Vanished hen harriers prompt RSPB call for local community vigils

Residents urged to help keep persecuted raptors safe after two males disappear from Geltsdale nature reserve, Cumbria

People in Cumbria are being urged to watch over a pair of hen harriers who have begun nesting on a nature reserve as police investigate the disappearance of two other of the endangered raptors.

Two male hen harriers vanished from RSPB Geltsdale last week in what the police described as suspicious circumstances", just when both were providing nesting females with food. As a result both nests failed.