Police are appealing for witnesses after the discovery of a dead tawny owl in East Lothian last week.
The corpse was found on the B6355 south of the village of Gifford and the owl is believed to have been shot on Thursday 18th December.
Anyone with information please call Police Scotland on 101.
Tawny owl photo by Nigel Blake
Raptor Persecution UK 
Not much chance of a witness to this one I’m afraid – too remote. Do we know for sure that the bird was shot? If so, was it with an air rifle, or a shotgun? Tawnies are beginning to get vocal at this time of year so would be very obvious targets, but of course are also frequent road victims. The key here is – is there a pheasant shoot in that vicinity? Do any followers of RPS know the answers to these questions?
One more detail in story in local press: http://www.eastlothiannews.co.uk/news/owl-shot-near-gifford-1-3643599
But I don’t have any more info, neither per my main bird/owls contact in Gifford area. Pheasants are quite thick on the ground around there, they must be shot and would seem to be the most obvious motive for eliminating Tawny Owls.
There are lots of pheasant shoots around East Lothian
The scummy brain dead freaks .Not hard to figure out ,given the location,this has been done by a local xxxxhole/holes.They have probably bragged about it to their brain dead pals (freaks) You and your kind are nothing more than skid marks and I hope the rest of your life is filled with misery and pain you deserve nothing more out of life for your depraved act of violence against a defenceless animal.Your nothing more than a spineless coward.