During the 19th and early 20th Centuries, any birds of prey, including owls, were routinely shot or trapped by gamekeepers and ‘sportsmen’ naturalists. Some examples from our district make dismal reading.
Montagu’s Harriers attempted to nest on the moors in the 1940s and ’50s but, each year, the birds were shot; a young one which managed to fledge being so dispatched in August 1951. Even after the Protection of Birds Act came into force in 1954, illegal shooting continued. A Hen Harrier was killed at Markington in the autumn of 1956 and another was shot by a gamekeeper near Pateley Bridge in June 1965. It is certain that other raptors were being killed without coming to our notice.
In 1957, a vole plague gave rise to a devastating series of events. The preponderance of Short-tailed Voles attracted unusually high numbers of Short-eared Owls which, in turn, attracted the attention of gamekeepers, one of whom shot both birds of a breeding pair in the Upper Dale. Fortunately, three young were rescued from the nest and successfully hand-reared to the flying stage. One member of a grouse-shooting party stated that ‘they took the opportunity to shoot every one of the ten Short-eared Owls seen during the day’ and, unbelievably, a local gamekeeper shot 26 Kestrels over a period of a few weeks, as they were also being attracted to the voles.
This mindless slaughter is now in the past, but the persecution of large birds of prey by some of those associated with the grouse and pheasant shooting fraternity is, I fear, ongoing.
Dr. John R. Mather