The following images appeared on social media a couple of days ago.
This is a goshawk that was found critically injured in Brockweir, Gloucestershire in April 2016 and was taken to Vale Wildlife Hospital. It had been shot in the head.
Unfortunately its injuries were so severe the decision was taken to euthanise the bird.
No further information available.
UPDATE Tues 26th April: Glos Police has today issued an appeal for info here
Photographs by Vale Wildlife Hospital
Yet another red kite has been illegally killed in North-east England.
The body of the latest victim was discovered in Chopwell Wood, west of Rowlands Gill, Gateshead, over the Easter weekend. It had been shot.
For those of you who read Mick Render’s poignant guest blog on Mark Avery’s website last week (here), this news will come as no surprise.
Further details of the latest fatality here.
Red kite photo by David Tomlinson
Scottish gamekeeper Craig Graham, 51, has been charged with repeatedly setting an illegal pole trap on an estate in the Angus Glens.
At a second court hearing yesterday (1st court hearing 31st March 2016), Forfar Sheriff Court heard that Head gamekeeper Mr Graham allegedly set and re-set a pole trap, baited with a pheasant carcass, on a tree stump, between 9th-17th July 2015. A further charge states that Mr Graham set the illegal trap with the intention of killing or taking a wild bird.
The offences are alleged to have occurred between Bridge of Brewlands and Kirkton of Glenisla. According to Andy Wightman’s Who Owns Scotland website, this area comprises part of the Brewlands and Kilry Estate.
The case was continued until 12th May 2016.
BBC news article here
Courier article here
Last month we blogged about an injured red kite that had been found in Malton, North Yorkshire. It had suffered shotgun injuries to the throat and was being cared for by wildlife rehabilitator extraordinaire, Jean Thorpe (see here).
After a few weeks of care and attention, that red kite was successfully released back to the wild yesterday (Photo by Robert Fuller)
Well done and thank you, Jean Thorpe, what a remarkable lady! Remember, Jean does this in a voluntary capacity with no government funding to support her work. Please consider making a small (or large!) donation to help her: HERE.
Of course, North Yorkshire isn’t the only location where red kites are routinely persecuted, either by illegal trapping, shooting or poisoning. There’s a poignant commentary on Mark Avery’s blog today, documenting the disgraceful persecution of red kites on the grouse moors of north east England and how this is suppressing the expansion of the reintroduced kite population. It’s an all too familiar story (e.g. see here).
Join the tens of thousands of ordinary people who are saying enough is enough: HERE
A Scottish gamekeeper is appealing his conviction for killing a buzzard.
In August 2015, gamekeeper William (Billy) Dick, now 26, was found guilty of killing a buzzard on the Newlands Estate, Dumfriesshire, in April 2014. Two witnesses had observed him striking the buzzard with rocks and then repeatedly stamping on it (see here). In September 2015 he was sentenced: £1,500 fine for killing the buzzard and £500 for possession of the dead buzzard (see here).
Dick had maintained his innocence throughout the trial and had claimed he was elsewhere when the offence took place (see here).
His appeal was due to be heard this week but has now been delayed until 13th May 2016:
The outcome of this appeal will be interesting on several levels, not just whether the evidence accepted in the original trial was good enough. The case is tied in with the prosecution of Newlands Estate landowner Andrew Duncan, who is charged with being vicariously liable for the criminal actions of gamekeeper Dick. Andrew Duncan’s case has been repeatedly adjourned while Dick’s appeal is heard (see here).
If Dick’s appeal is upheld, we might expect the allegations against Andrew Duncan to be dropped. If the case against the landowner is dropped, we might expect landowners’ lobby group Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) to reinstate the membership of Newlands Estate, and also reinstate the Newlands Estate accreditation to SLE’s Wildlife Estates Scotland initiative, which, you’ll recall, has been “voluntarily suspended” pending legal proceedings (see here).
Interesting times ahead.
Ian Botham used to be best known for his world-class reputation as an English cricketer. These days he’s better known to some of us as being the grouse-shooting industry’s teller of cock and bull stories [definition: an absurd, improbable story presented as the truth].
Cock story here (We’ll spare you the repulsive accompanying image but it looked a lot like this picture on the right).
Bull stories here, here, here, here, here and here.
Today’s Mail on Sunday contains another Botham-penned cock and bull story, aimed again, of course, at the RSPB. It’s a long rant that volleys off in as many directions as one of the shotgun cartridges Botham fires at game birds, with pellets spraying everywhere in the hope that one might hit the target.
He seems to think that the RSPB has it in for eagle owls, although the evidence he provides is, well, shaky to say the least. By the way, Beefy, if you’re going to pretend to be a knowledgeable ornithologist, at least learn how to express binomial nomenclature: it’s GCSE-level stuff that the genus always starts with a capital letter. Anyway, he alludes to ‘something he read’ last month about the RSPB wanting to ‘nip the colonisation [of eagle owls] in the bud’ although he doesn’t provide a link to said article. Fortunately, his friends over at the GWCT have provided a link, and it’s to an article published in the Yorkshire Post in March – we’ll come to that.
Incidentally, isn’t it strange that the GWCT blogged about eagle owls today, a Sunday, the same day as Botham’s article was published? It’s almost as if the GWCT knew Botham’s attack was coming and wanted to join in, helpfully loading the cartridges into Beefy’s gun before he squeezed the trigger. Take note, RSPB, the GWCT is one of your so-called ‘partners’.
Anyway, back to that article in the Yorkshire Post (here). In it, the journalist cites an unnamed ‘RSPB Officer’ as saying if there was a significant increase in eagle owl numbers it might be wise to ‘nip the colonisation in the bud’. This, it seems, is the basis for Botham’s rant. Yes, really, that’s it.
But who was this ‘RSPB Officer’? Was it even an RSPB employee? It seems strange that what he/she purportedly said is at odds with the ‘official’ RSPB position on eagle owls, as published on the RSPB website (here).
Now, even Botham, with his questionable judgement, must have realised that this ‘evidence’ was flimsy and nowhere near enough to justify another full-scale attack on the RSPB so he’s padded out his story with some other ‘stuff’. This consists of much of the usual guff, including his oft-repeated claim that gamekeepers ‘are putting their house in order’ and no longer killing raptors. Here’s a nice pie chart that says differently:
Before today’s article in the Mail on Sunday, many of us had been wondering what this season would hold. There are some, an optimistic few, who thought that with the publication of DEFRA’s Hen Harrier Inaction Plan, things might settle down, the sniping in the media might stop, partnership-working might do what it’s supposed to do, and hen harriers and other upland raptors might just be left alone.
Having read today’s article, many of us (so far over 27,500) believe that’s cock and bull.
The Northern Ireland Raptor Study Group (NIRSG) has reported the discovery of a dead peregrine at a known persecution hotspot in Glenwherry, Co. Antrim.
In 2012, a recently fledged peregrine was found dead underneath the nest cliff. It had been shot (see here).
The latest dead peregrine (part of a breeding pair) was discovered on Monday 11th April 2016. The bird has been sent for post mortem as it is strongly suspected it has been illegally killed.
Dr Marc Ruddock from the NIRSG, who has monitored peregrines in this area for over a decade, said: “It is deeply frustrating to think that someone might have gone out of their way to target this bird if the post mortem confirms an illegal act. In 2014 there were only 57 successful breeding peregrines across the whole of Northern Ireland. The loss of a breeding adult has the potential to lead to desertion of a historical breeding site and widespread persecution could result in serious implications for the viability of the Northern Ireland population of peregrines.
NIRSG volunteers will be increasing surveillance and monitoring at peregrine sites across the country immediately in order to protect nesting sites at this time of year and will report any suspicious activity to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. I would urge the public to be vigilant and also report any suspicious activity or vehicles in the vicinity of cliffs or quarries immediately to PSNI”.
Dr Eimear Rooney, NIRSG representative on the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime (PAW), said: “Disappointingly our fieldworkers detect incidents of raptor crime each year, particularly of peregrines, red kites and buzzards being poisoned or shot. Wildlife crime incidents, particularly where they occur in remote locations, can often go unreported. PAW is working hard to raise awareness both of the law and the protection it affords birds of prey. However, there are clearly still those individuals who are determined to kill birds of prey“.
In March this year, the PSNI and PAW group launched Operation Raptor, a multi-agency initiative aimed at targeting those who continue to kill birds of prey (see here).
Last night Scottish Environment Link hosted an event called ‘Environment Matters’, a national hustings event in the run up to the election in May.
It was recorded and is available to watch here.
Brilliantly chaired by Joyce McMillan (LINK President) it’s worth watching even if you have just a passing interest in general environmental issues. For us, we were particularly interested in the discussion on wildlife crime, raised as a topic by audience member Andy Myles (see 56 mins in), and specifically the response given by Scottish Green Party candidate Mark Ruskell (see 1:06 mins in).
The actual topic of banning driven grouse shooting wasn’t part of Andy Myles’ question; Andy’s question was whether the panel would be prepared to separate poaching from wildlife crime. But it was interesting (and pleasing) that in his response, Mark Ruskell immediately linked, perhaps subconsciously, the subject of wildlife crime to driven grouse shooting.
Mark Ruskell proved to be pretty well-informed, as well he should, given that one of his fellow electoral candidates (Andy Wightman) recently co-authored a report on the intensification of grouse moor management in Scotland (here) and another party colleague (Alison Johnstone) has repeatedly raised parliamentary questions about dodgy wildlife ‘management’ on grouse moors (e.g. here).
Here’s how Mark responded to Andy’s question:
“I think there’s a wider issue there about the management of country estates and I think we’ve seen a lot of criticism of estates that are practicing driven grouse shooting, and we know what those environmental impacts are: the muirburn, the raptor persecution, the use of veterinary medicines spread over moorlands, the targeting of non-target species like hares as well, and I think we need to see a reform of country estates and the way they manage themselves. I think that if that can’t take place then the argument in favour of licensing will kick in, and you’ve obviously seen high profile calls and petitions for a banning of driven grouse shooting as well. I don’t think we’re quite there yet in terms of the evidence but I think there needs to be a willingness from the larger landowning interests to address the very serious environmental problems that they’re creating, and I think personally that probably lends to some form of licensing going forward“.
The bit where he said “I don’t think we’re quite there yet in terms of the evidence” [for banning driven grouse shooting] was a bit confusing, because he’d already stated that the environmental impacts were already well known. The evidence isn’t lacking at all; the question is how to deal with the evidence, i.e. wait for the landowners to get their acts together and act lawfully, or introduce licensing, or ban driven grouse shooting.
The first approach is a complete non-starter. The grouse shooting industry has had 62 years to stop illegally killing raptors and yet still it goes on. And judging by the industry’s recent fatuous responses about heather burning “It’s the same as getting your hair cut” – see here, and mountain hare massacres being “informed and balanced” – see here, then the only two options remaining are to introduce licensing or ban driven grouse shooting altogether.
So what does the electorate think? Well, according to a recent YouGov poll, 52% of polled Scottish voters agreed that driven grouse shooting should be banned (and only 19% opposed) – see newspaper article here and a more detailed report of the survey here.
And if you look at the groundswell of support from Scottish constituencies for Mark Avery’s latest e-petition to the Westminster Government to ban driven grouse shooting in England (here), then it’s pretty clear what many are thinking.
It’s great to see this issue rising up the political agenda, and it’s not going away.
Mark Avery’s e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting is less than one month old and this evening it has passed 19,000 signatures. If you want to add yours, please sign HERE
Four men associated with a pigeon racing club in County Waterford, Ireland, have been convicted of illegally poisoning peregrines and sparrowhawks, and other associated wildlife crimes.
The convictions are the result of surveillance and investigation by conservation rangers from the Irish Republic’s National Parks & Wildlife Service at three quarries in March and April 2014: Cappagh Quarry, Keereen Quarry and Carroll’s Cross Quarry. Live pigeon baits, smeared with poison and tied to stones or stakes had been found on a number of occasions at the top of the quarry cliffs, designed to lure in raptors. Four poisoned peregrines and two poisoned sparrowhawks had also been found.
On March 9th 2016 at Dungarvan District Court, the following individuals were convicted:
Stephen O’Brien, of 58 Congress Villas, Dungarvan, was convicted of 20 offences, including the use of a live decoy on five separate dates. He was fined 1500 Euros for each of the five dates (7,500 Euros in total) and the other 15 charges were recorded as ‘proven’.
Kevin Crotty (Chairman of Dungarvan Premier Pigeon Club) of 16 Lismore Avenue, Dungarvan, was convicted of 10 offences on five separate dates. He was fined 600 Euros for two offences and the remaining eight charges were recorded as ‘proven’.
John Crotty, of 23 Congress Villas, Dungarvan, was convicted of four offences. He was fined 700 Euros for one offence and the remaining three charges were recorded as ‘proven’.
Christopher O’Brien, of 79 Congress Villas, Dungarvan, was convicted of obstructing an Authorised Person during a search of his premises and with the illegal possession of protected wild finches. He was convicted of 16 offences. He was fined 700 Euros for one offence and the remaining 15 charges were recorded as ‘proven’. He was also ordered to forfeit a stuffed peregrine that had been found at his house.
The National Parks & Wildlife Service believes raptor persecution is a significant problem in Co Waterford and said peregrines had been a particular target, resulting in reduced breeding success. They encourage farmers and members of the public to report suspicious incidents, in confidence, to: Tel (01) 888 3242 or email nature.conservation@ahg.gov.ie
The photo shows a live pigeon decoy, smeared in poison and tied to a rock in a similar poisoning case in Wales in 2012 (photographer unknown).
Calls are being made to put ravens on the General Licence, which would allow them to be killed indiscriminately (see here).
Bert Burnett of the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association is supporting the latest petition and said:
“Ravens, no matter where you go now in our countryside you have every chance to see or hear ravens, but they are not like small children who as the saying goes ‘should be seen and not heard’, if you see them they will be doing damage and even if you hear them they will be planning damage“.
Here’s a raven carrying off a polar bear cub.
[Artwork by Jackie Morris, from The Ice Bear]
Raptor Persecution UK 