Category: Grouse and harriers

This paper, published today, is a re-run of the previous publication of Natural England’s similar dataset back in 2019 – if you understood the previous paper then this new one won’t alter your understanding (click here for what is actually a much-praised explanation of the previous, excellent, but highly technical, paper). I don’t use ‘re-run’…

Illegal killing major cause of death in Hen Harriers New study shows yearly survival rates of Hen Harriers ‘unusually low,’ with birds typically living just four months after fledging. Illegal killing is the main cause of death for older birds, accounting for up 75% of deaths each year in birds between one and two years…

Rare bird of prey found mutilated as 20 other individuals go missing One of the UK’s rarest birds of prey, a Hen Harrier, has been found dead with its body mutilated A post-mortem examination concluded that the bird was killed by having its head pulled off whilst still alive.    Twenty more Hen Harriers, including…

I received the email in blue below a few days ago, but since I was looking at gentians on The Burren (I think that’s what they were) and seeing hundreds and hundreds of Whimbrel in Galway Bay (I’m sure about them), hearing my first Cuckoo of the year in Connemara (yep, that’s a positive identification)…