Author: RaptorPersecutionUK

Serial international raptor egg smuggler faces lengthy custodial sentence

The name Jeffrey Lendrum will be familiar to many blog readers. He’s the criminal who was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in 2010 when he was caught trying to smuggle peregrine eggs (stuffed inside socks taped to his stomach) out of Birmingham airport enroute to the Middle East (see here). Lendrum had stolen the eggs from nest sites in Wales and investigators believe he had collected them to order for an Arab falconer in Dubai.

Prior to that 2010 conviction, Lendrum had been found guilty of similar offences involving stolen falcon eggs from nests in Zimbabwe (1984) and Canada (2002).

In 2016, Lendrum was sentenced to 4.5 years in jail in Brazil after being caught in possession of rare falcon eggs at Sao Paulo airport, enroute from Chile to Dubai (see here). However, in 2017 it was reported (here) that he was appealing his sentence and the Brazilian authorities released him on bail pending that appeal. Lendrum subsequently disappeared.

In June 2018 Lendrum was caught at Heathrow airport wearing a body belt that contained 19 eggs of various raptor species from South Africa (here). He initially pleaded not guilty which led to his trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court yesterday.

Lendrum eventually pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial to four charges of Evasion of a Restriction contrary to the Customs and Excise Management Act. He was remanded in custody and sentencing is expected today (Wednesday).

Coverage of this story can be found in the Daily Telegraph (here) and Daily Mail (here).

We’re interested in the legislation under which Lendrum was charged and convicted. Clearly not any wildlife-specific legislation and also clearly quite serious as his trial took place in the Crown Court rather than a lower Magistrates Court. This looks like a creative approach to tackling someone who commits serial wildlife crimes – good work by the UK Border Force and the National Crime Agency.

The judge reportedly warned Lendrum yesterday that he faced a lengthy jail term. Although according to this fascinating article written by Joshua Hammer, who has been researching Lendrum for a proposed biography, Lendrum is suffering from cancer so his apparent ill health may well be used in mitigation to influence (lessen) the severity of his sentence. We’ll see.

UPDATE 10 January 2018: Raptor smuggler Jeffrey Lendrum receives 3 year custodial sentence (here)

Marsh harrier found illegally shot

The RSPB Investigations Team is reporting the discovery of a shot Marsh harrier.

This bird was discovered critically injured on the river bank near Barton-upon-Humber in North Lincolnshire on 9th  September 2018. A dog walker reported it to the RSPCA and it was also reported to the police. An RSPCA officer took the harrier to the East Winch Wildlife Centre near Boston where an x-ray revealed it had been shot. The bird later died from its injuries.

[Photo by RSPCA]

Humberside Police investigated but were unable to identify the criminal responsible.

If anyone has any information relating to this incident, call Humberside Police on 101 quoting crime reference number 16/115793/18.

Further details on the RSPB Investigations blog here

Marsh harriers are increasingly in the firing line, whether it’s on lowland game shooting estates (e.g. here), on land adjacent to an RSPB Reserve (e.g. here) or on upland grouse moors (e.g. here).

And let’s not forget (as several people did) the grouse shooting industry’s interest in obtaining licences to kill Marsh harriers to prevent the so-called ‘disruption’ of driven grouse shoots.

Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme: new research paper & a job vacancy

The Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme (SRMS) is a fine example of credible, effective & genuine partnership-working for the benefit of raptor conservation. That’s probably because its membership doesn’t include any representatives from the game-shooting industry.

Established in 2002, the award-winning SRMS now includes nine partner organisations (Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Scottish Natural Heritage, British Trust for Ornithology, Scottish Raptor Study Group, RSPB, Forestry Commission Scotland, Rare Breeding Birds Panel and the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club) who all collaborate to collect and analyse data on Scottish raptor populations. These data provide the Scottish Government with the information it needs to meet its international reporting responsibilities and they are also used to help inform local authority planning applications and a wide array of conservation applications.

A new scientific research paper on the SRMS’s experiences and approach to nationwide raptor monitoring has just been published in the journal Bird Study. The paper is available in full here: the scottish raptor monitoring scheme recent developments in good practice monitoring

Here’s the abstract:

The work of the SRMS has been coordinated in recent years by Dr Amy Challis but Amy is going on maternity leave from early March so the position of Scottish Raptor Monitoring Coordinator is now available for an initial period of one year.

Make no mistake, this is a challenging role, not helped at all by SNH’s disgraceful decision last year to licence the mass killing of ravens in Strathbraan ‘just to see what happens’. Aside from the very obvious scientific flaws with that licence, as described by SNH’s own Scientific Advisory Committee (here), SNH’s behaviour exacerbated a deep mistrust amongst many members of the Scottish Raptor Study Group, some of whom are now wondering whether to submit their hard-won raptor monitoring data to the SRMS because they can’t be sure that SNH won’t utilise the data for other dodgy ‘experiments’.

It’s quite telling that the job application form for the post of Scottish Raptor Monitoring Coordinator includes the following information about what will happen at the interview stage:

‘Candidates will be asked to imagine that they are giving a short presentation to a group of raptor workers and their aim is to convince them of the value of collaborating in a modernised and inclusive monitoring scheme, with particular focus on the benefits and risks of sharing data with a range of stakeholders (maximum 10 minutes; laptop and projector available for a presentation if desired)’.

Having said that, the SRMS is currently updating its data use and sharing policy which will hopefully provide a greater level of confidence to raptor fieldworkers that their data will only be used for genuine conservation purposes and only with their express permission on a case-by-case basis.

The deadline for applying for this job is 5pm on 10th January 2018 (this Thursday). A job description and details of the skills required and how to apply can be downloaded here:

jobvacancy_scottishraptormonitoringcoordinator

Approx 100 dead pheasants dumped next to N Wales coast path

The bodies of approx 100 pheasants have been dumped next to the North Wales Coastal Path nr Mostyn, a popular walking and cycling spot.

It is believed they were dumped on the embankment, known locally as the ‘cob’, following a traditional Boxing Day shoot.

Resident Janice Scott said: “I came across the pile of pheasants on a walk, but in truth I smelt them before I saw them. I believe that they have been dumped following a traditional Boxing Day shoot, but there’s simply no excuse to just dump them like that. It really isn’t a nice thing to come across, in fact it’s horrendous.’’

Cllr Bob Hazlehurst said: “The cob has become a dumping ground, with people tipping all sorts down there, but nothing quite as strange as this. I’ve simply no idea where they’ve come from or who’s chosen to dump them there. I just hope they are removed as soon as possible.

We are trying to take steps to prevent the persistent fly tipping in the cob area. CCTV has been touted, but how effective that would be with the size of that area is questionable.’’

Steve Jones, chief officer Streetscene and Transportation said: “Flintshire County Council have been made aware of a number of dead pheasants deposited on the Coastal path near Mostyn and have arranged for Streetscene to collect and remove the birds.”

This practice of dumping shot game birds is becoming a common practice in the UK. We’ve previously blogged about it over the last couple of years (e.g. see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here), and undoubtedly it’s driven by an over supply of birds and little demand by consumers for purchasing game bird meat. The game shooting industry is well aware of the PR disaster this practice brings to its door but it seems unable to do anything about it.

This is hardly a surprise when you consider that an estimated 50 million non-native gamebirds (pheasants & red-legged partridge) are released in to our countryside EVERY YEAR, to provide live targets for people with guns. This is barely regulated – they can release as many of these alien species as they like and kill as many of them as they like, as long as they’re killed within the shooting season. The Code of Good Shooting Practice says “shoot managers must ensure they have appropriate arrangements in place for the sale or consumption of the anticipated bag in advance of all shoot days“ but this, evidently, is not happening.

And of course sitting alongside these unregulated releases is legal and illegal predator control – the mass slaughter of native wildlife, including raptors, done to protect the gamekeepers’ ‘livestock’. And for what? Just so the shot game can be thrown down an embankment and left to rot?

Shooting industry representatives are doing their best to proclaim effective self-regulation and as recently as November 2018 BASC claimed that “the values and standards of the UK shooting community…is driven by strong ethics and respect for quarry“.

Images like this from Wales prove BASC’s claim to be just more hollow words.

Police Supt Nick Lyall to create ‘hostile environment’ for raptor killers in England & Wales

Hats off to Police Superintendent Nick Lyall, the current Chair of the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG) in England and Wales.

This guy took up post in September and promised accountability, transparency, and most importantly, delivery of the group’s objectives, which centre on a partnership approach to tackling illegal raptor persecution. No easy task given that the RPPDG, which was formed in 2011, has so far delivered absolutely nothing of any use because its membership has been top heavy with those only interested in protecting the image of the grouse shooting industry and because the so-called ‘partnership’ has suffered from a chronic lack of leadership by its former Chairs.

Now, thanks to Nick’s leadership, things look set to change. We blogged last month about some of his preparatory work (here) and today he’s published a blog about some of his plans for 2019, which he’s calling ‘The Year of the Raptor’.

[Supt Nick Lyall visiting RPPDG partners in the Yorkshire Dales in November: L-R David Butterworth (CEO Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority), Nick Lyall, Ian Court (Wildlife Officer at YDNPA) and Sgt Stuart Grainger of North Yorkshire Police Rural Task Force]

This is Nick’s 4th blog since September – full marks to him in the transparency stakes; we’ve never seen this level of communication from previous Chairs and it is a very welcome change.

In his latest blog (here), Nick outlines some of his immediate plans for the RPPDG and the one which caught our eye was this:

‘The creation of an Enforcement Group that will focus on partnership working and the `Achilles Heel` approach to tackling head-on those people that are known or strongly suspected to be involved in persecution offences. Creation of a hostile environment for those committing persecution offences‘.

The specifics of this proposed Enforcement Group and its operational capabilities aren’t detailed as yet, which is understandable, but we hope that it will be restricted to law enforcement bodies only and will specifically exclude all those shooting industry organisations whose main aim seems to be to protect the raptor killers from any enforcement measure. Presumably the group will have access to highly sensitive police intelligence logs including the names of shooting estates and associated individuals who are suspected of committing wildlife crime and presumably the group will also have the authority to act on those intelligence logs and go after the suspects. Let’s face it, these estates (and many of the individuals) are already well known because raptor crime is reported there time and time and time again but enforcement action, with a few notable exceptions, has been appalling.

Directly linked to this lack of enforcement in some cases has been a lack of available resources as police budgets are slashed, and a lack of trained police officers and control room operators in some regions but by no means across the board. Nick discusses his plans to tackle both these issues, in addition to launching a national publicity campaign based on North Yorkshire Police’s exemplary Operation Owl campaign.

Of course, there’s also the obligatory ‘let’s talk with the shooting industry’ approach, which has proven utterly futile in the past with organisations actively opposing cooperation with police-led initiatives to tackle illegal raptor persecution (e.g. see here and here) but Nick will just have to learn the hard way. At least they won’t be able to accuse him of not trying.

All in all though, Nick’s proposals look thoughtful and well-considered and there’s every reason to be (cautiously) optimistic about the future role of the RPPDG.

Chris Packham appointed CBE for services to nature conservation

MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS to Chris Packham who has been appointed CBE in the New Year’s Honours for services to nature conservation.

The irony of this recognition from ‘The Establishment’ won’t be lost on him, but neither will the opportunities it will provide for him to expand his outstanding campaigning efforts against illegal raptor persecution, fox hunting and badger killing. Perhaps he’ll wear his ‘Never mind the bollocks – where’s the hen harriers?’ t-shirt when he rocks up at the Palace for his investiture.

On hearing the news, Chris said:

“In an age where illegal fox hunting, the continued persecution of birds of prey and the unscientific, uneconomic and inhumane killing of badgers continue, our wildlife needs a voice to shout above the noise. Maybe the silent have spoken, maybe a terrified fox, a wounded hen harrier or a trapped badger whispered and this is their thanks. I’ll take that, say ‘ta very much’ and stop shouting … and start screaming and I won’t stop until the killing does“.

[Chris Packham deep in thought on a Yorkshire grouse moor. Photo by Ruth Tingay]

The Nasty Brigade won’t be best pleased. They’ll be spitting the feathers, blood or fur of whatever poor creature they’ve blown to bits today, knowing full well that Chris’s new status will hinder their long-running crusade to have him sacked from the BBC, all because he dares to speak out, in his own time, about their atrocities.

Well done Chris, and thank you. It’s official – you’re bloody brilliant.

UPDATE 1pm: Video clip of Chris being interviewed on BBC Breakfast this morning:

Friends in need: Onekind’s office burgled & equipment stolen

The Edinburgh office of charity OneKind was broken in to overnight on Weds/Thurs morning and a number of laptops and other equipment was stolen. A police investigation has opened.

OneKind Director Bob Elliot told us that their databases are all secure and uncompromised.

If you’re able to donate a small amount of money to help them to replace the stolen items that would be massively appreciated. Please click here if you can help.

Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative hanging by a thread

Earlier this week the Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative published its Peak District Bird of Prey Report 2018 and issued the following press statement:

Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative highlights mixed fortunes for birds of prey in the National Park

The Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative has today published its annual report for 2018, showing improvement in the breeding success of several raptor species within the Peak District National Park compared to 2017, in parallel with an increase in the number of gamekeepers and estates engaging positively with the Initiative. The report also highlights a number of incidents which show, however, that significant problems remain. Overall numbers and breeding success were fairly typical of the 7-year period of the Initiative, and remain well below the targets based on populations in the late 1990s.

Following last year, when Peregrine Falcons failed to breed successfully in the Dark Peak for the first time since they recolonised in the early 1980s, this year has seen 9 occupied territories, of which 3 pairs successfully raised young. The Initiative’s aim is to have 17 breeding pairs, of which about 11-12 pairs would normally be expected to successfully raise young. Numbers of its smaller cousin the Merlin were roughly in line with recent averages and returned to several historic sites where they have not bred for some years.

[Graphs from the Peak District BoPI 2018 report]

Goshawks continue to be absent from many of their past haunts in the Dark Peak, though the overall breeding success was better this year, whilst Short-eared Owls had a good season although determining exact numbers remains difficult.

What would have been the most noteworthy event of the year – the successful fledging of 4 young Hen Harriers from a nest on moorland owned by the National Trust – was tarnished latterly by the knowledge that two satellite tagged young both subsequently disappeared in the autumn – one in the Peak District National Park and one in the North York Moors National Park – under circumstances which led to suspicions that they may have deliberately come to harm and the tags destroyed.

Two events of particular concern were the reported shooting of a Red Kite in the northern Peak District in June and the shooting of a Short-eared Owl on Wessenden Head Road in September.

[Photo of the shot short-eared owl via RSPB]

The Bird of Prey initiative has a shared ambition, set out in the National Park Management Plan published earlier this year, to restore populations of birds of prey to at least the levels present in the late 1990s, with the addition of Hen Harrier as a regularly successful breeding species. The improvements this year are a welcome step in this direction, but there needs to be a commitment to eradicate wildlife crime and build on that progress year on year across the National Park, and across our range of target species, if the Initiative is to continue.

The Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative is made up of the Peak District National Park Authority, Natural England, National Trust and the Moorland Association, with support from local raptor groups and land managers. It was set up in 2011 after its members recognised the need for collective action to tackle illegal persecution of birds of prey. The RSPB ended their involvement in the Initiative in January due to the lack of progress with bird of prey populations, and the lack of a full consensus by all Initiative members that ongoing illegal persecution is the main reason for the continued low numbers.

Anyone with information to report about wildlife crime should contact the Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

ENDS

For those new to this blog, it’s perhaps worth reading about the history of this pseudo-partnership and it’s long term failure to meet any of its targets (e.g. here, here, here, here, here, here).

After last year’s fiasco and virtual collapse of the ‘partnership’ (see links above) we were told by the Peak District National Park Authority that as the Initiative had yet again failed to meet any of its targets (in 2017), and with evidence of more confirmed raptor persecution in the National Park, it would be reassessing its commitment to the Initiative after the 2018 breeding season. In other words, if there wasn’t drastic improvement, the Initiative would probably be dissolved.

So has there been drastic improvement during the 2018 breeding season? The project has failed to meet any of its targets for the seventh consecutive year, but while there are undoubtedly small areas of improvement, these are offset by the continued illegal killing, which isn’t subsiding and isn’t resulting in improved raptor populations.

Make no mistake, there are some fantastically dedicated conservationists (and at least one shooting tenant and his gamekeeper) who are trying to make things safe for birds of prey in the Peak District National Park but their efforts are being hindered by this Initiative, not helped. Surely it’s now time to boot out the persecution deniers and form a genuine partnership that isn’t constrained by grandstanding propagandists whose sole intent seems to be to shield the criminals, not just from view, but from justice.

Enough.

£50K ‘study’ reveals the bleedin’ obvious: grouse shooters & conservationists disagree on hen harrier brood meddling

Remember back in November 2016 when a series of FoI requests revealed that Natural England was prepared to waste £50K of tax payers money on a social science ‘study’ to assess attitudes towards the Hen Harrier Action Plan? See here for info.

The proposed ‘study’ was put forward by Prof Steve Redpath (Aberdeen Uni / Hawk & Owl Trust trustee / a so-called ‘independent academic’ (ha!) on the hen harrier brood meddling working group) and Dr Freya St John, an academic who at the time worked at Kent University but has since moved to Bangor University. Here is a copy of the proposal, which was also released as part of the FoI requests and here is the proposed budget:

One year later, in December 2017, we blogged about the research questionnaire that had been sent out to various organisations in the grouse shooting industry and conservation community (see here) as part of this £50k ‘study’.

Well the research results have just been published and guess what? Trust in Natural England is “limited” and individuals from the grouse shooting community disagree with individuals from the conservation community about hen harrier brood meddling. Gosh, who knew, eh?

The paper has just been published in a new journal called People and Nature, one of several journals of the British Ecological Society:

St John, F., Steadman, J., Austen, G. and Redpath, S.M. (2018). Value diversity and conservation conflict: Lessons from the management of red grouse and hen harriers in England. People and Nature (published online, 17 December 2018).

Here’s the abstract:

This is an open access paper (which means anyone can read it in full without having to subscribe to the journal) but unfortunately the link to the online paper isn’t working so we haven’t been able to read it, only the abstract. We’ve emailed the lead author to ask for a copy but received an out of office response – away until 21 January 2019.

[UPDATE 4pm: Thanks to one of our blog readers who has found a copy of the full paper online – here]

However, there was a press release about this new ‘study’, presumably to highlight the main findings in less formal language than the abstract, which reads as follows:

Hen harriers and red grouse: finding common ground in a persistent conflict

A conflict between those working to conserve numbers of hen harriers and those maintaining commercial shooting of red grouse in the English uplands has existed for decades with little sign of progress.

Drawing on work conducted in psychology, a new study published today in the journal People and Nature investigated the underlying values that hunters and conservationists hold that make it so hard to find shared solutions.

Ecological studies over the last 30 years have shown that hen harriers and other birds of prey are capable of reducing the number of grouse to such an extent that driven grouse shooting can become economically unviable. Consequently, hen harriers, although protected under UK legislation since 1952, are killed illegally on grouse moors.

Researchers from Bangor University and the University of Aberdeen surveyed a range of organisations that represent the interests of field sports (i.e. hunting, shooting, fishing) or nature conservation in England to assess their values and attitudes towards hen harriers, grouse shooting and potential management interventions.

Dr. Freya St John from Bangor University said: “We found that people who are involved in field sports and those engaged in bird conservation hold more or less opposing views about human relationships with nature, challenging our ability to find shared solutions.

“Although there is general agreement about the evidence of the ecological relationships between hen harriers and grouse, there is much less agreement about the best approach to manage them.”

They found that those from shooting organisations, in contrast to people associated with conservation groups, held a view of human mastery of nature and prioritised human wellbeing over the rights of wildlife. This group expressed support for various management approaches, including brood management where eggs or young birds are removed from nests, reared in captivity and released back into the wild at fledging.

In contrast, individuals associated with conservation groups did not support brood management. However, like those associated with field sports, they did express support for continued monitoring of the hen harrier population, protection of their winter roosts, enhanced intelligence and enforcement, and diversionary feeding of harriers to reduce predation on grouse.

The results indicated that diversionary feeding was most favoured and received greatest consensus amongst the groups surveyed. To date, this is the only management technique that has been trialled and found to be effective at reducing the number of red grouse chicks eaten by hen harriers. Despite this, feeding has not been widely taken up on grouse moors.

Professor Steve Redpath of the University of Aberdeen, who will be presenting the study’s findings at the British Ecological Society’s annual conference, commented: “Our work highlights that this is a conflict between people with very different views about the management of the countryside and its wildlife.”

There is currently no formal dialogue process in place to support the management of this stakeholder conflict. Conservation organisations withdrew from previous discussions, partly because hen harriers continue to be killed illegally and have almost disappeared as a breeding species in England.

“It seems unlikely that conservation organisations would be willing to return to the negotiating table unless the illegal killing of hen harriers stops“, Redpath added. “To minimise the impact of harriers on grouse, brood management was put forward, but as we see in this study, it is very controversial. Particularly whilst illegal killing of harriers persists, such a hands-on intervention is unpalatable to some.”

Steve Redpath will present the study’s findings on Wednesday 19 December 2018 at the British Ecological Society annual meeting, which will bring together 1,200 ecologists from more than 40 countries to discuss the latest research.

ENDS

What a monumental waste of our money. Natural England could have saved £50k by simply looking at the speed with which Mark Avery crowdfunded £25k to support his legal challenge against Natural England’s absurd brood meddling trial – over 900 people donated this amount within just 4.5 days! Or by looking at the ruthless efficiency with which grouse moor managers are killing young satellite-tagged hen harriers every single bloody year. The attitudes are clear enough. Instead of chucking £50k of our money at this nonsense ‘study’, Natural England could have /should have used these public funds more wisely and put them towards an effective enforcement policy to bring to justice those criminals who continue to illegally kill hen harriers.

Knowing that there’s a difference of opinion on hen harriers between the grouse shooting and conservationists is totally irrelevant to the conservation of the hen harrier; it’s illegal persecution on driven grouse moors that threatens this species’ conservation status, nothing else. We don’t need dialogue, conflict management, relationship building, shared solutions, brood meddling or anything else, just effective enforcement of the law. It’s pretty simple, or it would be if we had a government without vested interests that was prepared to do what the vast majority of its electorate expect it to do and operate a zero tolerance policy on organised crime.

[Cartoon by Gerard Hobley]

Buzzard found shot in Sywell Country Park, Northants

Northampton Police press release (17 December 2018):

Buzzard shot in Sywell Country Park

Police officers are appealing for information after a buzzard was shot in Sywell Country Park.

The incident happened between 7am on Wednesday, November 28, and 8pm on Thursday, November 29, when a buzzard was found injured in the park having been shot. Although it was taken to the vets it sadly died a short time later.

All wild birds are protected by law and in shooting this bird a criminal offence has been committed. Anyone with information should contact Northamptonshire Police on 101. Alternatively, you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Incident Number: 349 of 30/11/2018
ENDS
According to a local source, this buzzard was found next to a wood used for driven pheasant shooting.