Did so-called glorious 12 claim a raptor victim?
A young hen harrier went missing from a grouse moor – on the so-called glorious 12th of August, the day the shooting season begins.
RSPB Scotland is appealing for information about the endangered bird which has been fitted with a satellite tag.
Called Calluna, the female harrier was tagged this summer at a nest on the National Trust for Scotland’s Mar Lodge estate, near Braemar.
Her transmitter’s data was being monitored by RSPB Scotland and showed that the bird fledged from the nest in July.
She left the area in early August, with the data showing her gradually heading east over the Deeside moors.
However, while the tag data showed it to be working perfectly, transmissions abruptly ended on 12 August, with no further data transmitted.
Calluna’s last recorded position was on a grouse moor a few miles north of Ballater, in the Cairngorms National Park.
Hen harriers are one of the UK’s rarest raptors and the 2016 national survey results released earlier this year showed that even in Scotland, the species’ stronghold, these birds are struggling.
The number of breeding pairs in Scotland now stands at 460, a fall of 27% since 2004, with illegal killing in areas managed for driven grouse shooting identified as one of the main drivers of this decline.
David Frew, operations manager for the National Trust for Scotland at Mar Lodge Estate, said: “It is deeply saddening to learn that Calluna appears to have been lost, so soon after fledging.
“Hen harriers were persecuted on Deeside for a great many years, and we had hoped that the first successful breeding attempt on Mar Lodge Estate in 2016 would signal the start of a recovery for these magnificent birds in the area.
“Only one month after fledging, and having travelled only a relatively short distance, it appears that we will no longer be able to follow the progress of our 2017 chick. We hope however that the data her tag has provided will help to inform a wider understanding of the lives and threats faced by hen harriers.”
Ian Thomson, head of investigations at RSPB Scotland, said: “This bird joins the lengthening list of satellite-tagged birds of prey that have disappeared, in highly suspicious circumstances, almost exclusively in areas in areas intensively managed for grouse shooting.
“We are pleased that the cabinet secretary for the environment has commissioned an independent group to look at how grouse moors can be managed sustainably and within the law.
“We look forward to a further announcement shortly on the membership of this group, and we are committed to assist the work of this enquiry in any way that we can.
“We ask that if anyone has any information about the disappearance of this bird we urge them to contact Police Scotland as quickly as possible.”
