Four more satellite-tagged hen harriers have ‘gone missing’ since January 2025

Four more satellite-tagged Hen Harriers have vanished since January

As we reported earlier this month, on 14 April 2025 Natural England (NE) quietly released a blog titled “Conclusion of Hen Harrier Brood Management Trial”. In it John Holmes, NE’s Director, Strategy – Landscape, Peat and Species, wrote that “The experimental trial of hen harrier ‘brood management’ has ended…illegal killing of hen harriers has continued, […]

Four more satellite-tagged hen harriers have ‘gone missing’ since January 2025

Last Friday afternoon, Natural England quietly published its latest sporadic update on the status of its satellite-tagged hen harriers. This is essentially an excel spreadsheet that provides the public with little more than the bare minimum of data about tagged individuals. The latest update was done without fanfare; indeed NE appears to have said absolutely nothing at all about it. I’m not surprised, given what the data show. NE was probably ho…