Following the publication of Terry Pickford’s recent Hen Harrier article ‘The Hen Harrier is Dead, Long live the Hen Harrier’, we decided to find out for ourselves just how reliable the satellite units used by Natural England to track the movement of hen harriers in both Scotland and England have been over the last ten or so years.
Microwave Telemetry, Inc.
8835Columbia100 Parkway
Suites K and L
Columbia,
Maryland
Dear Sir,
We would like to know details of the reliability of your Micro Wave Telemetry 9.5 g solar rechargeable unit currently being used on hen harriers here in the UK. It appears after being fitted with these units the majority of these birds are going off the radar. There are suggestions, which we do not accept, that these units are failing for reasons not specified. We would like an indication from you of the accepted failure rate of say 100 of these units?
We believe these suggestions are just an excuse to hide the fact that the majority of harriers fitted with your units are being illegally shot, using the unit failure as an excuse to hide what is truly taking place. Your comments would be appreciated.
Raptor Politics
Reply Received
Thank you for your email.
Most of the 9.5 g solar PTTs built for hen harriers have been used by Stephen Murphy in the UK. He has been pretty successful recovering downed PTTs, and none of the recovered PTTs he has returned to us for refurbishment were defective. (He could give you more information about the circumstances of their recovery, which may be of help to you. Stephen can be reached by telephone at 44 07973911594 or by email at [email protected])
Sincerely,
microwavetelemetry
http://www.microwavetelemetry.com
Our Assessment of the detail received
Based upon the reply received from Micro Wave Telemetry, this is our assessment of the reliability of the units fitted to hen harriers by Natural England.
It sounds like Stephen Murphy managed to recovered most (if not all) of the satellite units that he attached to Hen Harriers and that of the ones he recovered none were defective, which we must assume means Natural England knows both where the dead birds were found and with a little investigation what killed them.
The question we must now ask is what has happened to each of the four Cumbrian hen harriers chicks fitted with satellite tags this year? Are they still being tracked and if so where are they if they have not already disappeared?
Another cover up.What is the point in using transmitters if all that Stephen Murphy is doing is collecting them off dead Harriers. Why is NE feeding us bullshit and saying they have failed when quiet clearly they have NOT!!!
I take it that they were attached to dead Harriers,so much for having tea and biscuits with these gamekeepers Stephen Murphy.
Shame on you Natural England – shame on you for standing by knowing what was happening to these Harriers and doing nothing.
This is horrible news. I had always assumed that birds and transmitters had been burned or otherwise destroyed by “persons unknown”. If NE recovered most of the transmitters then presumably they also found the dead harriers. Why oh why have they not involved the police in a criminal investigation? If the birds had died of natural causes, I’m sure we would have been told. NE is not fit for purpose and should be abolished.
Well isn’t this all very interesting, Natural England might as well be a part of the moorland gamekeepers association for all the help they are providing to England’s raptors. How things have changed since Dr Ratcliffe retired as their chief scientist when raptors including harriers were protected. From the information I am reading it seems very clear these satellite transmitters are being recycled, taken from the dead harriers which are being found and then replaced on new harriers before they fledge. From what the American supplier has now stated, very few if any of these units have been lost. This can only mean that all the harriers which have so far been fitted with these tags, except one single harrier, have been recovered dead. Why is this important information if correct being kept from the public? Perhaps someone can contact Natural England and ask them using the Freedom of Information Act, how many harriers have in total been fitted with a satellite tag and how many of these units have been recovered.
Natural England and Head of DERFA….The landowners Alliance.
So, has Stephen Murphy issued any sort of statement or rebuttal or been approached for a statement?
Mr Murphy does very good talks/lectures about the Hen Harrier, however, when it comes to persecution he remains silent…here endeth the lesson.