I’m sorry to have to report that we have lost another of this year’s satellite tagged hen harrier chicks.

Brian, named after the very experienced raptor worker Brian Etheridge, was one of our non-public-facing birds. With the permission of the landowner and help of local Scottish Raptor Study Group members, he was tagged as part of the Hen Harrier LIFE Project on 4th July on an estate in Perthshire within the Cairngorms National Park. He fledged from the nest and stayed close to the nest site until the beginning of August when he moved north into southern Inverness-shire. Brian then spent the next few weeks over various areas of managed grouse moor, within the National Park with frequent strong, clear transmissions from his tag providing detailed information about his daily travels.

Brian having just received his satellite tag (photo: Jenny Weston)

Suddenly and without warning, these transmissions stopped on 22nd August. There was no indication of battery failure or other technical problems. His last recorded position was a few miles from Kingussie, though he may have travelled some distance before his satellite tag stopped. Despite a thorough search of the area with landowner cooperation, his body could not be found. 

Brian is the fourth satellite-tagged hen harrier to suddenly disappear off radar this year, after our 2014 birds Highlander and Chance vanished in County Durham and South Lanarkshire respectively this Spring, and 2016 bird Elwood disappeared in the Monadhliaths last month. 

The Scottish Government has ordered a review of satellite tracking data, following reports of the disappearance of a number of golden eagles in the Monadhliath mountains. Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, said:

The latest reports of satellite-tagged golden eagles disappearing on or near grouse moors are very disturbing and disappointing.

“That is why I have instructed officials to analyse the evidence from around 90 surviving and missing satellite-tagged eagles, to discover if there is a pattern of suspicious activity.

“Grouse moor management does help species such as curlew and golden plover as well as generating much needed rural employment and income but this cannot be at any price.

“The public rightly expects all businesses in Scotland to obey the law. Let me be clear: grouse shooting is no exception.

“As previously stated, the Scottish Government is prepared to introduce further regulation of shooting businesses if necessary. It will be unfortunate if the activities of a few bring further regulation on the whole sector, but that is the risk those who defy the law and defy public opinion are running.”

This review has recently been expanded to include data from hen harriers and red kites. We welcome this review and look forward to the report on its findings. 

It's now a case of all fingers and toes crossed for our remaining young satellite-tagged hen harriers. You can follow the fortunes of 10 of these birds online at www.rspb.org.uk/henharrierlife or @RSPB_Skydancer

UPDATE:

Since the publication of this blog, we've received an unprecedented number of requests to reveal Brian’s last known location. In publicising the disappearance, in suspicious circumstances, of any satellite-tagged birds, we have always been careful to avoid naming specific land holdings as it would be unfair to implicate individuals when, as already acknowledged, the birds are likely to have moved some distance from where they were last recorded.

We'll make an exception in this particular case because the bird roosted the night before on our Insh Marshes reserve whilst in the daytime ranging out on surrounding moorland, before he disappeared. But as stated in the original blog, the last received location is only an indication of the broad general area in which Brian was spending time. This was true of our hen harriers, Highlander, Chance, and Elwood, all of whom disappeared earlier this year, and why we haven’t previously named estates or specified last known locations.

The key point is that in all cases, satellite tags that were transmitting loud and clear and showing no sign of technical problems suddenly ceased transmitting, in circumstances strongly indicating that the tags had been destroyed. As in previous cases, a search was made of the last location where “Brian” was recorded, with no sign of the bird found.

  

Parents
  • Hi Keith,

    Foxes do predate hen harriers, just as they predate many other ground nesting birds. This is something we freely acknowledge. However, satellite tags are small and very durable pieces of kit that would require precise and concerted chewing from a fox to destroy to the point of ceasing transmission. I’m sure there are much tastier bits of a hen harrier that a fox would rather focus on.

    You say we must look at the facts and the facts available to us show that when birds die naturally, we tend to find them - last year’s Hetty on the Isle of Man for example. The facts surrounding Brian’s disappearance mirror those of our other hen harriers, Elwood, Chance, Highlander, Holly, Hope, and Sky before him. The weight of evidence across this bigger picture clearly indicates that there are factors at play beyond natural predation.

    That said, when it comes to individual cases without a physical body to examine, it is as erroneous and unhelpful for you to assert natural predation as the obvious cause, as it would be for us to assert persecution as the cause - which if you read the blog again, you’ll note I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t speculate as to the cause of Brian’s disappearance at all.

Comment
  • Hi Keith,

    Foxes do predate hen harriers, just as they predate many other ground nesting birds. This is something we freely acknowledge. However, satellite tags are small and very durable pieces of kit that would require precise and concerted chewing from a fox to destroy to the point of ceasing transmission. I’m sure there are much tastier bits of a hen harrier that a fox would rather focus on.

    You say we must look at the facts and the facts available to us show that when birds die naturally, we tend to find them - last year’s Hetty on the Isle of Man for example. The facts surrounding Brian’s disappearance mirror those of our other hen harriers, Elwood, Chance, Highlander, Holly, Hope, and Sky before him. The weight of evidence across this bigger picture clearly indicates that there are factors at play beyond natural predation.

    That said, when it comes to individual cases without a physical body to examine, it is as erroneous and unhelpful for you to assert natural predation as the obvious cause, as it would be for us to assert persecution as the cause - which if you read the blog again, you’ll note I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t speculate as to the cause of Brian’s disappearance at all.

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