No hen harriers

You might get a slightly different view of the Bowland situation if you read the raptor politics web site but it can be a very one sided

Macaris said:

The "issues" are not going away any time soon!  Can't expect any government action either since so much of the land around Bowland is owned by seriously wealthy people, including minor royals. So despair it is.

The Queen owns much of it.

Of course who owns the land should not be a problem if the law is being broken but not sure it works like that.

Think JohnB NTS who seems knowledgable on this suggested that H H in france nested in the lowland arable areas and so a re-introduction from there might well mean they nested in southern counties of England.

Sooty,  You are right they did and have recently but the amount of land area is probably not as great as up north.  The interesting thing for me at the moment is that Montagu's Harrier is more numerous as a breeding bird in England than Hen Harrier and Monties are only in single figures.

michael s said:

Think JohnB NTS who seems knowledgable on this suggested that H H in france nested in the lowland arable areas and so a re-introduction from there might well mean they nested in southern counties of England.

Yes Sooty when we visit our friends in a small village in Northern France we can see them most days in the arable fields around the village.It could be from here that we get some of our winter visiting Harriers.The problem seems to be when they have the cheek to visit our Northern Grouse moors.

There is a good blog on the RSPB site if you scan for the "Skydancer" blog.

This really pains me.

The reasons are clear, everyone knows what's going on and yet nothing seems to be able to be done about it. Only last week I was watching some of these majestic birds going about their business on Mull where they flourish unmolested. It's a real shame I have to travel such long distances to seem them and more importantly a certain sector of society have no respect for this part of our natural heritage and seem intent on seeing an end to them - well now they've succeeded.

Yes it is a pity you have to travel to see them but ib other parts of Scotland they are still persecuted.My favourite place out of the North of England to watch them is the Isle of Man,some nice birding there.

I have just had an e-mail from the Skydancer site and according to Andre there are some success stories in Bowland so not all bad news.