RSPB has just sent me this;
Just seen your blog. Many apologies for the confusion. To clarify, 24 nests were monitored in total and 19 were successful. Hope that clears things up.
That’s what I guessed but there is no reason for RSPB to apologise, it is Natural England which has sent out an ambiguous and inaccurate figure. Perhaps they’d like to correct it quickly. Natural NoMates England has quite a history of having to correct things – I’ll post a new example later today.
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One could almost accuse Natural NoMates England of being casual with the truth but perhaps that would be a little harsh, although they did this last year too with two failed almost certainly persecuted nests in North Yorkshire, so they have form for it.
A county or region breakdown of breeding attempts would be helpful from either N (NM)E or RSPB and if possible with reasons for the failures. We know 6 nests in Northumberland reared 18 young, that a brood vandalised nest produced 4 young from North Yorkshire and another brood vandalised nest from the North Yorkshire/Cumbria border produced 4 young from the five taken. From other information about these nests we know that a further 3 were involved in total, plus another nest in Cumbria so that, even to me, adds up to 12 nests leaving a further 12 to be reported on. Logic says they weren’t all on UU land in Bowland!
I have appreciated your blogs and commentary on this debacle of a press release from NE and friends. However, I must admit, I am now totally confused. Then again, what’s new when NE make these public outpourings, a factcheck soon reveals flaws in such statements.