Latest news on Blae

Back in September we posted the news that the young female Hen Harrier from this year’s nest at Langholm had died. The satellite tag data allowed the carcass to be located and recovered.  A post-mortem showed no evidence of shot and no visible injuries. The bird was very thin, suggesting starvation as the most likely cause of death. 

As a precautionary measure the carcass was sent for further tests. We have heard today that the toxicology results were negative for the commonly-abused pesticides.The body was not found on grouse moor and there was no evidence of human persecution.

 It is very rare to recover a Hen Harrier carcass, the last post regarding Barry's demise October 10th 2012, describes a more common scenario, no carcass, no tag, no evidence of his cause of death.