RSPB press release:
Satellite-tagged hen harrier disappears on Scottish grouse moor
Rare bird of prey vanishes on 12th August
The RSPB has issued an appeal for information after a young hen harrier, fitted with a satellite tag as part of the charity’s EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE project, disappeared on an Aberdeenshire grouse moor.
“Calluna”, a female harrier, was tagged this summer at a nest on the National Trust for Scotland’s Mar Lodge estate, near Braemar in north-east Scotland. Her transmitter’s data was being monitored by the RSPB and showed that the bird fledged from the nest in July. She left the area in early August, with the data showing her gradually heading east over the Deeside moors. However, while the tag data showed it to be working perfectly, transmissions abruptly ended on 12th August, with no further data transmitted. Calluna’s last recorded position was on a grouse moor a few miles north of Ballater, in the Cairngorms National Park.
Hen harriers are one of the UK’s rarest raptors and the 2016 national survey results released earlier this year showed a further decline in numbers. The number of breeding pairs in the UK now stands at 545, a fall of 14 per cent since 2010, with illegal killing in areas managed for driven grouse shooting identified as one of the main drivers of this decline. England only had three successful pairs in 2017.
David Frew, Operations Manager for the National Trust for Scotland at Mar Lodge Estate, said: ‘It is deeply saddening to learn that Calluna appears to have been lost, so soon after fledging from Mar Lodge Estate. Hen harriers were persecuted on Deeside for a great many years, and we had hoped that the first successful breeding attempt on Mar Lodge Estate in 2016 would signal the start of a recovery for these magnificent birds in the area.
Only one month after fledging, and having travelled only a relatively short distance, it appears that we will no longer be able to follow the progress of our 2017 chick. We hope however that the data her tag has provided will help to inform a wider understanding of the lives and threats faced by hen harriers.’
Ian Thomson, Head of Investigations at the RSPB Scotland said: ‘There is a depressing irony that Calluna disappeared on the first day of the grouse shooting season. This bird joins the lengthening list of satellite-tagged birds of prey that have disappeared, in highly suspicious circumstances, almost exclusively in areas in areas intensively managed for grouse shooting.
The LIFE project team has fitted a significant number of tags to young hen harriers this year, with the very welcome help from landowners, including the National Trust for Scotland, who value these magnificent birds breeding on their property. The transmitters used in this project are incredibly reliable and the sudden halt in data being received from it, with no hint of a malfunction, is very concerning.’
Jeff Knott, Head of Nature Policy at the RSPB said: ‘We think a fair set of rules is needed to help drive up standards on grouse moors. The Scottish Government recently set up an independent enquiry into gamebird shoot licensing after an independent scientific review of golden eagle satellite tracking data revealed that approximately a third of them are being illegally killed.‘
If anyone has any information about the disappearance of Calluna we urge them to contact Police Scotland.
Ends
See also Jeff Knott’s RSPB blog and excellent coverage from Raptor Persecution UK.
And remember this imagined reminiscence from an ex-gamekeeper in Inglorious (page 253) ‘I don’t know how much money was poured into satellite-tagging Hen Harriers but it was money well spent from their point of view. For a while, our side could shrug off the missing birds and keep muttering ‘Tag malfunction, probably tag malfunction’ – but once there were so many tagged in different parts of the country then the pattern was clear for all to see.’.
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It won’t be the first time birds of prey have ended their lives on/around the ‘Glorious 12th’. An incident at Geltsdale saw 2 Short eared Owls driven towards the butts by beaters only for one to be shot while the beaters saved the second one by braking ranks and running towards the guns and saving the second. The gunman was banned from ever shooting at Geltsdale again.
This year sees a record number of Red Grouse at Geltsdale non of which will face the guns unless beaters are encouraged to come over the boundary and try and drive the Red Grouse into the 2 shooting estates on their boundary. This was the norm when all 3 shoots were operating so I wonder if the other 2 still do it claiming their birds flew over the boundary and they are just getting them back!!
…. but were the police informed and the shooter prosecuted?
No. The gun man is one of the people who transformed Red Grouse shooting to what it is today! Corrupt. Any one who wants to work in the business of Red Grouse shooting has to obey by the law. Their LAW! I used to do a talk called ‘The Vulgar Plant’ [via its Latin name] and a former keeper came up to me and told me that everything I had spoken about was true! That was why he had resigned and no longer worked in the business. And where was his beat – The Cairngorm National Park!
A predictable end to a magnificent bird, it seems the culprits, their estate managers and owners are incapable of obeying the law. yet another reason that driven grouse should be consigned to history——- the bastards!
This made BBC Radio 3 national news bulletin at 07.00 this morning – amazing!
Any one know how many Buzzards have been killed this year under license?
Mark – has anyone done a ‘Hastings Rarities’ style analysis of the probability of tracker failure when attached to birds of prey near grouse moors versus tracker failure on other species that grouse shooters aren’t interested in?
The story also made BBC Breakfast this morning too.Excellent.The Grouse shooting industry have another P.R disaster on their hands.