Gamekeepers count 70% rise in merlin fledglings on North York Moors

The eighth year of the keepers’ own annual merlin count on the North York Moors has returned its best figures for four seasons, a 70% rise on last year, from a survey that now covers more than 90% of the national park’s moorland. At least 12 of this year’s young were ringed by ringers registered with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), so a proportion of the birds counted can be identified again if they are found elsewhere.

Alongside the 46 fledglings, keepers recorded 51 breeding adults, up from 32 last year. The 70% rise in fledglings makes 2026 the strongest season since 2022, though not a record – 2021 and 2022 each held 59 breeding adults – and across eight years the count has averaged around 45 fledglings.

How is the count carried out?

The survey is run by George Thompson, a semi-retired gamekeeper, who telephones every keeper on the moors each year and records what they found on their ground. Fylingdales, which has no keeper, is the only significant gap in coverage.

Mr Thompson said: “It is a phone call to every keeper on the moors, one at a time, and they tell me what they had on their ground. I will not claim there are more merlin than there were. What I can say is that we know what is here now, and another 10 years of this will tell us the rest.”

A season shaped by heat

The breeding season fell in the hottest summer on record. Merlin on these moors are usually set back by cold, wet spells while chicks are still in the nest, and there has been no such spell for two breeding seasons running.

The heat brought its own losses. Several keepers found chicks dead in nests abandoned after the surviving chicks had fledged, with no sign of predation, and put the deaths down to heat stress and drought. Those birds are not included in the figures. One keeper found an abandoned egg near a water hole and took it to the falconry centre at Duncombe Park to see whether it could be incubated, but it did not hatch.

Why do keepered moors matter for merlin?

Merlin nest on the ground in deep heather, which leaves eggs and chicks within reach of foxes and crows. A 27-year study at Langholm Moor in south-west Scotland, co-authored by scientists from the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), found breeding success for merlin and hen harrier ran two to three times higher under grouse moor management, with fox abundance 65% lower and carrion crow 62% lower.

Britain holds roughly 1,100 breeding pairs of merlin, according to the Moorland Association. The North York Moors is a Special Protection Area, with merlin and golden plover the species that triggered the designation, and around 3% of the UK breeding population of both lives there. The association names the loss of open hill as the clearest long-term threat, citing research suggesting territories need a minimum of around 20sq km of grass and heather moorland to stay viable.

Andrew Gilruth, chief executive of the Moorland Association, said: “The duty to look after merlin on the North York Moors rests with the people who own and manage the land, and this count is the fullest record of these birds that anyone holds. It was gathered by gamekeepers, in their own time, on ground they work every day.”

What happens next

The count will run again next summer, its ninth year, and the BTO rings fitted this season mean any of the 12 marked fledglings recovered away from the moors can be traced back to it. Mr Thompson’s own test is patience: another 10 years of counting, he says, will tell the rest of the story.