Yet another Hen Harrier 'disappears' on a grouse moor

Ruabon grouse moor on the Wynnstay Estate is known as 'Welsh Bermuda Triangle' for birds of prey

Just THREE DAYS after arriving on a north Wales moor, a Hen Harrier has ‘vanished’ in what investigators describe as highly suspicious circumstances.

In late August 2025, a satellite-tagged female Hen Harrier disappeared from the notorious driven grouse moor at Ruabon Moor near Wrexham.

The bird had fledged from a nest on the National Trust High Peak Estate in the Peak District National Park and had been satellite tagged by the RSPB with funding from the National Trust.

Tagging data showed that the young bird had left the National Park in late August, flying west before settling on Ruabon Moor on 28 August.

On the night of 31 August the bird’s satellite tag data revealed that it was no longer alive.

A search took place and the tag was located on Ruabon Moor on 2 September 2025 - but there was no sign of the bird’s body.

The tag was sent for forensic analysis by North Wales Police. Results revealed that the harrier’s satellite tag harness had been deliberately cut (off) using a sharp implement. Despite searching, her body has not been found.

Shooting and wildlife crime

Ruabon Moor is recognised as one of the UK’s most notorious bird of prey persecution hotspots.

• Three satellite-tagged Hen Harriers ‘mysteriously vanished’ on Ruabon in a short period - Heulwen in 2018; Aalin in 2018; Bronwyn in 2019 - and a poisoned Raven was discovered there in 2018.

• In 2023 Wildlife Guardian found a quad bike covered in netting and an armed gamekeeper hidden in heather nearby.

• In 2024 the RSPB placed remote cameras by a Swedish-style Goshawk trap on Ruabon: the CPS declined to take the case forward without explanation. A 2024 report from NERF (the Northern England Raptor Forum) noted that the majority of Raptor monitoring groups covering Northern England were still reporting Goshawks as non-breeders. Birds seen in suitable areas prior to the breeding season were subsequently disappearing. NERF’s conclusion was that virtually all areas of Northern England are a black hole for the species.

The grouse moor and basically the whole of Ruabon mountain, up to the County boundary with Denbighshire, is part of the Wynnstay Estate owned by Harry Watkins Williams-Wynn – the very same Harry Watkins Williams-Wynn who is sole Director of the Sir Watkin Williams Wynn Hunt, more widely known amongst monitor and sab groups as “the criminal Wynnstay Hunt”.

Red-listed

The Hen Harrier is a red-listed species in Wales and across the UK. Its UK recovery is being directly impacted by illegal persecution, with most crimes associated with land managed for driven grouse shooting.

This persecution of Hen Harriers (and other raptors) isn’t confined to Wales, of course. It happens wherever the shooting industry has set up its malignant shop.

In just five years (2020-2024), over 100 Hen Harriers were confirmed or suspected to have been illegally killed in the UK. A total of 89% of these incidents were recorded in England, where the Hen Harrier population is currently just one-tenth of its potential. The majority of these incidents took place on or near land managed for grouse shooting. Of the individuals convicted, two-thirds were associated with the shooting industry, and over half were working as gamekeepers at the time.

Decades of evidence included in the RSPB’s recently published Patterns of Persecution Report have shown that Hen Harriers are ten times more likely to die or disappear when on grouse moors, and that the average life span of a Hen Harrier in the UK post-fledging is now only four months due to the impact of persecution.

As the RSPB also explains, in the last 25 years, only three people have ever been convicted of Hen Harrier persecution-related offences in the UK. In all three cases the person guilty of committing the crime was a gamekeeper employed on a grouse shooting estate. Two took place in Scotland in the early 2000s, and one – the first ever case in England – happened in January 2026 in Yorkshire.

The latter was Racster Dingwall who was working as Head gamekeeper on the Coniston & Grassington Estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Covert footage obtained by the RSPB in early October 2024, recorded Dingwall discussing shooting a Hen Harrier with two other gamekeepers. His utter disregard for the law and the ‘routineness’ of the crime was widely noted: Dingwall and his colleagues broke the law and clearly thought nothing of it.

Tip of the iceberg

In common with everyone else who monitors crimes against birds of prey committed by the shooting industry, the RSPB say recorded incidents are likely to represent only a fraction of the actual number taking place in this area in recent years. Estates do not hand over the criminals they employ, persecution is often committed at night (using infra-red rifle scopes), and crimes take place in remote locations normally inaccessible to the public.

Mark Thomas, RSPB’s UK Head of Investigations: “Sadly, this incident is a textbook example of Hen Harrier persecution and really shows the massive impact these crimes are having on this species.

“In this case a healthy young bird fledged from a safe area in the Peak District National Park and sadly chose to settle in Wales ‘Bermuda Triangle’ – the most notorious bird of prey persecution hotspot in the country.

“This three-month-old bird survived for just three days in the area before it vanished in highly suspicious circumstances.

“Based on years of evidence and intelligence, we suspect the criminal shot the harrier, cut the harness off the Hen Harrier’s body, discarded the tag and disposed of the body in separate locations to avoid detection. As recent incidents show, this area is a crime hotspot for Hen Harriers and other birds of prey and this has to stop.”

Julian Hughes, RSPB Cymru Head of Species: “We have provided a dossier of evidence to Natural Resources Wales and have asked the new Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability to licence gamebird shooting in Wales.

“Without a clear deterrent and effective regulatory oversight, Hen Harriers and other birds of the prey will continue to be at risk.”

Craig Best, General Manager for the National Trust in the Peak District: “We are devastated to learn of the fate of this magnificent bird that started its life on moorland in our care in the Peak District.

“Hen Harriers are an important species in the ecosystem of moorland habitats. We work hard to make sure these birds have good nesting and feeding grounds. Funding from our supporters helps us to restore the landscapes they need to give them the best chance of survival.

“If persecution is allowed to continue, we stand to lose a very important species that is crucial to the health of these landscapes and it can’t continue.”

Only it does continue, and offering grouse moors a licencing lifeline pretty much assures that…

NO Licencing lifeline

Licencing is supposed to be a deterrent to crime.

The shooting industry doesn’t appear to give two hoots about the law and birds of prey, though. The RSPB has said previously that licencing will ‘act as a greater deterrent to those tempted to harm or kill birds such as Hen Harriers’, but estates aren’t ‘tempted’ to break the law, they are doing it.

That’s despite legislation which already exists to protect birds of prey ‘such as Hen Harriers’ and has done so for well over half a century.

And as we have pointed out on numerous occasions, wildlife crime is just part of the problems associated with grouse shooting anyway.

• Licencing will legitimise the grouse shooting industry and officially condone the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Red Grouse - one of just two endemic British bird species - every year. That is not acceptable to us, and we don’t think it should be acceptable to anyone - or any organisation - that says they love birds.

• Licencing essentially says that the ‘legal’ killing of countless numbers of foxes, corvids, stoats/weasels, and other native animals in traps to support the shooting industry can continue as of now. That is also unacceptable to us.

• Raptors are being killed on grouse moors as a matter of routine because it is so difficult to catch the criminals in the act. Estates are huge, often isolated, and largely private. There is no suggestion in licencing legislation of increased resources for investigators or enforcing authorities, or new powers for police to investigate crimes. Without massively ramped-up enforcement, new laws are meaningless.

• New legislation in Scotland brought in to supposedly tackle raptor persecution has become a mess already (see Grouse Moor Licencing: the legal mess we always thought it would be). Shooting groups put so much pressure on NatureScot that they decided to hugely reduce the area of land affected by a new licensing regime after legal threats. Estate owners don’t want legislation and are doing everything they can to limit its reach. Why would anyone think that wouldn’t happen again in England or Wales?

• Estates can afford defence lawyers that will gleefully exploit exemptions in laws that are either poorly written or deliberately hobbled by Parliament itself (like the Hunting Act 2004). Does anyone have any faith that an estate will simply say ‘You got me, take away my licence’? They will threaten legal action, deny responsibility, and tie up the courts for years. In the meantime, birds and mammals will continue to die.

Licencing grouse moors is not the answer to these problems. Being honest about what is happening on them - and getting rid of them - is.

• Header image Hen Harrier/RSPB.

• We are working to END BIRD SHOOTING. This suffering has to stop. Please share this article. Share our socials. Follow us for updates.

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