Last week the RSPB announced that a Hen Harrier called Carroll, named after the raptor worker Mick Carroll, had been found dead in late January – the bird died of parasites but the post mortem showed that it had also been shot (two pellets were in its body in healed wounds). That was late January.
Today, Natural England announces that Carroll’s sibling, Mick, another Hen Harrier that fledged from one of only three English nests last year, disappeared from contact on 21 December 2016. Errr – that’s almost seven weeks ago. Quite a long time ago.
Mick’s tag stopped transmitting in the Yorkshire Dales National Park near Thwaite. A search of the area has been made, presumably many weeks ago, but no trace of Mick can be found. Natural England was working closely with the Moorland Association, amongst others, on this matter. Can you picture Amanda, with her poor eyesight, tramping over the moors looking for a downed Hen Harrier?
Rob Cooke, a Director at Natural England, said:
‘The disappearance of a hen harrier is deeply concerning to all who appreciate these rare and impressive birds. Any information that can shed light on what has happened to Mick will be gratefully received by North Yorkshire Police.‘
It’s good to see NE leaping into action so ‘rapidly’ – they rarely issue a press release on a matter of nature conservation importance and so this is something of a turn-up. Presumably they feel that they need to be seen to be doing something on this subject.
David Butterworth, Chief Executive at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority said:
‘It’s incredibly disappointing that the Yorkshire Dales’ reputation as a wonderful place to visit is being damaged by incidents like this. We have pledged to provide whatever support we can to help the Police and Natural England find out what happened in this particular case.‘
Mr Butterworth is trying to make the best of a bad job, he knows, as does the public, that the Yorkshire Dales NP has a reputation for being a wildlife crime hotspot. If you could give any Hen Harrier a good talking to, and the most valuable advice it could ever get, when fitting its satellite tag, one would say ‘Keep clear of the YDNP young harrier, for your own safety.‘
If the late Mick Carroll were still around, and we miss his big frame and big booming voice, he would have said:
‘Now then, Mark. I’m not surprised at all. The bastards are all at it.’
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My god talked about two cliched responses…. “The disappearance of a hen harrier is deeply concerning” followed by… “It’s incredibly disappointing that the Yorkshire Dales’ reputation as a wonderful place to visit is being damaged by incidents like this” followed by the usual blah blah about helping the police with their enquries etc etc.
Wasn’t it North Yorks Police who gave a game keeper a slap on the wrist for setting pole traps on the North Yorks Moors last year..therefore pardon my attitude if i’m not sounding positive….as with many forces wildlife crime isn’t high on their agenda, especially where money comes in to it….ah the ‘shooting brings so much into the local economy’ bollocks..
I don’t trust NE as far as I could throw them and as for Mr Butterworth, maybe he should take a stance if he really wants to help the image of the Yorkshire Dales. The whole thing is utter crap followed by excuse after excuse.
Mark this might be a daft question, but can anyone who might be thinking of harming the birds use the satellite tracking system to follow them . Best wishes Chris Prince
I have wondered that – but we don’t want to put ideas into their heads. Although things couldn’t get much worse.
It’s more of shame they don’t cover the tags in ‘smart water’ thus marking the criminals who come into contact with the tags with proof or if tampered with triggers the smart water. All the police have to do then is approach all gamekeepers/landowners in the area with necessary flourosecnet light, proverbial caught red handed or in this case blue.
The cops would then just “forget” to check, or invent some reason not to check, and even if the cops did then the old boys in the prosecutors office would fail to take that into account when assessing a case for trial, and in the very last instance their lordships of the bench would exclude it as evidence. No wait, that isn’t true. In the very last instance, the Tory party in their landed and shooting pursuits would simply make it illegal to use such markers.
What is the golden rule? Them as has the gold the makes the rules, us peasants just have to know our place.
Saw Wendy at the weekend. Went especially to see her and there she was hunting in a rewilding scheme. Saw a second ring tail near by, Golden Eagle and White tailed Eagle hunting near her and a pair and juv Golden Eagle opposite her. Yes this was Britain. Had a total of 11 eagles that day with out trying! This is in a country where wildlife tourism is worth £156 million with a government map showing the decline of wildlife tourism where shooting is dominant as the key species are removed. The value is actually now higher than the shooting and would replace the lost revenue if shooting had smaller bags and did not kill the protected species.
So why is this same government supporting a negative equity !!
For once I’d go with the Michael Gove approach – whatever rigorous science says, surely we have got to a situation where common sense tells us that the proof needed is not that a Hen Harrier has been killed illegally, but that it has died of natural causes. In the meantime, the crosses marking the graves of slaughtered Hen Harriers stretches further and further towards the inevitable demise of driven grouse shooting.
As Mark says Mick would not be happy,I can just imagine his comments,hope you come and haunt them Mick
The Mick we all knew and who cared passionately about uplands and Hen Harriers may have been blunt and brief in his comment but he would have been quietly trying to move heaven and earth to stop it from happening again. There a lot of”Micks” and it is down to us and them to ensure in the long run that grouse shooting and the criminal tossers who run it do not only loose but pay the price for their vandalism against the wildlife that is OUR heritage. Mick did indeed in his last days say he would come back to haunt the bastards, well all I can say is ” Still busy then Mick”
It is troubling when you read that Natural England and the Moorland Association are working together especially when the Moorland Association has very close involvement with Grouse shooting. Read their website and it reaks from the stench of bovine excrement when they talk about the work of gamekeepers and the successful breeding of Hen Harriers.
With the close involvement of NE and the MA it certainly makes you wonder if radio tag info is getting passed on and used by those who’s aim is to protect those species that are bred and looked after just to be shot for fun.
Then there is the amount of reported wildlife crime that is unsolved or results in no prosecutions being made even if the evidence has them caught red handed. All of this speaks of corruption while the real endangered species like the Hen Harrier and Golden Eagle rapidly head towards being Britains version of the Do Do.
It’s about time the UK government, Police and the courts start enforcing the law on wildlife crime. The government need to get their heads out of the sand and listen to those that actually know what they are talking about with regard to wildlife conservation before it’s to late.
The very idea that the police and Natural England could use the assistance of the moorland association to search for a Hen Harrier beggars belief, unless you do not want to find the evidence of how the bird died. Please, RSPB, volunteer and insist that you ring and tag any Hen Harriers, if there are any, in England next year. As the Langholm project has been ended after the results did not match what was hoped, could we please end any tagging of Scottish bids by Natural England.