News on the RSPB Skydancer blog reveals that this year there were 3 successful Hen Harrier nests in England (out of 7 attempts) – they produced 10 fledged young.
Considering this was generally regarded as an excellent vole year – whereas 2016 was a poor vole year – the standstill in Hen Harrier breeding numbers (3 successful pairs from 4 nests in 2016) is the second year of abject failure for Defra’s Hen Harrier Inaction Plan.
The Skydancer blog makes the point that there are SPAs in England which were designated because they had much higher Hen Harrier populations than the current English total population – the UK is failing to maintain these sites in favourable status.
Well done to all, volunteers, RSPB, NE, National Park and Forestry Commission staff who have guarded these birds and allowed at least a few young to fledge. Praise too, to whichever landowners have helped this year – but it is noticeable that the bulk of the population is on forestry land. We are always being told, completely erroneously, that Hen Harriers need heavily managed grouse moors to survive (this is utter nonsense) but they are conspicuous by their absence in this year’s round-up. So Moorland Association – where are all these Hen Harriers? Where are you hiding them?
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Im going to be perfectly frank and stick my neck out once again and tell it as it really is. People must understand the realities of grouse moor management throughout England’s uplands. After almost 50 years working in the north of England, predominantly in the Forest of Bowland to protect raptors, one fact is remains crystal clear in my mind and is unlikely ever to change. Grouse moor owners and their gamekeepers based upon my experience will never accept or welcome Hen Harriers or Peregrines onto their moors until they are forced to do so by proactive and decisive action by government which is the only way attitudes may begin chance; simply having laws that on paper claim a particular raptor is protected means absolutely nothing on a grouse moor. Sadly I dont see a conservative government ever doing this, simply because of huge internal pressures within the Tory party, including from MP’s and Ministers who take part in grouse shooting. Its called politics, that dirty word Ian Carter is eager to dismiss.
What ever advantages are achieved in the future a result of brood meddling, we must all begin to accept a fundamental certainty, the bulk of any Hen Harriers produced by this methodology will travel to grouse moors in the northern upland where they will then disappears as quickly as they arrive.
Do many followers of this blog have any concept of the size and distribution of heather moorland in England’s northern uplands where red grouse are shot? I doubt many people do. We could easily drop three areas the size of London, possibly Birmingham as well over the land masses dedicated to grouse shooting in the Northern Pennines, Durham and Northumberland and still have huge areas of moorland to spare. The only policing undertaken throughout these huge extremely remote and desolate moorland habitats are carried out by professional gamekeepers, the majority of which will never tolerate grouse predating raptors upon the moors they manage on a daily basis come rain or shine, snow or hail.
Hi Terry,
I have heard you speak and you are clearly passionate on this issue, extremely well informed and unbelievably experienced. I understand the points you make and they are well founded.
I prefer to be a tad more optimistic.
As you rightly say there are no hen harriers breeding on the huge expanse of grouse moors of Northern England so the face of it the shooting industry has achieved its aim spectacularly. They don’t want hen harriers and now they do not have any. It therefore can’t get any worse can it? They have also stitched up Defra, NE and Parliament.
However, more and more ordinary folk know that raptors are being killed illegally by shooting, poisoning or trapping and they very clearly do not like it and in the long term will not stand for it.
As a direct result of the efforts of good people like yourself, there is very detailed knowledge of the shooting industry’s regular transgressions into illegality. More people are walking the northern moors and dales, they have access and can take photos, videos etc and are able to report what they see. This year alone – Buzzards shot in Malham, poisoning in Arkengarthdale, illegal trapping in in Widdale and shooting of harriers in Cumbria and Thwaite for example. Widdale, Thwaite, Arkengarthdale and Ravenstonedale not exactly on the tourist trail – are they?
The shooting industry is losing the argument on all fronts and they know it. The northern moors are huge as you rightly point out but large areas are within the authority of National Parks or owned, as publicised recently, by the National Trust. All come within the responsibility of Defra (God help us), Natural England and every square inch is covered by the laws of this land and are subject to police jurisdiction.
Ordinary folk can bring pressure to bear to all five of these authorities. In addition, I think that the RSPB’s senior management could do a great deal more to mobilise opinion. Even today their announcement is well timed and has a slightly different and harder tone. They will catch up eventually with their own membership.
We will win this fight but it might take one or two more hen harrier breeding seasons to see a start.
One day I hope you will report, once again, raptors re establishing themselves on the northern moors.
Very many thanks for all of your efforts.
Regards
Mike
Mike – thanks
Hello Mike, Sometimes I am inclined to think my words are hitting a brick wall, but when I read your comment tonight I was truly humbled and know my efforts and words may one day result in a safer future for our raptors. Thank you so much Mike,and believe I now realise many more people like yourself are listening and taking notice at the way our protected raptors are being treated on moorlands where red grouse are shot. Yes I totally agree with you, the tide of public opinion is changing in our country and they know it. More and more people are getting justifiably angry at the destruction of raptors on England’s heather moorlands. It’s now our responsibility to spread the word far and wide to maintain the pressure in the hope of bringing the killing to an end.
I am looking forward to meeting as many people as possible at Dunsop Bridge in the Forest of Bowland on Sunday 6th August, will you be there?
One should be pleased, especially as my colleagues in NERF are part of the team in the Northumberland partnership that ensures as much success as possible, plus the four known failures were down to natural causes. Perhaps we need electric fences to cut down on the fox predation, just a thought and probably not practicable. Yet I am not happy, the promise of high vole numbers could have been a good thing with bigger broods and just possibly more nests. Much of the areas of high vole numbers have seen no harriers at all, probably a true reflection of their absolute rarity now in the breeding season. Better than rumour of a pair on a Yorkshire Dales grouse moor has come to naught. A lone male, we are told sky danced for weeks in Bowland yet both he and another male were seen on one day both with accompanying females by reliable volunteers. All not seen again, nor was the male Pallid Harrier, all disappearing at about the time grouse chicks hatch. Coincidence, given the fortunes of harriers, forgive me if I think not.
I can remember another vole plague year in Bowland when I had the privilege to work with harriers there, my third summer of doing it. the previous two years had yielded 1 and two successes with 5 and eight chicks but it was the vole high year of 1988 when four nests reared eighteen young ( 7,6,3 and 2) that provided the platform for a population take off with 20 nests the following year rearing 20 young, 21 nests and 18+ young in ’90 and finally 24 nests rearing 20 young in ’91. It all seems this year is somehow an opportunity lost.
It was also likely that those years of population highs helped recolonise the Yorkshire Dales in the early nineties, which all came to naught in 2007 due to persistent persecution. Bowland Betty died on the very same moors.
I hope the cohort of youngsters of 2017 will survive and be the start of something better but we really did need them to be more numerous, our moorlands are not quite the same without them!
I wrote the above yesterday feeling glad that there were some successful nests and sad that there weren’t more, especially in those places I associate most with Hen Harriers, the Forest of Bowland, the Yorkshire Dales NP and Nidderdale AONB. It is hard to believe yet it is true that the Bowland of the past had almost 40 pairs around 1980, circa 20 pairs in the late eighties and early nineties, even double figures of pairs this century. The Dales/Nidderdale has never done so well despite the original colonisation being around the same time~ 1969 but we did have 6 nests as recently as 2003, rearing seven young from the two successes.
Each time I go to Bowland, often these days just to ring the big owls! It seems a sad and empty place without harriers as if the vital embodiment of its spirit were missing. I feel just the same when I go to the local moors in Nidderdale, without harriers, even seeing other raptors it is somehow incomplete almost dead. Seeing one on the other hand is always uplifting even if ones next thought is ” go somewhere else you are not safe here.”
We need harriers back in numbers where they belong for all sorts of reasons and we probably need a government and landowners more sympathetic to that idea to achieve success. To that end I will be at a harrier event this weekend hope you will be too, this is too important to be left to others.
Paul – well said and thank you for your long perspective on these matters.
Terrific comment, Paul. I knew the numbers at Bowland had declined severely over time, but I hadn’t appreciated that there were almost 40 pairs there around 1980. That information really should be given maximum public exposure – please shout it from the rooftops!
Thanks Alan.
Bowland harriers 1st nest 1969
1980 39 pairs or better nests
1986 5 nests ( published record of only one pr in ’87 wrong 7 prs )
1990 20 nests
1995 6 nests
1999 11 nests
2001 4 nests
2005 15 nests
This is the more historic highs and lows most but not all on UU, the RSPB could publish a complete account of the harriers in Bowland but as yet have not. This of course dies not document how many were successful 28 young in 2004 seems to be the best.
These days I think we would all be ecstatic with anything over ten nests.
Paul – if you are still reading this thread (Mark’s blog moves on so fast), it would be interesting to know the totals for the intervening years, even if full geographical and outcome details are not available. Perhaps we could produce an eye-catching graphic, maybe annotating it with milestones in the management history of the area.
I’m still reading it Alan. I have some figures from ’83 and could possibly get 80 to 83 in detail up to 2005 with some of the data to present. If you are interested ask Mark privately for my email I am happy for you to have it.
Paul
Thanks, Paul. I think we would need the figures for number of pairs/nests for pretty much every year. If there were more than perhaps one or two years missing, we would be accused of cherry-picking the data and much of the impact would be lost (at least on the shooters – the already converted would still get the point).