The trial of two Scottish gamekeepers, accused of offences relating to the alleged shooting and killing of Red Kites in the Cairngorms National Park in February 2025, is set to resume next week.
Head gamekeeper Graeme Rankin and assistant gamekeeper Steven Hague have both denied the charges.
Red Kite. Photo by Ronnie Gilbert
The pair appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for a four-day trial at the end of April 2025, after an earlier trial, scheduled for December 2025, was adjourned as the two defence lawyers, both KCs (Kings Counsel), lodged a motion suggesting the Sheriff should recuse himself from the hearing as he was an RSPB member (see here).
The four-day trial in April was extended because the court ran out of time to hear from all the witnesses. It will resume on Monday 15 June 2026.
NB: Comments are turned off as legal proceedings are still live.
Further to the news earlier this week that a young satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle (known as G834) had ‘disappeared’ on 1st May in what the police describe as suspicious circumstances, on a grouse-shooting estate in the North York Moors National Park (see here), one of five satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagles to have vanished in recent months (here), it has now been revealed that his last known location was on the Snilesworth Estate.
This news didn’t come from the appeal for information issued by North Yorkshire Police last Monday – that vague appeal just gave the location as, ‘the western side of the North York Moors‘. Instead, the information has come from a lengthy feature article in this morning’s Guardian newspaper, written by Chief Reporter Daniel Boffey.
Photos by Ruth Tingay
Daniel Boffey visited the estate this week and was given short shrift by gamekeeper Charles Woof, who, when asked about the missing eagle, reportedly said:
“I don’t know anything about it” and “It’s private property, I am going to have to ask you to leave“.
The article refers to Woof’s 2008 conviction, where he admitted to using a baited trap to catch birds of prey. That’s interesting. I thought the shooting industry claimed to have a zero tolerance policy to raptor persecution and that anyone convicted would be kicked out of the profession? Apparently not.
Mark Thomas, Head of the RSPB’s Investigations Team is also quoted in the article, having been asked for his opinion about what might have happened to White-tailed Eagle G834:
“I think something has happened in the middle of the night whilst this eagle was at roost. Now, these things don’t fly around in the dark. They will wait till first light.
“If you’re asking me to look at the probability … it’s most likely the bird has been shot. And if the bird is shot whilst it’s roosting, then it’s being shot at night, potentially with thermal imaging gear“.
The article also reports that ‘Snilesworth estate management declined to comment‘. I don’t know who manages the estate these days but for many years it was managed by ‘grouse guru’ Mark Osborne’s company, starting in 2000, according to an earlier version of the company’s website:
One of Osborne’s other companies, William Powell Sporting, currently sells shooting days (Grouse, Pheasant & Red-legged Partridge) at Snilesworth:
Here is a review from one happy Snilesworth customer, featured on a William Powell Sporting publicity brochure:
Photo by Ruth Tingay
The Guardian article is careful to emphasise that there is nothing to suggest that gamekeeper Mr Woof or his team may have been involved in the eagle’s disappearance. Boffey writes:
‘The range of possible suspects is huge, including local farmers and others connected to nearby grouse lands, of which there are many‘.
The article also mentions that on the day the Guardian reporter visited, Mr Woof was ‘busy preparing for a charity clay pigeon shoot‘.
That’ll be this one, happening today, organised by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).
Hopefully the charity shoot guests won’t be causing any disturbance to the local wildlife as they shoot their way around the six clay pigeon stands across the estate and they can keep an eye out for the missing eagle…
Shooting wild birds without lawful reason is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
We want to hear from anyone who was in the area on 1 June, or the night before, and may have seen anything suspicious or has doorbell, CCTV or dashcam footage which could help our enquiries.
PC Jed Raven said:
“This was a distressing incident and we are carrying out enquiries to establish exactly what happened.
“Intentionally harming defenceless wildlife and birds is not just illegal, it is cruel and can lead to the animal suffering before death.
“If you were in the area and saw anything, or have any footage which may help, please get in touch with us“.
Please contact us quoting investigation 42/85306/26.
You can contact us by submitting a report on our website or by using our online Live Chat service, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Visit our website to find out more about our online reporting services.
Alternatively, you can call 101.
If you would prefer to report anonymously, you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers by visiting their website or by calling 0800 555 111.
The Appeal Court has thrown out the Moorland Association’s legal challenge against the new burning regulations, which restrict burning on deep peat.
Royal Courts of Justice, London (photo by Ruth Tingay)
If you recall, the Moorland Association (grouse moor owners’ lobby group in England), along with three chums, applied for a judicial review last year, seeking permission to challenge Defra’s new regulations on peatland burning (Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025), which further restrict the 2021 Regulations for burning over specific areas of peatland, specifically limiting the depth of peat where fires can be lit.
These regulations, which came in to force on 30 September 2025, were a significant blow to grouse moor owners because rotational burning (on peatland moors) is a fundamental aspect of managing a grouse moor to facilitate the maximum number of Red Grouse available to be shot.
The Moorland Association’s grounds for legal challenge could be distilled down to, ‘It’s not fair‘ and ‘Who are you to tell us what we can do on our land‘, but if you want the specific details then see here and here.
In January 2026, Mrs Justice Lieven heard the Moorland Association’s case and told the MA’s lawyers that she considered their arguments ‘hopeless’ and that “It [the Moorland Association’s argument] just seems to lose all sense of reality“.
She refused permission for the judicial review to proceed to a full hearing, because in her view, the Moorland Association’s grounds were all unarguable.
Undeterred by having to pay £29,000 costs to Defra for the first hearing, the Moorland Association decided to appeal Justice Lieven’s decision.
Another judge has now reached the same conclusion as Justice Lieven and has also refused permission for the Moorland Association’s case to proceed.
On Monday the news broke that a young satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle had ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances on a grouse shooting estate in the North York Moors National Park (see here).
I was critical of the vague appeal for information issued by North Yorkshire Police and said I would write more about the details that hadn’t been included in that appeal.
However, since then, there has been a new development. I can’t explain any further at the moment but all will become apparent in due course. For this reason, I’ve decided not to add any of the missing details, at least not just yet. If the new development doesn’t progress as I expect it to, then I will come back to this news story.
Meanwhile, it’s worth talking about G834, the eagle at the centre of the police investigation, and placing his suspicious disappearance in to wider context.
White-tailed Eagle G834, prior to fledging, after being ringed and fitted with its satellite tag (photo by Tim Mackrill, Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation)
G834 hatched in Dorset in 2025, the first wild-fledged White-tailed Eagle in that county for over 240 years (see here).
His parents first paired up in 2023 after being released in 2020 as part of the Isle of Wight Reintroduction Project, led by the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and Forestry England.
G834 was the product of their first successful breeding attempt, and brought the number of wild-fledged WTEs in England up to six since the project began (one chick in Sussex in 2023, two chicks in Sussex in 2024, and two chicks in Sussex and one chick in Dorset in 2025).
He was the star of the show at Poole Harbour at the beginning of this year, where 30 young members of the Young Birders’ Club, an initiative set up by the brilliant charity, Birds of Poole Harbour, were able to watch him feeding in the harbour. The significance of this sighting was summed up by Birds of Poole Harbour Project organiser, Sam Ryde:
“This was such an important and historical moment. To be able to show a group of young conservationists a wild born White-tailed Eagle right here in Dorset is beyond special. Not only that, to be able to explain to them how these projects work, why it’s important and actually show them the outcome is what it’s all about. These reintroduction projects change the baseline for what’s considered ‘normal’ in these landscapes. For many people here in Dorset and Poole Harbour White-tailed Eagles are a new-comer due to the fate they suffered all those years ago. However, kids will now grow up in Dorset with White-tailed Eagles having always been a part of their local heritage, which they’ll want to continue to protect and conserve”.
Three months later, G834 made the fatal mistake of visiting a grouse moor in the North York Moors National Park where, only a few hours after arriving, his satellite tag stopped transmitting whilst he was roosting nearby overnight and he hasn’t been seen since.
The circumstances remind me of the fate of the young Golden Eagle called Merrick, believed to have been shot, killed and removed overnight from a roost site in the Moorfoot Hills, south Scotland, in October 2023.
G834 is the fifth satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle to have ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances in the last year. Here are the others:
In May 2025, a young satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle ‘disappeared’ on a grouse moor in Nairnshire, Scotland (see here).
On 13 September 2025, the satellite tag belonging to White-tailed Eagle G615 was found on remote moorland in mid-Wales. Dyfed Powys Police stated the tag had been removed with a sharp instrument before being hidden in an attempt to dispose of it. Searches in the area to try and locate the body of the bird have so far been unsuccessful (see here).
On 26 September 2025, a satellite tag belonging to young White-tailed Eagle G842 was recovered from the River Rother, near Petersfield, Sussex. It had been removed from the bird using a sharp instrument. Searches in the area to try and locate the body of the bird have so far been unsuccessful (see here).
On 8 November 2025, a four-year-old satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle (G819) ‘disappeared’ in the Moorfoot Hills, south Scotland (see here).
I mentioned earlier that in 2025, three young White-tailed Eagles fledged in the wild (two in Sussex and one in Dorset). Two of those three birds are now ‘missing’ – one (G842) had its tag cut off that was subsequently thrown into a river, and the other one’s tag (G834) has stopped transmitting in suspicious circumstances and the bird hasn’t been seen since.
Two out of three. That’s disgraceful.
And given how long these birds take to mature before they’re old enough to breed (anywhere between 3-7 yrs), and how low their productivity is when they do breed (1-3 chicks per year), it’s no wonder that the project team is planning to release more eagles this year, on both the Isle of Wight and on Exmoor. Given the natural attrition rate (e.g. disease, accidental collision etc), and then illegal persecution on top of that, this population is going to need the release of many more eagles before it becomes sustainable.
UPDATE 6 June 2026: Satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle ‘disappeared’ on Snilesworth Estate, North York Moors National Park (here)
Press statement from North Yorkshire Police (1st June 2026):
INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY AFTER DISAPPEARANCE OF EAGLE
We are appealing for information after the disappearance of a white-tailed eagle.
The satellite-tagged juvenile white-tailed eagle (G834) was born in the wild in Dorset in 2025 and travelled widely across England this spring. On 30 April 2026, it arrived in the western side of the North York Moors.
Overnight into 1 May, the tag device did not communicate. There have been no further transmissions since then.
Following analysis by the National Wildlife Crime Unit, the eagle’s disappearance is being treated as suspicious, and an investigation is underway by North Yorkshire Police.
Anyone with any information is asked to call North Yorkshire Police on 101, quoting reference 12260086274.
ENDS
Young White-tailed Eagle (not the one that’s vanished). Photo by Pete Walkden
This press statement from North Yorkshire Police couldn’t be more vague.
Given the location, and the details of this young eagle’s final hours (as revealed by its satellite tag), there’s an awful lot of information that’s missing from this appeal.
I’ll be writing more about it shortly…
UPDATE 3 June 2026: More news on the satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle that ‘disappeared’ on a grouse shooting estate in the North York Moors National Park (here)
UPDATE 6 June 2026: Satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle ‘disappeared’ on Snilesworth Estate, North York Moors National Park (here)
Following on from the publication of the RSPB’s latest report on the illegal killing of birds of prey in the UK (Patterns of Persecution, published last week), the BBC has released an eight minute film documenting the issue.
The BBC’s Climate Editor, Justin Rowlatt, joined members of the RSPB’s Investigations team in the field and in the office.
The RSPB repeats its calls for a licensing system for gamebird shooting, whilst Dr Marnie Lovejoy from BASC argues against it because, er, ‘it’s all so unfair’ (I’m paraphrasing, of course).
Raptor Persecution UK 