****ing barbed wire fences

Eating tea in the garden on a lovely evening and occasionally scanning with the scope - Red th Diver overhead, Shortie, Hen Harrier, selection of ducks and corvids. Then, ****! Male Hen Harrier about a mile away obviously caught in a fence. Leap into car with trusty assistant and a short drive, a bit of a tramp and a few gates and fences later we get there. Hen Harrier well and truly stuck in a single strand, a barb embedded in a wing muscle.

Not how you want to see a Hen Harrier

Manage to get it out but it doesn't look great, muscle a mess so a call and manage to get hold of AL who kindly drives half way. The bird's knackered though, I already had figured this as I'd fairly easily managed to extract the talon from my thumb. There's a vet here who will look at such casualties but we don't hold out much hope. The death of the male could lead to several nests failing, depending how many females he's servicing. I hate barbed wire.

That's harrier blood, not mine on the jacket, and you can see its in a bit of a state

Not the best end to an otherwise rather good day.