toddler just days before she died in 'cage' bed He was being monitored by RSPB officers using a lightweight satellite tag, which had tracked his movements since fledging.

But his tag suddenly stopped transmitting earlier this month in an area close to a managed driven grouse moor. The Every Mind Matters guide Get expert advice on how to look after your mental health with this free guide from the NHS. Promoted by Public Health England Earlier, conservation officers had monitored his movements, watching him stay close to the Forest of Bowland where he had hatched in the summer. James Bray, RSPB’s Bowland project officer, was involved in monitoring the nests in Bowland over the summer.

He said: “Whilst we know that hen harrier mortality rates are high for young birds, if Thor had died naturally we would expect to find either his body or his tag – or both. "His tag was functioning well before he disappeared, which sadly suggests there has been some kind of interference with it.”

Read more at: 

Gamekeepers search for missing sea eagle

10 May 2018

Gamekeepers and land managers from an Aberdeenshire estate have appealed for help in locating a missing sea eagle.

The bird's satellite tag was last recorded in woodland near the River Dee on the Invercauld Estate near Braemar.

The estate said its ranger and gamekeepers were working hard to find the one-year-old eagle, named Blue T, whose tag last signalled on Saturday.

Pellets are understood to have been found in the the search area, which suggest it had been roosting there.

RSPB Scotland confirmed Blue T was raised from a chick at Abernethy before it fledged.

The tag was said to be last operating within a native woodland and Scots pine regeneration zone on Invercauld.

But neither the bird nor its tag have been located within the woodland or estate.

One other sea eagle - also known as a white-tailed eagle - and two golden eagles have been spotted but there have been no known sightings of the missing bird.

Shooting estates are often blamed for bird of prey disappearances, but the Invercauld estate insisted it was committed to conservation.

Estate manager Angus McNicol said: "We have spent the last two days trying to locate any trace of the missing sea eagle and we will be continuing our efforts to watch the area in case there has been a technical malfunction of the tag and the sea eagle returns to roost again.

"For several months our ranger has been working with the RSPB's sea eagle project officer to track the movements of the sea eagles in our area and if the tag is no longer transmitting then it is a concern to us.

"Invercauld hosts a vast range of bird species and other types of wildlife and we want to learn if any harm has come to the bird.

Continued  

Police appeal for information on missing satellite-tagged sea eagle in Perthshire

POLICE yesterday appealed for information after a young satellite-tagged white tailed eagle vanished in suspicious circumstances in Perthshire.

By DAVID SCOTT

PUBLISHED: 22:19, Wed, Apr 18, 2018 | UPDATED: 22:34, Wed, Apr 18, 2018

The sea eagles transmitting tag stopped working last month

The female, named Blue X, was the offspring of the first breeding pair of sea eagles reintroduced to Scotland’s east coast as part of the scheme to re-establish the majestic birds after they were wiped out a century ago.

It fledged from a nest in Tentsmuir Forest, Fife, in July 2017, but its tag suddenly stopped transmitting last month in Glen Quaich, south of Aberfeldy.

Police and RSPB Scotland, along with gamekeepers from surrounding estates, launched a search for the missing raptor and its tag, but neither has been found.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “A joint search took place following the RSPB report that the bird was missing but no trace was found and the disappearance of this bird remains unexplained.

“Police Scotland appeals for anyone who may have information about the disappearance of this bird to call 101 or Crimestoppers.”

Continued 

Hunt widens for rare Hen Harrier after she vanishes from Ruabon moor in 'suspicious circumstances'

Police and RSPB investigators are hunting for signs of Aalin, a rare Hen Harrier whose satellite tag stopped transmitting last month

Andrew Forgrave Rural Affairs Editor

14:31, 21 MAR 2018

UPDATED14:46, 21 MAR 2018

Bird investigators have been joined by police officers in the search for a rare hen harrier that has gone missing near Wrexham .

No tag or body was found after the bird’s satellite tag “unexpectedly” stopped transmitting at 10.34am on February 9.

RSPB Cymru staff have since swept the area of moorland around Ruabon Mountain, from where the last signal was sent.

The harrier, named Aalin, was tagged as part of the RSPB’s EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE+ project.

The bird charity had high hopes she would rear chicks this summer and so boost the tiny population of hen harriers in North Wales.

Project manager Dr Cathleen Thomas said Aalin’s disappearance was “suspicious”.

 “It’s incredibly disappointing to lose yet another hen harrier in these circumstances, especially as this bird is so scarce in the UK,” she said.

“It’s also the first suspicious loss of a bird in Wales for our project, after the elation of tagging our first chicks there in 2017.

Continued  

Loss of second night parrot triggers calls for action

GREG ROBERTS

The Australian

12:00AM March 10, 2018

A second critically endangered night parrot disappeared after its mate vanished when it was caught and fitted with a radio transmitter by a team of experts charged with saving the birds from extinction.

The revelation prompted calls for the federal government to sack the night parrot recovery team and appoint a senior public servant to oversee the conservation program. The night parrot is one of the rarest birds in the world. It had scarcely been reported for more than a century before naturalist John Young photographed one in Queensland in 2013.

A pair of night parrots was discovered in Western Australia last March. The Weekend Australian reported last week that recovery team chief Allan Burbidge led an expedition to the site five months later. The team caught one of the parrots and fitted it with a transmitter, but no trace of the bird was found subsequently. ­Recovery team sources said for the next three nights, a second parrot called frequently at the site in search of its mate. The second bird then evidently vanished.

Dr Burbidge says the transmitter failed, and there is no evidence the bird fled because it was traumatised, or fell victim to a predator because it was injured or encumbered by the device. But one of his team, Tasmanian zoologist Mark Holdsworth, said it was possible the parrot perished. “That couldn’t be ruled out.” he said.

Read more  

Rare hen harrier ‘Marc’ goes missing

By Crime Reporter on 01/03/2018 at 12:35pm

Durham Constabulary and the RSPB are appealing for information following the disappearance of a satellite-tagged hen harrier near Middleton-in-Teesdale.

The harrier, named Marc, was one of a nest of two chicks tagged as part of the EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE+ project in July this year from a nest in the Scottish Borders.

Marc’s tag had been transmitting regularly, showing no signs of any problems, until it suddenly stopped on the afternoon of 5 February. Data from Marc’s tag indicated he had been in the same area of upland farmland since late November before moving 10km North West on 27 January to an area of driven grouse moor, from here he posted several positions on the 5 February until 2.04pm, after which the tag inexplicably failed to send any further data.

Read more  

Second hen harrier disappearance 'devastates' RSPB

4 March 2018

The disappearance of two tagged hen harriers from northern England could threaten the survival of the species, experts say.

Siblings Manu and Marc were fitted with satellite tags after being born in the Scottish Borders last year.

They fledged to northern England, where Manu's tag stopped transmitting in October. Marc's ceased on 5 February.

The RSPB described their disappearance as "absolutely devastating".

Both birds were tagged as part of an EU-funded monitoring programme.

'Vanishing population'

Manu had settled on the Northumberland Cumbria border and Marc near Middleton-in-Teesdale in County Durham.

The latter's tag stopped transmitting over a grouse moor. No damaged tags or remains of the protected birds have been found.

Read on  

Fifth satellite-tracked bird of prey vanishes in Highlands

Chris Foote 10 hours ago 

The young hen harrier's tag stopped responding on the border of the Cairngorms National Park.

A satellite-tracked bird of prey has vanished in the Highlands for the fifth time this year.

The young hen harrier's tag stopped responding on the western border of the Cairngorms National Park last month.

It follows the disappearance of another harrier on August 3 and the loss of three golden eagles in the nearby Monadhliath mountains.

Brian, who went missing on August 22, was last seen a few miles from Kingussie and his body has not been found.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said there was no sign of any problems with his tracker before it went silent.

A spokeswoman for the animal charity said: "Brian was tagged on July 4 on an estate in Perthshire within the Cairngorms National Park.

"He fledged from the nest and stayed close to the nest site until the beginning of August when he moved north into southern Inverness-shire.

"Brian then spent the next few weeks over various areas of managed grouse moor within the National Park with frequent strong, clear transmissions from his tag providing detailed information about his daily travels.

Continued 

Britain's most famous Cuckoo has dropped off the radar

The satellite-tagged Cuckoo named Chris after wildlife presenter Chris Packham, seems to be missing in action the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) reported last week.

Chris, who was fitted with a satellite-tag in 2011, has been providing scientists with ground-breaking information on Cuckoo migration for longer than any of their other tagged cuckoos.

This year he left Britain on 4th July on his annual migration to Africa, arriving at his usual stop-over site in the Po valley, northern Italy on 16th July.

On arrival however, Chris will have faced a tough time because the region has been experiencing its worst drought in years.

The lack of rain is likely to have limited vegetation growth and reduced the availability of caterpillars, the preferred food of Chris and other Cuckoos, which is bad news for those British Cuckoos who use this area to fatten up.

They need this period of stocking up their resources to give them the energy to make a successful crossing of the Sahara Desert.

Continued ...

3 nesting male hen harriers vanish in Lancashire

Three nesting male hen harriers have vanished in Lancashire in unexplained circumstances and Lancashire Police and the RSPB are appealing for any information that could uncover the fate of these rare upland birds of prey. The RSPB is also putting up a £10,000 reward for any information which leads to a conviction.

The first of the birds disappeared from its nest on the United Utilities Bowland Estate about a month ago and a further two males on active nests have not been seen since last 30 April. 

In the case of the first nest, a young male arrived almost immediately and took the place of the vanished bird, thereby securing the safety of the eggs. The other two nests were not so fortunate; in the absence of males to provide them with food, the females were forced to abandon their eggs, resulting in the failure of both nests. 

Hen harriers are England’s most threatened breeding bird of prey with only four successful nests in the whole country last year, two of which were on the United Utilities Bowland Estate. 

With the number of breeding birds so low, the failure of the two nests will have a serious impact on the hen harrier’s future in England. 

The disappearance of the birds leaves just one active nest remaining in the Bowland Estate, putting the future of hen harriers in England even further in jeopardy. 

Continued ...

Extinct stuffed bird from 50 years ago now missing

Jeff Dankert
Staff Writer

A stuffed passenger pigeon that turned up 50 years ago in La Salle is now missing and this discovery by the News Tribune two weeks has launched a hunt for its whereabouts.

Passenger pigeons once numbered in the billions in Illinois and across eastern North America. The last known wild bird was killed in 1900 in Ohio and the last captive bird died in 1914 in the Cincinnati Zoo.

This makes stuffed specimens valuable.

On Jan. 3, 1963, the Daily News-Tribune published a story about a stuffed passenger pigeon at the La Salle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College, which occupied the building now home to La Salle-Peru Township High School, La Salle.

“A mounted specimen of a passenger pigeon was being saved for posterity through the efforts of a zoology instructor at LPO Junior College,” the story said.

Zoology instructor Ed Keiser discovered the bird amid other deteriorating specimens in a display case. The school had no record of its collection or donation. Keiser had it identified by two Illinois ornithologists, Frank Bellrose and William French. They remarked it “was one of the finest specimens they had seen in existence,” Keiser said.

When Keiser found the bird it was incorrectly labeled as a “mourning dove,” he said today.
“I knew it wasn’t a mourning dove,” Keiser said. After he had it identified, he returned it to the display case and that was that.

“I really don’t have any idea,” he said. “I do know it was shown to several people.”

In 1966 La Salle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College changed its name to Illinois Valley Community College and in 1968 moved to its new location near Oglesby. Keiser left before the move.

“It was still there (at LP High School) when I left,” he said.

Keiser, who today is emeritus professor of biology at University of Mississippi, and other staff present at that time said the bird was not brought to the new college building.

“I’m sure no one would have thrown it away,” Keiser said. “It was a very beautiful specimen and everybody who saw it said it was really a fine specimen and I hope it’s not lost.”

There is a science room at the high school full of old stuffed birds but no passenger pigeon. 

Present day LP High School biology teacher Angelique Depenbrock is searching.

“I did scour my rooms twice and the back rooms and all I found was a sparrow and a titmouse bird,” she said.

Keiser thought it might be in Room 321, but this room is no longer used for science and shows no hiding places. Lou Borio, biology teacher at the college until he retired in 1995, said he also remembers the bird in a glass case in Room 321, in a back or side office area, like a storage or supply room.

“That bird was in excellent condition,” Borio said.

Marv Getty, who began teaching biology at the high school in 1970 and left 13 years ago, said he does not recall the pigeon.

“I asked some of my colleagues about that and they said other teachers might have borrowed that,” he said. “They had seen various birds around the building, over in the wood shop and things like that.”

The News Tribune contacted Project Passenger Pigeon with the Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Project participants, including Joel Greenberg, are spreading the word and searching known collections.

“I think this search is really cool,” Greenberg said. “There are numerous stories of missing passenger pigeons. And one museum traded two passenger pigeons for a polar bear cub.”

When the NewsTribune contacted Fran Brolley at Illinois Valley Community College, Brolley called up Keiser. Keiser, whose long career has kept him working beyond retirement, was going through keepsakes and came across the 50-year-old newspaper story about the pigeon just as Brolley called him.

“The day Fran called, after 50 years, I happened to pick up that box,” Keiser said. “I had just scanned that picture of me holding the bird. The phone rang and it was Fran. Fifty years, and to the second. I got goose-bumps on the coincidence.”

http://newstrib.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=28&ArticleID=26135