Month: January 2013

RSPB hits back at Scottish Land & Estates

scotsman_logo_200The thin veneer of ‘partnership working’ is slipping.

Following recently published letters in the Scotsman concerning the grouse moor/raptor ‘debate’ (see here and here), today’s paper included a response from RSPB Scotland. It seems we weren’t alone when we described Scottish Land and Estate’s contribution as misleading guff:

“Doug McAdam of Scottish Land and Estates (Letters, 16 January) implies that the RSPB is not committed to resolving the conflict grouse moor managers perceive with birds of prey, and is not supportive of the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project. This is disingenuous.

Mr McAdam knows that RSPB Scotland was a founding partner in the Langholm project, contributes funding and remains a partner. We are encouraged that the project identified diversionary feeding as a viable tool allowing co-existence of grouse shooting and raptors.

We are disappointed by the lack of update of this by grouse moor managers. Why reject a tried and tested method that reduces (to zero at Langholm) harrier predation of grouse chicks?

Harriers at Langholm remain below the optimum and below the partners’ agreed target.

Continuing intolerance of this species outwith Langholm may well explain this sad failure.

The RSPB withdrew from one English initiative. Over the seven years of our engagement, the English hen harrier population declined to a single breeding pair. In such circumstances it seems pointless to discuss harrier management with none left to manage!

Nevertheless, we remain in dialogue with government and moor managers south of the Border and will direct our energies to any initiatives we believe can work.

The near-complete annihilation of breeding hen harriers in England shows signs of being repeated in large parts of Scotland.

Honest and meaningful dialogue is essential to stop this. Without it, Logan Steel’s hypothesis (Letters, 14 January) that raptors cannot live with intensive driven grouse shooting, may well be correct. Stuart Housden, RSPB Scotland, Edinburgh”.

[Link to the letter here]

Another poisoned buzzard in Scotland

SASA (the Government’s Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture) have just published their latest ‘Summary of Incidents’ where they report on the number of animals that have been submitted for poisoning analysis, dating from January – September 2012 (see here).

It’s an interesting read. The results from the first three-quarters of 2012 suggest a decline in the number of reported raptor poisoning incidents. Does this reflect an actual decline in poisonings, or does it mask something more cynical, such as a change of tactics in the method of persecution used? Nobody can tell for sure at this stage, although you’d have to be pretty naive to believe the first explanation, especially after the recent shocking non-poisoning incidents such as the dead golden eagle found in a lay-by with two broken legs, believed to have been illegally trapped on an Angus grouse moor and then moved by vehicle in the dead of night and dumped by the side of the road, barely alive and left to suffer an horrific death. Then there was the golden eagle that was found shot and critically injured on a grouse moor in Dumfrieshire, now making a slow recovery. And then the shot hen harrier found dead on another grouse moor in Grampian. And these are just the ones we know about.

The latest SASA results show that a buzzard was found dead in Grampian in September 2012, confirmed to have been poisoned by the illegal pesticide Carbofuran. We don’t remember seeing any police reports about this incident. Perhaps they kept it quiet so as not to hinder their investigation? Fair enough, but it’s now four months later…Perhaps Grampian Police will report where was it found, and whether anyone is being charged. They probably won’t though; yet another incident being quietly swept under the carpet? We blogged about these poisoning incidents going unreported the last time SASA published their stats (see here).

There were a number of dead buzzards that were submitted to SASA for testing between Jan-Sept 2012, including the satellite-tagged ‘Buzz’, believed to be the first sat-tracked buzzard in Scotland (see here). His last signal came from near Brechin, Angus in late September. His corpse was picked up by the side of the road. Given the location and the on-going history of raptor persecution in the nearby area, his body was submitted for a post-mortem. He hadn’t been poisoned though – SASA concluded that his probable cause of death was starvation. It would have been nice if Tayside Police had provided information about this result, given so many were following his movements on Roy Dennis’ website…

Buzz wasn’t the only buzzard to starve to death. There are four other buzzards listed in the report with the same probable cause of death; strange really, when there are some people who maintain that buzzards are gorging themselves silly on gamebirds.

Interestingly, the dead golden eagle found in suspicious circumstances on Harris in June did not not appear in the SASA results, even though the press reported at the time that poisoning was suspected (see here). Perhaps Northern Constabulary will provide an update on the outcome of this one? Yeah, you’re right, of course they won’t.

Misleading guff from Scottish Land and Estates

scotsman_logo_200The following letter has appeared in The Scotsman in the continuing ‘debate’ on grouse moor management (see here to read the earlier articles).

“Logan Steele’s letter (14 Jan) which alleges that driven grouse shooting is only viable with the persecution of birds of prey, particularly the hen harrier, is misleading.

First, official statistics demonstrate a clear decline in the number of incidents of raptor persecution.

Second land management for driven grouse shooting delivers a huge benefit for other protected wildlife, especially waders, and sustains employment and communities in remote rural areas. This is something the suggested alternative of walked-up grouse-shooting would not do.

Of particular significance is clear evidence that where grouse and hen habitat and vermin management have declined in some hen harrier “special protection areas”, this has actually resulted in lower harrier populations, as well as declines in other species such as waders.

This is a more complex situation than some make out.

The Langholm Moor Demonstration Project, set up in partnership with the government to bring back driven grouse shooting in the presence of sustainable numbers of hen harriers, is where the best hopes of progress on this issue lie.

Results at Langholm so far are that neither harriers nor grouse have recovered – not what anyone expected, but each year scientific understanding improves and practical solution gets closer.

Making progress will involve compromise on all sides.

Organisations representing grouse moor managers such as SLE are fully behind this process and it is unfortunate that RSPB has pulled out of the mediation process in England. Perhaps Scotland provides the best opportunity to make progress now.  Douglas McAdam, Scottish Land & Estates, Musselburgh”

[Link to the letter here].

And he accuses Logan Steele’s letter as being misleading!

First, which “official statistics demonstrate a clear decline in the number of incidents of raptor persecution” is Doug McAdam referring to? The ones we know of only relate to known poisoning incidents, although they are limited to poisoned birds; they do not include the discovery of poisoned baits and nor do they include suspected poisoning incidents or unreported poisoning incidents. More to the point, they do not relate to other types of raptor persecution, such as shooting, trapping, nest destruction, ‘disappearing’ birds etc. The only statistics that account for all types of raptor persecution incidents are those compiled annually by the RSPB; statistics that have never been accepted by SLE or any other game-shooting organisation.

Second, McAdam says “land management for driven grouse shooting delivers a huge benefit for other protected wildlife, especially waders, and sustains employment and communities in remote rural areas“. Another misleading statement. Land managed for driven grouse shooting is not only bad for protected wildlife (golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, hen harriers, goshawks, red kites, buzzards, peregrines, ravens, pine martens, mountain hares etc etc) but it is catastrophic for other species too (foxes, weasels, stoats, crows etc etc). And that’s without even touching on the landscape-level environmental damage.

McAdam goes on to suggest that “making progress will involve compromise on all sides“. No it won’t. Making progress will depend entirely on whether the grouse-shooting industry will accept that they have to work within the law and put an end to illegal persecution. If they do, all well and good. If they won’t, then they face a direct action campaign to ban driven grouse shooting by those of us who are sick of waiting for the government to act on our behalf. Hollow promises just don’t wash anymore. Time’s up.

McAdam’s penultimate sentence is laughable. He’s trying to suggest that the RSPB are the unreasonable ones in this 20+ year saga, for walking away from the six-year long Hen Harrier Dialogue process (see here). They are definitely not the unreasonable ones – they recognised a sham process and got out. Until SLE start to publicly expel their member estates where raptor persecution is rife (and we all know who they are, and so should McAdam – if he doesn’t, he’s in the wrong job), then the credibility of SLE’s involvement in ‘making progress’ will be viewed with as much contempt as it deserves.

A Saga of Sea Eagles: new book coming soon

223The name John Love will always be synonymous with the reintroduction of white-tailed eagles to Scotland.

John was the original Sea Eagle Reintroduction Project Officer back in 1975, living on the Isle of Rum in Western Scotland and releasing a total of 82 Norwegian sea eagles in what was at the time an ambitious and pioneering effort.

He wrote a highly acclaimed book about the project in 1983 (The Return of the Sea Eagle, Cambridge University Press) and he has now updated the story with his latest book, A Saga of Sea Eagles (Whittles Publishing).

So much has happened in the intervening 38 years. A second re-introduction phase took place between 1993-1998 with a further 56 sea eagles reintroduced in Wester Ross, and then more recently a third reintroduction phase began in 2007 with the East Scotland Reintroduction Project, the same year as the Irish Reintroduction Project began. Sea eagles are now firmly back where they belong, although unbelievably the persecution that originally wiped them out from these isles about 100 years ago is still a threat and still limits their potential spread to other parts of their former range.

A Saga of Sea Eagles is due to be published in April 2013 as a 224-page softback, priced at £19.99. Full details available on the publisher’s website here.

“Why does a ‘keeper need an incinerator again?”

scotsman_logo_200The title for this blog entry is taken from a comment written in response to an article in the Scotsman this weekend.

The article, written by Alastair Robertson, is entitled: “Shooting and Fishing: It is relatively easy to whip up antagonism towards grouse moor owners” and discusses the precarious position of England’s hen harrier breeding population. Robertson mentions Mark Avery’s proposed campaign to ban driven grouse shooting if there isn’t a marked improvement in this year’s nesting pairs. Robertson suggests that the campaign would probably be unsuccessful, although he doesn’t write it off completely. He’s smart to not underestimate the public’s growing anger and frustration on this issue. The article can be read here.

There’s a good counter-argument to Robertson’s article, published today on the Scotsman’s letters page. Read it here.

Illegal raptor poisoning on BBC Countryfile tonight

countryfile_uk-showThanks to @Bucktonbirder for the tip-off –

Illegal raptor poisoning on BBC’s Countryfile tonight (7pm BBC 1), exposed by RSPB Investigations undercover work.

Preview here.

The importance of the “vicious” gamekeeper’s conviction

Hebblewhite carbofuranFollowing on from yesterday’s blog about the conviction of “vicious” gamekeeper Robert William Hebblewhite (see here), more information has emerged about what happened in court.

We mentioned yesterday how unusual it was for a gamekeeper to be convicted of actually killing the dead raptor(s) found on their land; typically, in case after case, the gamekeeper is convicted for the lesser offence of “possession” (e.g. of poison) and the charge for the actual killing is dropped. This has caused an immense amount of frustration, not only for those investigators who often spend months working on getting a case to court, but also for us, the members of the public, who feel a massive sense of injustice every time it happens.

Well, not so in this case. If you read the article published here, you’ll notice that the judge (in this case District Judge John Stobard) was having none of it.

The prosecutor (Mark Holmes) contended that Hebblewhite’s motive was clear. He was the gamekeeper on this shoot, with responsibilities for pest control. The shoot had been losing birds because buzzards were in the area (his words, not ours!). Pheasant carcasses laced with Carbofuran had been found next to the Carbofuran-poisoned buzzards. A jar of Carbofuran was found in Hebblewhite’s van (see photo). Hebbelewhite’s van had been seen going to the scene on several occasions.

Hebblewhite had pleaded guilty to possession of Carbofuran (the lesser offence) but not for poisoning the buzzards.

The defence argued that the poisoner could have been anyone.

District Judge John Stobard wasn’t fooled. He is reported to have said this:

“The birds died from Carbofuran and here in a van is the very stuff  that killed them. The defence says it could have been anyone. Well, could it? I’m not here to discuss the case as a philosophical argument. What is the reality of the matter?

This defendant is here to secure the presence of the shoots that take place by the way of being a gamekeeper. He must look after the pheasants and protect them from other animals.

I think he has done so in an old fashioned and particularly nasty way by lacing the pheasant with Carbofuran in the full knowledge the buzzards would be killed.

It can only point to one conclusion – he did it“.

So finally, here’s a judge who put two and two together and didn’t make five. It’s quite telling though, that this is such an unusual result that we need to highlight it here. What does that say about how our justice system deals with raptor persecution crimes? What does it tell us about our low expectations for these court cases?

In Scotland we’re so used to seeing ridiculous legal obstacles placed in the way of justice that we now expect the poisoner/trapper/killer to get off. “Did you see the defendant place the poison? Did you see the eagle/buzzard/goshawk/red kite actually eat from that very poisoned bait? Was it filmed? Did you have permission to film on that land? Can you forensically match the poison on the bait/inside the dead raptor with the big stash of illegal poison found in the defendant’s house /shed /garage /vehicle /porch /gamebag /jacket pocket? No? Well then he can’t be convicted”.

Well done again to the RSPB Investigations Team, to the CPS, and particularly to District Judge John Stobard for seeing the bleedin’ obvious and acting upon it.

UPDATE: There’s an excellent news piece on this conviction from BBC Look North. Decent coverage and explains that raptor poisoning is a national issue. Great stuff. Available on BBC iPlayer here for limited period (starts at 11.58 – ends at 14.40).

“Vicious” gamekeeper convicted of killing buzzards

A poisoned buzzard
A poisoned buzzard

The RSPB Investigations Team scored another victory today as a Lincolnshire gamekeeper was convicted of killing two buzzards and possessing the banned poison Carbofuran.

Robert William Hebblewhite, 71, of Appleby, Scunthorpe, was fined £1,950 at Lincoln Magistrates Court.

The two buzzards were found dead in Sept 2011 on land at Bonsall Lane in Blyton, near Gainsborough, where he works as a gamekeeper. Toxicology tests revealed the birds had died from Carbofuran poisoning from poison-laced pheasant carcasses. The RSPB said Hebblewhite was in possession of enough Carbofuran to destroy all the raptors in Lincolnshire.

It’s not known whether Hebblewhite is a member of the National Gamekeepers Organisation. Hopefully they will put out a statement to clarify his membership status and to condemn this disgusting, persistent practice.

Congratulations to the RSPB guys for a successful prosecution. Importantly, he was convicted for actually killing the birds and not just for the lesser offence of possession of poison, which is the result we usually see. Well done indeed.

RSPB press release here

The buzzard blame game

There’s an interesting new paper just published in the scientific journal Conservation Letters, authored by Alexander Lees, Ian Newton & Andrew Balmford, called: “Pheasants, buzzards and trophic cascades”.

It was prompted by last year’s ‘buzzardgate’ scandal and makes for an interesting read. Here’s the abstract:

“The partial recovery of large birds of prey in lowland Britain has reignited conflicts with game managers and prompted a controversial UK government proposal to investigate ways of limiting losses to pheasant shooting operations. Yet best estimates are that buzzards are only a minor source of pheasant mortality – road traffic, for example, is far more important. Moreover, because there are often large numbers of breeding buzzards, local control of breeding pairs may simply lead to their replacement by immigrant buzzards. Most significantly, consideration of the complexity of trophic interactions suggests that even if successful, lowering buzzard numbers may directly or indirectly increase the abundance of other medium-sized predators (such as foxes and corvids) which potentially have much greater impacts on pheasant numbers. To be effective, interventions need to be underpinned by far more rigorous understanding of the dynamics of ecosystems dominated by artificially reared, superabundant nonnative game species“.

Link to the journal here.

On a related topic, did anyone read the Xmas blog of Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association Chairman, Alex Hogg? If you did, you might have noticed this statement:

“The day my [pheasant] poults arrived in July, the temperature dropped to 7 degrees that evening and it rained for 3 weeks. We lost 500 poults that night due to hypothermia“. (Read his blog entry here).

That high mortality seems to put the ‘buzzards are killing all my poults so give me a licence to kill them” argument into perspective, doesn’t it? It also raises some interesting concerns about welfare problems…

New gamekeepers just as bad as the old ones

No changeThere’s a comical news item on BBC News today about the new generation of gamekeepers.

The Borders College and Scotland’s Rural University College in Fife said ‘the skills obtained by their students [on gamekeeping courses] were proving valuable to landowners’. Yes, aren’t they just.

According to Angus McNicol of Cawdor Estates, “It’s a highly-trained profession these days. It’s very different to how things were in the past“. Really?

What short memories they all have. Here are a couple of recent examples of newly-trained students, fresh out of gamekeeping college, who now have wildlife crime convictions:

1. Lewis Whitham, who was 19 when he was caught placing a Carbofuran-laced rabbit bait out on the hill on Leadhills Estate (see here).

2. James Rolfe, who was 19 when he was caught with a severely-injured dead red kite in the back of his landrover on Moy Estate (see here).

How very inconvenient when we’re supposed to believe that the criminal gamekeeper is of the old school, now dying out and being replaced by a new generation of ‘highly-trained professionals’. Nice try.

BBC News article here.