Advertisement

RSPB embarrassed after rare bird it suggested had been illegally dispatched is found alive and well

The death of Highlander, the hen harrier, appears to have been greatly exaggerated.

The bird of prey’s disappearance last April triggered an astonishing feud - pitting landowners and grouse shooters, among them Sir Ian Botham, on one side against a myriad of conservationists including the august body of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on the other.

When Highlander, fitted with a satellite tracking device, suddenly stopped transmitting in April last year, the RSPB suspected landowners of having the rare hen harrier illegally killed.

Other hen harriers, one of Britain’s rarest species, had also gone missing.

Landowners, keen to protect lucrative grouse moors, were, it was suggested, having the rare birds bumped off.

As a result, the charity withdrew from the Hen Harrier Action Plan, a Government-approved scheme to protect the bird of prey, because of mistrust of the shooting industry.

The RSPB even offered a £10,000 reward for information.

Miraculously, ten months after it vanished, Highlander has reappeared.

The bird that sparked a squawking match when it went missing in County Durham has been spotted about 30 miles from its original nesting site in the Forest of Boland in Lancashire.

It is now thought Highlander’s much vaunted tracking device simply stopped working. 

Sir Ian Botham, the former England cricket captain and keen advocate of grouse shooting, said the sighting of Highlander undermined the credibility of the RSPB’s allegations.  

“The reappearance of this supposedly long dead bird is the latest example of the RSPB’s shoot from the hip campaigning on hen harriers which contrasts with the balanced approach of the government and industry,” said Sir Ian.

“Campaigners don’t make good conservationists because they focus on rallying activists rather than reaching solutions that actually help nature.

“If the RSPB wants to help this species it should stop obstructing the government’s plans for increasing hen harrier numbers and instead address its depressing failure to help them breed successfully on land it controls.”

Duncan Thomas, of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, said: “This development supports fears raised by many in the shooting community about the long-term functionality of tagging systems.

“At the time Highlander went missing the shooting community was vilified. The bird’s possible rediscovery is proof of the importance of having sound evidence before hurling accusations.”

The admission that Highlander lives came in a report by RSPB project manager Blanaid Denman.

“With the dedicated help of local raptor workers, we’ve since confirmed the bird as an adult female, with no colour rings, a single BTO ring on the correct leg, but the real clincher... a tag aerial which bends very slightly to the left – all of which match with this bird being Highlander,” Ms Denman wrote.

The RSPB last night said that while it was delighted Highlander had been found, it remained deeply concerned about the plight of hen harriers in the UK.

Just over 600 breeding pairs survive in the UK, according to the RSPB, which calls it the “most intensively persecuted” bird of prey.

An RSPB study published last week maintained that five male harriers have been killed by illegal poachers.

Defending the RSPB’s calls for stricter rules to preserve the hen harrier, Jeff Knott, RSPB’s head of nature policy, said:  “It’s great news that Highlander has been found again. It’s not a big embarrassment for us at all. We have been entirely open about the whole thing. There’s no grand conspiracy here. “Of course it’s possible that the tags have failed but I would still say it is very unlikely.  Even if one bird was killed, that is too many. We always said it was impossible to say for certain that they had been shot. We walked away from the hen harrier plan for a number of reasons, not just the missing birds.”