Press release from Police Scotland (28 June 2024):
APPEAL FOR INFORMATION AFTER GOSHAWK NEST FOUND ABANDONED NEAR LOCH GYNACK
Police are appealing for information after a suspected attempt to target birds of prey in the Strathspey area.
On Saturday, 8 June, 2024, officers received a report of an active Goshawk nest having been found abandoned in suspicious circumstances, within a forest near Loch Gynack.
Enquiries were carried out at the site, in partnership with RSPB Scotland, showing the nest had been deliberately targeted with a shotgun. The nest and damaged branches were taken for x-ray with the assistance of staff at the Kincraig Highland Wildlife Park.
Police Constable Daniel Sutherland, Highland and Islands Wildlife Crime Liaison officer, said: “All birds of prey are fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and it is illegal to kill them. I am asking anyone in the local community who may be able to help with our enquiries to come forward.
“The area is close to popular walking paths from Newton More. If you were walking in the area during May or early June, and may have seen or heard anything suspicious, then please get in touch.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting reference CR/0211821/24, or make a call anonymously to the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
ENDS
Raptor Persecution UK 
As far as I can tell, firearms offences against wildlife are not officially logged by Police Scotland.
From Crimes and offences involving firearms statistics…
https://www.gov.scot/collections/crime-and-offences-involving-firearms-statistics/
you will not find crimes against wildlife mentioned, and the ‘victims’ are exclusively people. Where animals are concerned, it says this:
“Cases involving injury to animals are recorded under the category ‘damage to property’ rather than ‘injury’ – which is reserved solely for the purpose of recording injuries to persons.”
But wildlife never constitutes ‘property’ because wildlife has no owner.
So, this case, where a nest has illegally been disturbed using a firearm, will not constitute a firearms offence in official Scottish crime statistics, and thereby will not attract resources aimed at firearms offence hotspots, or local political attention.
Well done Police Scotland for acting promptly.
When will the Cairngorms National Park Authority put the resources into tackling crime in Scotlands largest NP. A couple of seasons fitting sat tags to a handful of eagles isn’t much of a response. Yes they should be tagging eagles, but at least kites, harriers and goshawks too.
There doesn’t seem to be any cessation of crimes against raptors in the National Park. Loch Gynack at Pitmain has previous had crimes reported including poison geese and shot peregrine falcon.
During lockdown I witnessed local gamekeeprs armed with shotguns behaving very suspiciously above a crag where peregrines were attempting to nest. This is by Loch Gynack. The Peregrines eventually disappeared and a shooting incident was reported. No Peregrines have nested there since then.
Red l Partridge and Pheasant release pens and feeding stations are all over this area. Grouse are in low numbers making driven shooting difficult so it appears the estate are turning more and more to introduced gamebirds for shooting.
Appalling the sooner driver grouse shooting is banned the better for all but poison geese there’s no end to these cruel heinous crimes against wildlife . Speechless.
Just for interest – the four greylag geese found dead on Pitmain Estate in 2019 had ingested the banned pesticide Carbofuran.
https://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2019/05/26/birds-killed-after-ingesting-banned-poison-nr-kingussie-in-cairngorms-national-park/
I can’t imagine that the geese were the intended target – not that it matters, they were still poisoned illegally and given it was Carbofuran, a typically fast-acting poison, it’s likely they were poisoned nearby. I don’t know the proximity to the estate boundary of those poisoned geese.
Nevertheless, ‘someone’ in the area had access to, and laid out, an acutely toxic poison, so dangerous that it’s an offence to even possess it in Scotland, let alone use it.
I wonder whether NatureScot considered a General Licence restriction in relation to this incident and if not, why not? If the shot-out goshawk nest is on the same estate then I’d expect a GL restriction to be under consideration.