Essex Police is working with the RSPB to investigate the death of a red kite found in suspicious circumstances in the Uttlesford District.
Police wildlife crime officer Jed Raven posted the following photograph and tweet on Twitter this morning:
This is a map showing the Uttlesford district in Essex:
There aren’t any further details at the moment.
It’s good to see yet another example of partnership working between the RSPB and the police. What was it that Lord Masham, the poorly-informed Chair of the Moorland Association said a couple of weeks ago?
Ah yes, that the RSPB ‘seem to avoid the police and the authorities and the law‘ (see here).
Had he been paying attention he’d have known that the RSPB has been working with police forces across the UK in a series of multi-agency raids relating to suspected raptor killing (e.g. see here).
It’s not really that Lord Masham is poorly-informed. I don’t think he is at all. I think rather his statement was a deliberate attempt to try and discredit the reputation of the RSPB and thus undermine the credibility of the RSPB’s latest damning Birdcrime report, which showed that 2020 was the ‘worst year on record’ for bird of prey persecution in the UK, with more than half of the crimes linked to land managed for game bird shooting.
If a post-mortem reveals that this latest red kite has been illegally killed, let’s hope the joint Police & RSPB investigation leads to a heightened level of public awareness in the local area, if not a prosecution.
Raptor Persecution UK 
This sad news is getting so monotonous; another glorious raptor killed for what?
Some very sad person’s amusement no doubt.
This government needs to start showing action and teeth in this matter and give the courts the right to hand out far stronger sentences: heavier fines and imprisonment.
In respect of any crime, the courts do not have an impressive record in using their available powers to hand out strong sentences.
Sadly, so very true Dougie.
As someone who used to work for RSPB Investigations, I can tell you that we have always tried to work with the police..and thats since 1984 in my case – mostly that worked well, except when the shooting lobby tried [and in some cases sadly, succeeded] to drive a wedge between us, after that partnership was becoming too successful for them….whenever you see this happening, in print or in actual casework, ask yourself, who does that benefit?
Nominative determinism strikes again.