Following the appalling news over the last couple of days about the highly suspicious, and almost certainly criminal, disappearance of three satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagles here, here and here, there has, as usual, been complete silence from the land management sector, with the exception of Scottish Land & Estates, who commented that, “land managers in Moorfoots have been helping police with the search and will continue to provide whatever help they can as the investigation progresses“.
As for the other shooting organisations, who so often claim to have a zero tolerance stance against raptor persecution, there’s been no comment and no condemnation. Nix. Nada.
As a reminder, all of those organisations (except the Moorland Association, whose CEO was booted off for spreading misinformation) are members of the police-led Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG) – a so-called ‘partnership’ whose function includes ‘awareness raising‘ and ‘raising the profile [of illegal raptor persecution] via media exposure‘. Not a single word.
In contrast, the often very reserved RSPB has not only expressed its disgust, but it has put its money where its mouth is and is offering a reward of £10,000 for information leading to a conviction of those involved. This is welcome news for all of us who have not only enjoyed seeing these birds occupying their rightful place in UK skies, but also for those of us who are sick to the back teeth of the relentless killing of protected birds of prey across our countryside.
However, it turns out that it hasn’t just been the three White-tailed Eagles from the England re-introduction project that have disappeared in recent months. The bottom of the RSPB article, linked above, reveals some new information:
‘Further to the suspicious disappearance of these three White-tailed Eagles, a fourth bird, fledged from a nest in Perthshire in 2024, disappeared on a grouse moor in Nairnshire in May this year. A police search took place but neither bird nor tag were found.
This was the latest of nine tagged birds of prey, including two other White-tailed Eagles, whose tags were functioning as expected, to suddenly disappear in the northern Monadhlaith area of Inverness-shire and Nairnshire since 2018. These disappearances have occurred in an area where multiple confirmed incidents of poisoning, shooting and illegal trap use have been recorded’.
FFS.
I can’t see why it’s taken seven months for this news to emerge, but it doesn’t make it any less appalling.
As the RSPB article suggests, this area of Inverness-shire and Nairnshire is horrific for bird of prey killings and for the suspicious disappearances of tagged raptors.
This latest White-tailed Eagle to vanish is the third in the area since 2019 (e.g. see here), adding to a long history of tagged Golden Eagle disappearances here dating back 15 years (and leading to the Scottish Government commissioning its review of the fates of satellite-tagged Golden Eagles back in 2016).
Numerous other incidents have been uncovered in this same area in recent years, close to the NW boundary of the Cairngorms National Park. These have included the shooting of a Sparrowhawk on Moy Estate (for which a gamekeeper was later convicted, here), the discovery of a poisoned Red Kite in the Moy area, here, and the discovery of a shot Red Kite on Lochindorb Estate, here.
Needless to say, the vast majority of those incidents, including the disappearance of the White-tailed Eagle in May, were on grouse moors.
Perhaps the local wildlife criminals were emboldened by NatureScot’s watering-down of the new grouse shoot licence last autumn?
At least that issue appears to have been sorted by a Government amendment to close the loophole, which recently passed Stage 2 of the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill…but I’ll write about that in another blog.
For now, we have four missing White-tailed Eagles (all vanishing from areas managed for gamebird shooting, whether that be lowland Pheasant & Partridge shooting or upland Grouse shooting), two missing Golden Eagles (also vanishing from areas managed for gamebird shooting), and I’ve lost count of the number of missing Hen Harriers, also vanishing from areas managed for gamebird shooting.
I’ll be updating the Hen Harrier Missing/Dead List over the Xmas period when I’ll have some time…there are still some more to add to the 143 Hen Harriers we already know about.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I see the Shooting Times is cock a hoop because the proposed amendment meaning all gamebird releases in Scotland would have needed to be individually licenced is not going forward. Such is life the game shooting industry/hobby/perversion, whatever you wish to call it continues to have a charmed life or lives. Even more so in England where despite the hopes of many (including me) the current Labour government seems no better than the previous shower when it comes to protecting our wildlife and bringing to heal through regulation a shooting “industry” that threatens it through persecution, wilful habitat damage ( they call it management) and the mass release of millions of non native gamebirds that damage and distort our native ecology.
On top of that we have this appalling and I really do mean appalling news of $ yes 4 WTEs disappearing in circumstances almost certainly meaning they have been illegally killed quite probably by criminals in that very same game “industry” I’ve lost count of the number of persecution incidents involving game management over the years and despite that industry’s crocodile tears and claimed zero tolerance I don’t expect it to stop any time soon. We need better funded police with more specialists with trained search dogs AND Wildlife crime must be made a RECORDABLE OFFENCE used in crime statistics. As long as it isn’t some /many police forces will not give it he priority and resources it needs. I really detest the apologists, enablers and their criminal lackies in the “game industry”, it is organised crime by organised and unapologetic career criminals.
perhaps grouse moors need to have there licenses approved by there record in looking after the natural habitat and wildlife. Killing of raptors whether proven or not in and around there land should mean there licenses are revoked.
yes
“perhaps grouse moors need to have there licenses approved by there record in looking after the natural habitat and wildlife. Killing of raptors whether proven or not in and around there land should mean there licenses are revoked.”
That was my suggestion for the set condition for any shooting licence, to the Scottish Parliament, during their consultations on the Wildlife and Muirburn Bill in 2022 and 2023.
I called it ‘a regular environmental audit’, financed by the landowner applying for the shooting rights..
Ignored:-(
A message needs sending to these sick people by means of a criminal record and massive fine and as you say , revoked licences
Alex
When are the police and courts going to start getting tough with these imbeciles ?
They cannot get tough if the police cannot get the evidence to get them in court in the first place.
We’re going round in circles here with the perpetrators sniggering their heads off. There are three ways this can be split open:
In my view the only solution is to ban shooting and close the whole dirty business down. while the shoots continue so will the persecution of raptors and other wildlife.
£10k is a decent bit of money and it’s good that they are offering it. Of course it’s nowhere near enough for someone to have to up-end their lives and move away & start again in different work if they are for example “grassing” a fellow employee. So for that reason could it not be offered to those who (in the judgement of the investigation team) simply supply especially valuable information that moves the investigation significantly forwards? Forget about needing a conviction before you pay out, or you will never get the ball rolling and encourage a culture of “informing”.
Absolutely right, we need enough to be offered to persuade somebody to talk. I suspect that in most of the relevant areas folk will know enough for that to be possible. On the other hand I well remember a head keeper telling me when I worked for the YDNP that a neighbouring estate wouldn’t let us on because the keepers used poison and they would want us to find it or of course any victims. ( he Was right our request for access for bird surveys was refused) I asked him , given they were dragging the name of shooting in the mire why he didn’t report them. Answer ” Professional etiquette.” That sort of feeling needs to be overcome with generous offer.
“So for that reason could it not be offered to those who (in the judgement of the investigation team) simply supply especially valuable information that moves the investigation significantly forwards?”
£10K for each piece of information is probably more than the RSPB could afford.
Every charity I know is either laying off staff – or thinking about it – after the Chancellor first increased National Insurance payments and now the minimum wage. Unlike businesses, charities cannot pass on cost rises to ‘customers’.
Keith, I’m not saying “each piece of information”, because yes that would be costly and silly. I said “especially valuable information that moves the investigation significantly forwards” for just that reason.
Example could be someone such as a former employee comes forward and says something like, “round there the eagles always ended up hanging around on X’s Beat and I know 100% he has shot them in the past, so he probably did this one too as he is still there. He gets rid of the bodies of all his stuff in a very boggy area of alder trees at the end of the track in Y wood by podging a hole in the bog with the spikey end of a long fencepost, then ramming them deep down. If it had a tag on it he would probably have done Z with the tag as he taught me once that’s the best way to deal with them”.
That type of info (if evaluated by the investigators as credible) is potentially worth £10k IMO but of itself is not going to lead directly to a conviction. That’s why I say drop the “leading to a conviction” clause, and pay the bloke out for putting his head on the block – and encourage others to do the same.
“I said “especially valuable information that moves the investigation significantly forwards” for just that reason.”
Objectively defining ‘especially valuable, and ‘moves the investigation significantly forward’ is not possible.
Can’t be handing out charitable money, willy nilly, without a result as justification in the face of potential complaints to the Charity Commissioners. The RSPB has plenty of enemies.
“That type of info (if evaluated by the investigators as credible) is potentially worth £10k IMO”
But without a result, there is also potentially no end to the claims of ‘especially valuable’ information.
The RSPB does not have that sort of money to spare: I’ve already supplied details of the financial crisis it is in following recent changes in the law.
We will just have to politely agree to disagree on this one, I think 👍
Yep 2bluetails, I agree the default setting of blind “tribal” loyalty above all else is very strong. I also heard of situations where deep animosity existed between the various partys on same estate – between keepers (including among themselves on same estate), agents and owners. And where very strong dislike exists between keepers from one estate to another. But will they grass one another up on this raptor issue? Hardly ever. Because they know that other agents / estates around the country wherever they might go will get to know if they ever apply for a job and will not trust them or employ them because of that. It’s just too small a world to lose a valuable aspect of the keepering skill set – keeping your gob shut above all else!
Why can’t the government / DEFRA offer much bigger financial rewards rather than leaving it to a charity? Why don’t they put some substance behind their supposed zero tolerance policy towards these crimes?
“Why can’t the government / DEFRA offer much bigger financial rewards rather than leaving it to a charity?”
The Home Office are simply not that interested: it is the Home Office which has decided it does not require Police forces to officially record gun crime involving wildlife.
Also while on subject of (which appropriate organisation?) could look to start paying people to come forward and do the right thing (i.e. inform) – if the shooting organisations were true to their rhetoric they would have a support package waiting and a legal fighting fund in place awaiting to assist the “bad apples” who want to speak out (& potentially risk the ire of their employer.) But I have never seen evidence of any such support promoted on any of their websites, and I do look.
The Gamekeepers Welfare Trust runs an initiative to support keepers with their mental health. Fair enough. They often cite the familiar list of pressures that keepers face. From what I have noticed over the past several decades one of the pressures that is seemingly always increasing is in the grouse world – and it is regards the numbers of grouse that are produced (i.e. nurtured & protected to be available be shot = generate income) . Headkeepers season bag averages are constantly scrutinised by Agents and are compared to achievments of their peers and to neighbouring estates. In turn, Beatkeepers are answerable to the Headkeeper regards the numbers achieved on their individual beat, and they are contrasted to what the statistics were historically, and to bags the other Beatkeepers are achieving next door. Who would want to be the one “soft,” honest kid who follows the law (by letting the rascally hooky-beaked vermin eat his grouse!) and lags behind the others in the numbers of grouse he has? That is a pressure that some youngsters maybe didn’t fully appreciate when they took their job and started “living the dream”. Maybe some are looking for a pragmatic way out? These are the people that to me could be incentivised by rewards for information so they can perhaps retrain or set up self-employed to do something different…and (importantly) give up info that’s helps prosecutions & shines a light on the systemic cynical design of the whole rotten business.
Game shooting has gone on since the17 hundreds, and amongst its many followers, are our royalty. Todays royals shoot often, so its highly unlikely to be banned. Common sense is needed here!, a really tough law needs implementing to finally stop the killing of rare birds in general. Jail for not only the persecutor, but also the landowner, FULL STOP.
“Todays royals shoot often, so its highly unlikely to be banned. Common sense is needed here!”
It is highly unlikely to be banned by politicians *before* they try licensing…. and then find that licensing doesn’t stop the persecution, either:-(
On the issue of the shooting royals, a curious and ‘interesting’ development with one of the most fervent was reported by the BBC recently:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yde5p9kw9o
A Met Police spokesperson said: “On Wednesday, 19 November, Metropolitan Police firearms licensing officers attended an address in Windsor to request that a man in his 60s voluntarily surrender his firearms and shotgun certificate.”
There are several contradictions in the BBC report, such as: “Surrendering a certificate does not mean the individual will not have access to their firearms.”