South Scotland golden eagles & peregrines feature on BBC’s Countryfile and Landward programmes

Two mainstream BBC TV programmes, Landward and Countryfile, last week included features on raptor conservation projects in south Scotland – both worth watching on BBC iPlayer if you missed them.

Landward featured the brilliant George Smith, a volunteer from the Scottish Raptor Study Group, who has been monitoring peregrines across south Scotland for almost 40 years. He’s filmed visiting peregrine nest sites to ring chicks (under licence) and to collect DNA samples (also under licence).

It was a direct result of George’s dedicated and meticulous research that led to the recent conviction of part-time gamekeeper Timothy Hall and his son, Lewis Hall, for the illegal laundering of wild peregrines that were stolen from nests in south Scotland and then sold on to falconers in the Middle East, allegedly for enormous profit according to the Crown.

Worryingly, some more peregrine nests that George is monitoring this year have failed in suspicious circumstances and Police Scotland are currently investigating.

This episode of Landward is available on BBC iPlayer here (peregrine segment starts at 7 min 48 sec) and is available for the next 11 months.

Countryfile had two features of interest to readers of this blog. First was an overview of the conservation restoration work going on at the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve, the former Langholm grouse moor that was bought out from Buccleuch Estates by the Langholm community in 2022. Tarras Valley NR Estate Manager Jenny Barlow provides a commentary on the significance of the reserve and describes some of the projects underway.

Then Dr Cat Barlow from the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project took a presenter out into the hills in search of one of the satellite-tagged golden eagles that had previously been translocated to south Scotland to boost the formerly tiny remnant population. Cat discusses the project’s successes as well as the ongoing threat of illegal persecution, highlighted by what Police believe was the illegal shooting and killing of golden eagle ‘Merrick‘ last October, very close to the boundary of the Raeshaw Estate in south Scotland. Unfortunately Cat didn’t discuss the suspicious disappearances of a number of the translocated sub-adult eagles from the Western Isles that are rumoured to have ‘vanished’ when they dispersed north from southern Scotland. The piece also includes some of the important educational work the project is undertaking with local school children in south Scotland in an attempt to improve the future protection of eagles in this region.

This episode of Countryfile is available on BBC iPlayer here (Tarras Valley segment starts at 39 min 10 sec and South Scotland Golden Eagle Project segment starts at 46 min 30 sec). This episode is only available for another 26 days.