Mystery disappearance of UK's rarest raptor still unsolved

A slate-grey male Montagu's harrier shows off the black wing markings.

UK’s rarest raptor

If you’ve never heard of a Montagu’s harrier, it’s hardly surprising: with only four breeding pairs in the UK, they are officially the rarest raptor and the rarest breeding bird with a precarious status.

Found in the east and south of the country, they are summer visitors, migrating south to Africa for winter.

Harriers are renowned for their exquisite aerial acrobatics, passing food in flight and performing ingenious displays during courtship. The Montagu’s agility and elegance when hunting makes them a majestic harrier and particularly spectacular to watch.

To learn more about them, experts have been tagging individuals to track their migration, habits and breeding grounds. 

Each pair needs special protection and their nests are kept secret, so egg poachers cannot detect them, and they can be left undisturbed. 

The tagging process has also meant secretive meetings with only a specialist team involved. Their rarity is what makes the disappearance of a tagged female in August of this year so tragic.

Sally the ‘poster girl’

Dubbed the ‘poster girl’ for Montagu’s’ everywhere, Sally featured in the BBC programme Autumnwatch and had successfully bred with her partner Roger for the past two years.

They were the only breeding pair in the Norfolk region after being tagged by a team that included expert Mark Thomas, a criminal investigator for the RSPB. It was Mark who fitted Sally’s tag.



The moment Sally the 'poster girl' for Montagu's was tagged.

The tags use satellites to transmit signals back regarding the birds’ locations. Sally broke records last year by travelling further than any other tagged Montagu’s and finished her migration in Ghana.

Mystery disappearance

When I spoke to Mark about this, he told me that the transmitter had around “seven hours of signals due to be sent.  The transmitter had recharged at 5pm on Saturday 5^th August and when the last signal had been sent on Sunday 6^th, her exact location was sketchy.

Sadly, a little later on the 6^th August, Sally’s transmitter went dead, raising suspicions over what happened to her as Roger sat at the nesting site alone.

The tags are extremely reliable - even if the bird dies. Dutch scientists recently tracked a tag that had been sending signals a year after the harrier, named Rowan, had died in Senegal. The transmitter was retrieved eighteen months after Rowan’s death.

Mark explained to me that, “tags don’t just stop they fade out”. He added that similarly to remote controls, they simply become less effective rather than ceasing transmissions. 

This area is close to the Sandringham Estate, owned by the royal family. They haven’t escaped accusatory fingers of blame for Sally’s death.

As much of this land is sublet, it is impossible to know who, if anyone, is responsible for Sally’s sad demise.

The diet of a Montagu’s harrier consists of small rodents and birds, insects and lizards. Experts admit they have been targeted land owners on grouse moors to stop chicks being hunted. So, was she shot down and her tag destroyed by a game keeper because she posed a threat to young game who are later themselves shot during the shooting season around Bircham Tofts? 

The BBC has remained diplomatically quiet on the subject, unwilling to speculate or add credence to these conspiracies due to a lack of any evidence.  Chris Packham made it clear that, “we can’t directly accuse the shooting fraternity of illegally killing this bird.”

However, what is more shocking than the revelation of Sally’s disappearance is the fact that three years ago, in the same area, another female harrier, Mo, disappeared in eerily similar circumstances. 

What experts and bird enthusiasts agree on is the likelihood that Sally is dead.

To bird enthusiasts, like Nick Bristow, this is no coincidence. They believe someone knows the truth and they will do anything to protect the game birds, ready for the controversial shooting season.

What other theories are there?

Before we condemn local game keepers, it needs to be considered that this may not involve an illegal killing at all. Mark explained that Sally may have been predated and the transmitter dragged underground by a fox. She may, as Mark also suggested, turn up at the nesting site next year – though this seems a highly optimistic and unlikely hope.

What is clear, is that Montagu’s face a conflict in Norfolk and the RSPB face the challenge of getting to the bottom of whether they are being illegal killed or not.