We’ve recently learned about the suspected shooting and decapitation of a white-tailed eagle on the Isle of Skye. Incredibly, this incident, concerning one of Scotland’s most iconic conservation species, has been a well-kept secret for almost a year!
The freshly-dead sea eagle was discovered on a Skye beach by a member of the public in late April 2011. This person is a member of the medical profession and in his opinion, the eagle had been shot by a rifle and its head had been removed with a sharp implement, probably a knife. It was also his opinion that the bird had been thrown from a cliff-top onto the beach; the rocks on the cliff-top above where the body was found are well-known sea eagle perching spots. Photographs of the shot, head-less eagle were taken and the incident was reported to the regional RSPB office and to the police (Northern Constabulary).
For a variety of reasons (and none of them sinister), the carcass was not retrieved from the beach for another two weeks. This unfortunate delay meant that the carcass was in an advanced state of decomposition. It was sent for post-mortem but this apparently proved inconclusive. We don’t know who conducted the post-mortem (the bird does not appear in the SASA reports so we assume it wasn’t tested for poisoning).
According to our sources, the police investigation was limited, at best. The dead eagle was discovered on the Easter weekend; many visitors would have been in the vicinity as this location is a popular tourist destination. A press release might have drawn potential witnesses from amongst the visitors, and also would have alerted local people to the incident. We understand that many locals were not informed, let alone asked for any potential intelligence leads.
The only public comment about this incident is a one-liner on the Skye Birds website (see here) dated 27 March 2012. Why all the secrecy? Was it deliberate, or another poorly-resourced investigation, or just incompetence? Not for the first time, questions should be asked of Northern Constabulary. It’s also surprising that the RSPB were not more vocal about this case. Sure, the RSPB doesn’t have a statutory duty to investigate wildlife crime (unlike the police), but it does have the ability and resources to publicise suspected wildlife crimes and you might have expected more from them when the suspected crime involved one of their own flagship reintroduction species.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I am sure that we all have our suspicions about police and criminal justice system performance in all of these raptor persecution incidents that appear to lack much semblance of investigation, take forever to progress and longer to get much of a mention in the press.
However, I cannot begin to put a finger on the reason why the RSPB do not shout to the heavens every time an incident is discovered. They have no investigative powers, but they cannot be without influence in finding ways of generating a lot of publicity.
Raptor killers, in common with all the rotten criminals in this world, just love to be left in the shadows.