18/06/2009 A red kite found partially poisoned in Angus has been returned to the wild after being nursed back to health. The young female kite was dazed and exhausted when discovered at Tannadice earlier this month. She was taken to the Scottish SPCA’s Middlebank Wildlife Rescue Centre near Dunfermline where staff feared she had been poisoned.
Tests carried out by the Scottish Government’s Science and Advice for Scotland Agriculture Laboratory confirmed the year-old bird had consumed the banned pesticide alphachloralose.
A tag on the bird’s wing showed she had hatched in Inverness-shire in 2008 and spent the autumn on the Black Isle in Ross-shire before moving to Perthshire for the winter. She has now been fitted with a radio transmitter so her future movements can be followed.
The bird was set free by rangers from the Argaty red kite feeding station, near Doune, in Stirlingshire.
RSPB Scotland’s head of investigations Bob Elliot said she had only survived due to recent good weather. He said: “Alphachloralose tends to bring on hypothermia in its victims. This bird is very lucky that it was found during the warmest week of the year so far, otherwise it would have died.“It’s despicable that yet again some of our most magnificent wildlife continues to be indiscriminately poisoned by criminals who have no regard for our natural heritage or the law.”
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Raptor Persecution UK 