Tag Archive: Hen Harrier

  1. How low will they go? A red herring

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    Asta’s satellite tag was attached to a Carrion Crow

    The grouse shooting industry doesn’t like to talk about raptor (bird of prey) killing because it’s wildlife crime. It’s not good for an industry which supplies an expensive leisure activity to be underpinned by criminal activity. There are many reasons for wanting change (we’d say a ban) of driven grouse shooting and criminality is one of them.

    Incidents of the illegal persecution of raptors on driven grouse moors are well documented and ongoing. They’re also woefully under-punished, with prosecutions few and far between, largely due to the difficulty of securing sufficient evidence and/or witnesses in remote locations.  The cases that do make it through the courts are often stacked in favour of the defendant, who is represented by expensive senior lawyers (paid for by the grouse-shooting estate) up against the poorly-funded and under-resourced public prosecuting authority (CPS in England & Wales, COPFS in Scotland). Where a conviction is secured against these odds, strong sentencing options are available but are rarely applied consistently and often these cases result in the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for the offender, providing little deterrent for other would be raptor killers.

    Driven grouse shooting is an industry with a problem. It seems many overseeing and working within the industry have a fixation; an urge that they can’t seem to fight, to eradicate raptors. This urge appears to be driving the perpetrators of raptor persecution to carry out shocking crimes against wildlife, as well as engage in acts of deception to cover up their crimes.

    And so, in a series of blogs we will be asking the question – ‘How low will they go?’ Looking at case studies from a range of locations, affecting many species of raptors, we’ll look at the lengths that criminals will go to, either to kill birds of prey, or to hide the fact that they’ve done so.

    A red herring

    How low will they go?

    Attempting to deceive raptor workers to hide crimes.

    Species:

    Hen Harriers

    Method:

    Cause of death unknown. Deceptive tactics deployed to cover up a crime

    Date:

    March 2021

    Location:

    County Durham, North Pennines

    Repercussions:

    None (no prosecutions).

    The crime:

    Asta was a young female Hen Harrier. She hatched in a Northumberland nest monitored by Natural England in 2020 and prior to fledging was fitted with a satellite tag to track her dispersal movements.

    By the end of Asta’s first winter she had seemingly settled in County Durham, spending several months on an area of moorland dominated by management for driven grouse shooting. She stayed in this area until the end of March 2021, when one day her satellite tag abruptly stopped transmitting.

    When a Hen Harrier’s satellite tag transmissions suddenly stop, with no prior warning of a technical malfunction, it usually indicates the harrier it was fitted to has come to harm at the hands of a gamekeeper. In the vast majority of these cases, once a tag has stopped transmitting, it doesn’t come back on again and the Hen Harrier is never seen again. In Asta’s case however, something more unusual happened.

    The team monitoring the tag data were surprised when, in early April, Asta’s tag came back online. This could’ve been interpreted as a good sign – perhaps Asta was alive and well, and a fault with the tag itself was to blame for it going offline. But when the team looked more closely at Asta’s tag data, they could see something wasn’t quite right.

    Firstly, Asta had apparently moved – her tag was now transmitting from a location 29 km away from its last signal in March, quite a distance from where she’d previously settled.

    Secondly, the new location for the tag didn’t marry up with typical Hen Harrier behaviour; it appeared Asta had moved away from her species’ preferred upland habitat (over 400m above sea level), and had dropped to a lower altitude of around 103m.

    The Natural England ecologist monitoring this tag’s data was rightly suspicious of these unsual movements and so a search to find Asta was launched. Later in April fieldworkers finally caught up with the tag – but shockingly it was no longer attached to the Hen Harrier. Instead the team found the body of a dead Carrion Crow, to which Asta’s tag had been attached.

    This was no accident – the crow hadn’t become entangled in an old, discarded tag – the tag had been deliberately refitted onto the corvid after it had been removed from Asta. The police concluded that it was “only human intervention that could have fitted it [the tag] in the manner it was securely attached [to the crow]”.

    But that’s not the worst part. Two satellite tag experts concluded that because the tag’s harness was fully intact, the only way it could have been removed from Asta was if her wings were broken or removed.

    The tag had been forcibly taken off her body before being refitted to the crow, in what we can only assume was a sick attempt to hide a crime, and confuse those working to track and protect Hen Harriers around driven grouse moors. We don’t know for sure what happened to Asta, but we can conclude that she met a grizzly end at the hands of somebody particularly callous and calculating.

    Our view:

    Despite attempts to make birds of prey safer and trackable using satellite tags, criminals will still target and illegally kill these birds. Not only that, but those responsible will resort to sickening tactics like the case we’ve seen here, seemingly taunting the people working to protect raptors. The driven grouse shooting industry has revealed its lack of respect for wildlife and the people working for wildlife conservation.

    Help us put a stop to this.

    When an industry is underpinned by criminality, something needs to change. Those operating driven grouse moors have had plenty of opportunity to do so – but birds of prey continue to be illegally killed.

    This is why, along with many other reasons, we at Wild Justice believe driven grouse shooting should be banned.

    Over 65,000 people have signed our government petition calling for a ban so far. Help us reach 100,000 and secure a parliamentary debate:

    Sign the petition to ban driven grouse shooting
    1. Add your name to our petition – click the button above.
    2. Send this blog to friends and family – click the WhatsApp icon below.
    3. Share this blog on social media, on BlueSky , Facebook or Twitter – click their icons below.

  2. How low will they go? Under the boot

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    A nest of four young Hen Harrier chicks (not the same nest described below). Photo: Keith Offord

    The grouse shooting industry doesn’t like to talk about raptor (bird of prey) killing because it’s wildlife crime. It’s not good for an industry which supplies an expensive leisure activity to be underpinned by criminal activity. There are many reasons for wanting change (we’d say a ban) of driven grouse shooting and criminality is one of them.

    Incidents of the illegal persecution of raptors on driven grouse moors are well documented and ongoing. They’re also woefully under-punished, with prosecutions few and far between, largely due to the difficulty of securing sufficient evidence and/or witnesses in remote locations.  The cases that do make it through the courts are often stacked in favour of the defendant, who is represented by expensive senior lawyers (paid for by the grouse-shooting estate) up against the poorly-funded and under-resourced public prosecuting authority (CPS in England & Wales, COPFS in Scotland). Where a conviction is secured against these odds, strong sentencing options are available but are rarely applied consistently and often these cases result in the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for the offender, providing little deterrent for other would be raptor killers.

    Driven grouse shooting is an industry with a problem. It seems many overseeing and working within the industry have a fixation; an urge that they can’t seem to fight, to eradicate raptors. This urge appears to be driving the perpetrators of raptor persecution to carry out shocking crimes against wildlife, as well as engage in acts of deception to cover up their crimes.

    And so, in a series of blogs we will be asking the question – ‘How low will they go?’ Looking at case studies from a range of locations, affecting many species of raptors, we’ll look at the lengths that criminals will go to, either to kill birds of prey, or to hide the fact that they’ve done so.

    A barbaric crime

    How low will they go?

    Killing defenceless chicks in the nest.

    Species:

    Hen Harrier

    Method:

    Death by stamping

    Date:

    June 15th 2022

    Location:

    Whernside, Yorkshire Dales National Park

    Repercussions:

    None (no prosecution).

    The crime:

    Those determined illegally to kill birds of prey are getting increasingly brazen. Now it seems even a visible and overt nest camera doesn’t deter their crimes.

    In May 2022, a pair of Hen Harriers were tending to a brood of four young chicks, each between 8 and 12 days old, on a grouse moor near Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This nest was being monitored by Natural England fieldworkers, who’d set up a movement-activated camera to capture the birds’ progress and activity. The female was known as ‘Susie’, and could be tracked thanks to the satellite tag she was fitted with back in 2020.

    By June 20th, when the chicks were bigger and more mature, the fieldworkers noticed Susie’s tracking data seemed a bit strange; she was recorded a significant distance from the nest, unusual behaviour for a female bird with an active nest. Sensing something was wrong, the fieldworkers visited the nest site, and made the grim discovery of three dead Hen Harrier chicks in the nest. The fourth was nowhere to be found.

    The chicks didn’t appear to have been attacked by a predator, and so the workers reported the suspicious circumstances to the police, and retrieved the footage from their nest camera. Scrolling back through the footage, all four chicks were alive and healthy on the day of June 15th – each of them taking food from their parents and appearing to be fit and well fed. After dark, just before 10pm, the camera was suddenly obscured, appearing to ‘white out’ to the point nothing could be seen.

    The camera’s motion-sensor wasn’t triggered again until the following morning, when the footage revealed a distressing scene. The adult female was standing on the edge of her nest, slowly removing the lifeless bodies of her four dead chicks from the nest cup..

    The bodies of three chicks were retrieved by the fieldworkers and sent away for post-mortem. The results showed each chick had suffered multiple fractured bones. The first chick had two fractured femurs, the second a fractured humerus and the third both a fractured humerus and a crushed skull. The injuries of all three birds indicated a significant trauma had taken place.

    Whilst it can’t be known for certain, it’s thought the ‘whiteout’ of the nest camera could have been caused by a bright lamp, torch or other object being placed in front of the lens. North Yorkshire Police believed that the chicks’ injuries – were unlikely to have been caused by predators such as Stoats, and instead were the result of human activity. Were these chicks stamped on? Being deliberately and sadistically crushed under a boot?

    An appeal for information was only issued by the police in December 2022, six months after the incident took place. Once again, no perpetrators of this crime – one of the most brutal and depraved examples of raptor persecution – have been brought to justice.

    Our view:

    Perpetrators of raptor persecution are so bold and determined, they will commit their crimes even in the presence of cameras. Natural England have worked in partnership with grouse moor operators on a joint – albeit shambolic – Hen Harrier brood meddling scheme. The fact those working on grouse moors simply don’t care about Hen Harriers, or apparent efforts to protect them, is laid bare in the chilling footage captured of this crime.

    Further case studies:

    More detail on this harrowing case can be read here, and others involving Hen Harriers can be found here. The science shows that incidents like this one add up to a population level landscape-scale impact on Hen Harrier population levels – click here.

    Help us put a stop to this.

    When an industry is underpinned by criminality, something needs to change. Those operating driven grouse moors have had plenty of opportunity to do so – but birds of prey continue to be illegally killed.

    This is why, along with many other reasons, we at Wild Justice believe driven grouse shooting should be banned.

    Over 64,000 people have signed our government petition calling for a ban so far. Help us reach 100,000 and secure a parliamentary debate:

    Sign the petition to ban driven grouse shooting
    1. Add your name to our petition – click the button above.
    2. Send this blog to friends and family – click the WhatsApp icon below.
    3. Share this blog on social media, on BlueSky , Facebook or Twitter – click their icons below.

  3. How low will they go? A double whammy

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    The grouse shooting industry doesn’t like to talk about raptor (bird of prey) killing because it’s wildlife crime. It’s not good for an industry which supplies an expensive leisure activity to be underpinned by criminal activity. There are many reasons for wanting change (we’d say a ban) of driven grouse shooting and criminality is one of them.

    Incidents of the illegal persecution of raptors on driven grouse moors are well documented and ongoing. They’re also woefully under-punished, with prosecutions few and far between, largely due to the difficulty of securing sufficient evidence and/or witnesses in remote locations.  The cases that do make it through the courts are often stacked in favour of the defendant, who is represented by expensive senior lawyers (paid for by the grouse-shooting estate) up against the poorly-funded and under-resourced public prosecuting authority (CPS in England & Wales, COPFS in Scotland). Where a conviction is secured against these odds, strong sentencing options are available but are rarely applied consistently and often these cases result in the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for the offender, providing little deterrent for other would be raptor killers.

    Driven grouse shooting is an industry with a problem. It seems many overseeing and working within the industry have a fixation; an urge that they can’t seem to fight, to eradicate raptors. This urge appears to be driving the perpetrators of raptor persecution to carry out shocking crimes against wildlife, as well as engage in acts of deception to cover up their crimes.

    And so, in a series of blogs we will be asking the question – ‘How low will they go?’ Looking at case studies from a range of locations, affecting many species of raptors, we’ll look at the lengths that criminals will go to, either to kill birds of prey, or to hide the fact that they’ve done so.

    A Double Whammy

    How low will they go?

    Estates will employ multiple methods of persecution, attacking from all angles.

    Species:

    Red Kite

    Method:

    Shooting and Poisoning

    Date:

    October 2022

    Location:

    Stanhope Burn, North Pennines National Landscape

    Repercussions:

    None (no prosecution).

    The incident:

    When somebody finds a dead or injured bird of prey, it can be tricky to determine exactly what happened to it. Perhaps the bird died of natural causes, disease, starvation, or injuries from a fight with another of its own kind, or was killed by a predator. Whilst this is often the case, we would always encourage a good degree of scepticism – it helps to wonder in these situations if anything illegal might have occurred.

    In autumn 2022, a Red Kite was found by a member of the public, hanging lifelessly in a tree, next to an area of moorland managed for driven grouse shooting in the North Pennines National Landscape. This area is dominated by driven grouse moors and is a notorious raptor persecution hotspot. The person who found the bird was luckily somewhat suspicious of the scene, and so the kite was reported to the authorities and subsequently sent away for a post-mortem to determine if its death was suspicious.

    When a dead bird of prey is collected, initial tests usually include an x-ray; the best tool to determine if any bullets or shot remain within the bird’s body. In the case of this Red Kite, the x-ray highlighted several lead pellets, showing that the bird had been shot with a shotgun. Yet this wasn’t considered to be the cause of death of the bird.

    Further tests, including those for toxicology, showed the kite tested positive for two highly toxic insecticides; Carbofuran and Bendiocarb. Both of these substances are restricted; Carbofuran has been banned since 2001, and the use of Bendiocarb has been illegal in Scotland since 2005, but is controlled elsewhere in the UK.

    Both of these substances were present in the kite’s body at high enough concentrations to kill the bird, with poisoning being determined as the official cause of death. So, whilst it had been shot at some point, this was thought to be historical and something that the unfortunate Red Kite had managed to survive.

    The illegally poisoned Red Kite being collected by an investigator. Photo: RSPB
    Our view:

    The driven grouse shooting industry is so determined to kill raptors that birds have multiple encounters with criminality. This poor Red Kite was shot – and survived – only to die later from feeding from a poisoned bait. . Our birds of prey are being attacked from all angles.

    Further case studies:

    See further examples of Red Kites being illegally killed here. There are also plenty of examples of birds of prey being poisoned, specifically with Carbofuran and Bendiocarb.

    Help us put a stop to this.

    When an industry is underpinned by criminality, something needs to change. Those operating driven grouse moors have had plenty of opportunity to do so – but birds of prey continue to be illegally killed.

    This is why, along with many other reasons, we at Wild Justice believe driven grouse shooting should be banned.

    Over 60,000 people have signed our government petition calling for a ban so far. Help us reach 100,000 and secure a parliamentary debate:

    Sign the petition to ban driven grouse shooting
    1. Add your name to our petition – click the button above.
    2. Send this blog to friends and family – click the WhatsApp icon below.
    3. Share this blog on social media, on BlueSky , Facebook or Twitter – click their icons below.

  4. How low will they go? An ambush

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    Male Hen Harrier. Photo: Keith Offord

    The grouse shooting industry doesn’t like to talk about raptor (bird of prey) killing because it’s wildlife crime. It’s not good for an industry which supplies an expensive leisure activity to be underpinned by criminal activity. There are many reasons for wanting change (we’d say a ban) of driven grouse shooting and criminality is one of them.

    Incidents of the illegal persecution of raptors on driven grouse moors are well documented and ongoing. They’re also woefully under-punished, with prosecutions few and far between, largely due to the difficulty of securing sufficient evidence and/or witnesses in remote locations.  The cases that do make it through the courts are often stacked in favour of the defendant, who is represented by expensive senior lawyers (paid for by the grouse-shooting estate) up against the poorly-funded and under-resourced public prosecuting authority (CPS in England & Wales, COPFS in Scotland). Where a conviction is secured against these odds, strong sentencing options are available but are rarely applied consistently and often these cases result in the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for the offender, providing little deterrent for other would be raptor killers.

    Driven grouse shooting is an industry with a problem. It seems many overseeing and working within the industry have a fixation; an urge that they can’t seem to fight, to eradicate raptors. This urge appears to be driving the perpetrators of raptor persecution to carry out shocking crimes against wildlife, as well as engage in acts of deception to cover up their crimes.

    And so, in a series of blogs we will be asking the question – ‘How low will they go?’ Looking at case studies from a range of locations, affecting many species of raptors, we’ll look at the lengths that criminals will go to, either to kill birds of prey, or to hide the fact that they’ve done so.

    An Ambush

    How low will they go?

    Using barbaric and inhumane tools to ambush raptors in their place of safety.

    Species:

    Hen Harrier

    Method:

    Spring Traps

    Date:

    11th May 2019

    Location:

    Leadhills Estate, South Lanarkshire

    Repercussions:

    No prosecution; General Licence restriction imposed on estate by NatureScot

    The incident:

    In early May 2019, fieldworkers from the Scottish Raptor Study Group were walking across Leadhills, a driven grouse shooting estate in South Lanarkshire. The group were there carrying out routine monitoring including visiting a Hen Harrier nest to check on its progress. Leadhills Estate has been at the centre of multiple police investigations over a 20-year period and two gamekeepers were previously convicted for committing wildlife crimes.

    When the fieldworkers approached the nest, they realised something was very wrong. Next to the nest, a male Hen Harrier lay distressed and injured, his leg grasped tightly in the jaws of a metal spring trap.

    Spring traps are designed to snap shut upon a target animal when the animal places its weight on a tread plate and triggers the mechanism. It’s illegal to use one in the UK out in the open; they should only be used in enclosed tunnels (artificial or natural) in order to prevent non-target species being trapped in them (and since this incident in 2019 further restrictions to their use now apply). This was set in the open, right next to the Hen Harrier’s nest, and thus was illegal.

    Taking photos of the immediate scene for evidential purposes, the raptor workers called the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and rushed the injured bird to a specialist vet, who tried his best to reconstruct the shattered and almost-severed leg. Sadly it became clear that the injury was too significant and the decision was made to euthanise the Hen Harrier. The vet later compared the force of the trap on the bird’s leg to a human’s leg being run over by a tractor, indicating just how powerful the illegal trap was.

    Perhaps the worst part of this story is that when the fieldworkers inspected the scene more closely, a second illegally-set spring trap was discovered, positioned under some moss next to two Hen Harrier eggs inside the nest. The female of the pair was nowhere to be seen and the two eggs didn’t survive.

    A search of Leadhills Estate took place but there was insufficient evidence to identify who had set the traps. However, NatureScot imposed a three-year General Licence restriction on the estate for this, and other alleged wildlife crime offences reported on the estate by Police Scotland.

    Chris Packham and vet Romain Pizzi, inspecting the injured Hen Harrier after being released from the spring trap. Sadly he couldn’t be saved. Photo: Ruth Tingay
    Our view:

    Persecutors often use tools which cause prolonged suffering for birds – they just don’t care. Placing traps in such calculated locations, where the chance of catching their target is so high, shows a concerning lack of empathy and humanity. This is just a single example but the science shows that illegal killing is frequent enough to have a population level impact on Hen Harriers and that impact comes from areas rich in grouse moors.

    Further case studies:

    Cruel and inhumane spring traps are a well-known tool of the driven grouse industry, whether they’re used legally, or illegally to kill birds of prey.

    Help us put a stop to this.

    When an industry is underpinned by criminality, something needs to change. Those operating driven grouse moors have had plenty of opportunity to do so – but birds of prey continue to be illegally killed.

    This is why, along with many other reasons, we at Wild Justice believe driven grouse shooting should be banned.

    Over 60,000 people have signed our government petition calling for a ban so far. Help us reach 100,000 and secure a parliamentary debate:

    Sign the petition to ban driven grouse shooting
    1. Add your name to our petition – click the button above.
    2. Send this blog to friends and family – click the WhatsApp icon below.
    3. Share this blog on social media, on BlueSky , Facebook or Twitter – click their icons below.

  5. How low will they go? Nowhere is safe

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    White-tailed Eagle. Photo: Nick Edge, Shutterstock

    The grouse shooting industry doesn’t like to talk about raptor (bird of prey) killing because it’s wildlife crime. It’s not good for an industry which supplies an expensive leisure activity to be underpinned by criminal activity. There are many reasons for wanting change (we’d say a ban) of driven grouse shooting and criminality is one of them.

    Incidents of the illegal persecution of raptors on driven grouse moors are well documented and ongoing. They’re also woefully under-punished, with prosecutions few and far between, largely due to the difficulty of securing sufficient evidence and/or witnesses in remote locations.  The cases that do make it through the courts are often stacked in favour of the defendant, who is represented by expensive senior lawyers (paid for by the grouse-shooting estate) up against the poorly-funded and under-resourced public prosecuting authority (CPS in England & Wales, COPFS in Scotland). Where a conviction is secured against these odds, strong sentencing options are available but are rarely applied consistently and often these cases result in the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for the offender, providing little deterrent for other would be raptor killers.

    Driven grouse shooting is an industry with a problem. It seems many overseeing and working within the industry have a fixation; an urge that they can’t seem to fight, to eradicate raptors. This urge appears to be driving the perpetrators of raptor persecution to carry out shocking crimes against wildlife, as well as engage in acts of deception to cover up their crimes.

    And so, in a series of blogs we will be asking the question – ‘How low will they go?’ Looking at case studies from a range of locations, affecting many species of raptors, we’ll look at the lengths that criminals will go to, either to kill birds of prey, or to hide the fact that they’ve done so.

    Nowhere is Safe

    How low will they go?

    Going directly to the source and destroying raptors’ refuges.

    Species:

    Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle

    Method:

    Nest Destruction

    Date:

    2013 and 2015

    Location:

    Angus Glens and Perthshire

    Repercussions:

    NONE (No prosecutions; no General Licence restrictions).

    The crimes:

    It’s well known that many cases of illegal raptor killing happen on or near driven grouse moors. In many cases, a bird of prey was hunting or prospecting over a moorland when it encountered the barrel of a shotgun. Those that are lucky enough to avoid being shot, trapped or poisoned might make it back to the refuge of their nests. But what if their nests aren’t places of safety either?

    As well as raising their guns to the skies, people bent on illegally killing raptors have been known to go directly to the source; deliberately targeting the nests of birds of prey in order to prevent a nesting attempt or destroy an active one.

    Two such cases were observed on driven grouse moors in 2013 and 2015, affecting both species of UK eagles.

    The first target, in 2013, was the nest of a pair of White-tailed Eagles. This year the Invermark Estate in the Angus Glens saw the first breeding attempt of this species in east Scotland for over a century. The pair – two young birds being monitored by the RSPB – had been gradually building up a nest over the autumn and winter of 2012. Everything was looking positive; those following the progress of the birds were hopeful for a successful breeding attempt the following spring.

    That was until January came around, when workers discovered the eagle’s chosen nesting tree had been felled with what appeared to be a chainsaw. This was a brazen criminal act; to destroy an active nest in this way is illegal. It’s a case that felt particularly shameless and arrogant; something different to methods of raptor persecution like poisoning and trapping, where the evidence is easier to hide. The felling of a large tree, that hosted White-tailed Eagles and was being actively monitored, couldn’t possibly have gone unnoticed.

    To this date, nobody has been held accountable for this wildlife crime because the police couldn’t identify the person who’d felled the nest tree. And when a crime this brazen goes unpunished, what hope is there for other cases, where it can be harder to prove someone’s intention?

    Golden Eagles are just as vulnerable to persecution as White-tailed Eagles. As well as using trees, they often build their nests on crags or ledges on hillsides. When nests are built at a lower level, they become more vulnerable to sneakier acts of destruction; ones that allow the guilty person a degree of plausible deniability.

    In 2015, on the Glen Turret Estate in Perthshire, an established hill-side Golden Eagle nest was reduced to ashes following a fire. Gazing out across the hillside, a blackened patch of vegetation now marked the spot where the eagles had previously nested.

    When something like this happens, gamekeepers can quite easily play the accident card; blaming an out-of-control muirburn that unfortunately spread in the direction of an eagle’s nest. It’s not known whether the burning of this particular nest site was deliberate or accidental.

    Golden Eagle. Photo: Shutterstock
    Our view:

    Whether it’s something as bold and brazen as felling a nest tree, not caring who knows about it, or using more underhand tactics that allow room for reasonable doubt – it goes to show that when it comes to grouse moors, even a raptor’s place of refuge isn’t safe from persecution. Illegal killing is frequent enough to have a population level impact on Golden Eagles and that impact comes from areas rich in grouse moors.

    Further case studies:

    Other cases of persecution involving White-tailed Eagles can be found here, and Golden Eagles here. Other examples of muirburn being used to cause ‘disturbance’ to breeding Golden Eagles are evidenced in this 2021 paper.

    Help us put a stop to this.

    When an industry is underpinned by criminality, something needs to change. Those operating driven grouse moors have had plenty of opportunity to do so – but birds of prey continue to be illegally killed.

    This is why, along with many other reasons, we at Wild Justice believe driven grouse shooting should be banned.

    Over 60,000 people have signed our government petition calling for a ban so far. Help us reach 100,000 and secure a parliamentary debate:

    Sign the petition to ban driven grouse shooting
    1. Add your name to our petition – click the button above.
    2. Send this blog to friends and family – click the WhatsApp icon below.
    3. Share this blog on social media, on BlueSky , Facebook or Twitter – click their icons below.

  6. How low will they go? Faking it; death by decoy

    Comments Off on How low will they go? Faking it; death by decoy

    The grouse shooting industry doesn’t like to talk about raptor (bird of prey) killing because it’s wildlife crime. It’s not good for an industry which supplies an expensive leisure activity to be underpinned by criminal activity. There are many reasons for wanting change (we’d say a ban) of driven grouse shooting and criminality is one of them.

    Incidents of the illegal persecution of raptors on driven grouse moors are well documented and ongoing. They’re also woefully under-punished, with prosecutions few and far between, largely due to the difficulty of securing sufficient evidence and/or witnesses in remote locations.  The cases that do make it through the courts are often stacked in favour of the defendant, who is represented by expensive senior lawyers (paid for by the grouse-shooting estate) up against the poorly-funded and under-resourced public prosecuting authority (CPS in England & Wales, COPFS in Scotland). Where a conviction is secured against these odds, strong sentencing options are available but are rarely applied consistently and often these cases result in the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for the offender, providing little deterrent for other would be raptor killers.

    Driven grouse shooting is an industry with a problem. It seems many overseeing and working within the industry have a fixation; an urge that they can’t seem to fight, to eradicate raptors. This urge appears to be driving the perpetrators of raptor persecution to carry out shocking crimes against wildlife, as well as engage in acts of deception to cover up their crimes.

    And so, in a series of blogs we will be asking the question – ‘How low will they go?’ Looking at case studies from a range of locations, affecting many species of raptors, we’ll look at the lengths that criminals will go to, either to kill birds of prey, or to hide the fact that they’ve done so.

    Faking it; death by decoy

    How low will they go?

    How low will they go? Killers will get crafty, making bespoke tools to help them commit their crimes.

    Species:

    Hen Harrier

    Method:

    Using decoys to draw in birds to within close shooting range.

    Date:

    24th February 2016

    Location:

    Peak District National Park

    Repercussions:

    No prosecution; Land owner (National Trust) terminated its grouse shooting lease with the sporting tenant four years before it was due to expire.

    The incident:

    The problem with many cases of raptor persecution is that they’re very difficult to prove. These crimes often take place in remote areas of moorland; large estates that are unlikely to see heavy footfall from the public. It can be hard to predict where and when incidences of persecution take place when you’re dealing with such vast landscapes. But then, there’s always a chance that you might stumble across something unexpectedly.

    That’s what happened to two birdwatchers in February of 2016. The pair were walking in the Peak District, hoping to catch a glimpse of a Hen Harrier that had recently been reported on the National Trust’s Hope Woodlands and Park Hall Estate where a tenancy agreement was in place to allow grouse shooting. . During their walk, one of the birdwatchers spotted a distant bird, approximately 1km away, perched upon a post in the middle of the moorland. Looking through their binoculars they could make out some silvery-grey plumage with black wing tips, and were temporarily convinced they had spotted a male Hen Harrier. That was until one of them noticed the armed man close by.

    Only a handful of metres from the Hen Harrier, a man dressed in camouflage, and holding a shot gun, was lying in wait in the heather. Looking more closely, it became obvious to the birdwatchers that the bird they’d spotted wasn’t real – it was, in fact, a fake Hen Harrier.

    Scrabbling to capture evidence of the scene in front of them, they filmed the man and fake bird through their telescopes. Only moments after they stopped recording, the man got up, grabbed the fake harrier, and hurriedly walked away from the pair, before getting into a nearby Land Rover and driving away. The birdwatchers thought it was quite obvious that the gunman knew he’d been spotted.

    Whilst using decoy (fake) birds to lure in some birds isn’t illegal – it would be illegal to do so in order to kill birds of prey, including Hen Harriers. Decoy birds are readily available to buy, resembling a range of species including falcons, owls and corvids. But decoy Hen Harriers aren’t readily available, suggesting the one the birdwatchers observed was custom-made.

    Knowing this, it’s quite reasonable to assume this fake bird was being used specifically to try and lure in a Hen Harrier. Male Hen Harriers are rather territorial, and in spying an ‘intruder’ on his patch, a male might be tempted to fly in and see off the imposter. If this had happened, the bird would have been an easy shooting target for the gunman lying in wait in the heather.

    It was very lucky that day that the two birdwatchers not only witnessed – but captured – evidence of such suspicious behaviour. Luck was also on the side of any Hen Harriers present in the area, who avoided an interaction with an armed man at close quarters – at least this time.

    Our view:

    Raptor persecution is not just a crime of opportunity. Not content with relying upon chance encounters with raptors, criminals within the driven grouse shooting industry will actively attempt to draw these birds in so they can be illegally killed.

    Imagine smirks of satisfaction as someone paints the finishing touches on a model Hen Harrier, knowing it will be used to help them kill the real thing. That this happens inside a National Park is even more disgraceful.

    Further case studies:

    More examples of the industry using decoys in various ways to kill birds of prey can be found here, and more cases involving Hen Harriers can be found here.  This is just a single example but the science shows that illegal killing is frequent enough to have a population level impact on hen Harriers and that impact comes from areas rich in grouse moors, such as National Parks like the Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors, the Peak District and the Cairngorms National Park.

    Help us put a stop to this.

    When an industry is underpinned by criminality, something needs to change. Those operating driven grouse moors have had plenty of opportunity to do so – but birds of prey continue to be illegally killed.

    This is why, along with many other reasons, we at Wild Justice believe driven grouse shooting should be banned.

    Over 54,000 people have signed our government petition calling for a band so far. Help us reach 100,000 and secure a parliamentary debate:

    Sign the petition to ban driven grouse shooting
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