Category: News

More on that gunman filmed with a decoy owl near hen harrier nest site on Whernside

Late on Friday afternoon the RSPB published a blog detailing an incident that was witnessed by a Natural England fieldworker at a hen harrier nest site in Cumbria during this year’s breeding season.

According to that blog (here), ‘…..a Natural England fieldworker was monitoring a hen harrier nest on moorland near Whernside, Cumbria, when he saw a man wearing camouflage carrying a firearm and a live bird of prey, believed to be an eagle owl about 300m from the hen harrier nesting area. He tethered the bird and sat a short distance away with his gun. In the circumstances there seems little doubt the intention was to draw in raptors, presumably the hen harriers, to shoot them. The use of a tethered live bird as a decoy to kill or take a wild bird is in itself illegal, but a method that seems to be increasingly used for targeting raptors. This was no doubt a highly stressful situation, we understand the fieldworker took some video footage and made himself visible. This eventually had the desired effect, and the suspect, realising he was under observation, left. It was reported to the police but due to evidential issues around establishing the identity of the suspect, it was not possible to take the matter forward to court. The RSPB would like to place on record our thanks to Cumbria Constabulary and the CPS for their determined efforts to progress this investigation. We firmly consider that this incident and the video should now be put in the public domain’.

One of the main points being made in the wider RSPB blog was that Natural England had declined to publicise this incident, even though it is understood to have taken place in an area where hen harriers were being brood meddled as part of a Government-sanctioned conservation sham, optimistically called the Hen Harrier Action Plan by those involved.

[A much more realistic portrayal of the so-called Hen Harrier Action Plan. Cartoon by Gerard Hobley]

Natural England’s refusal to voluntarily disclose detailed information about its sham hen harrier conservation project or this latest allegation of attempted persecution at a hen harrier nest site shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone who’s been following this blog for any length of time. Natural England has developed something of a reputation for its lack of transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to meddling with hen harriers, and much of this goes back further than Tony Juniper’s reign (e.g. see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here etc etc).

Since the RSPB’s blog was published on Friday afternoon, not one of the shooting organisations involved in the hen harrier brood meddling sham have published a statement on their respective websites. Remember, these are the organisations who claim to hold a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to illegal raptor persecution. You’d think they might have something to say about it, wouldn’t you? Especially given the history of raptor-killing in this area (see here).

We’ve heard, from a number of sources, an allegation that, if true, might explain Natural England’s reluctance to discuss this particular incident.

Have another look at this statement from the RSPB blog:

‘It was reported to the police but due to evidential issues around establishing the identity of the suspect, it was not possible to take the matter forward to court’

We’ve been told that the day after the Natural England fieldworker filmed the gunman with his tethered live eagle owl near the hen harrier nest, a Natural England staff member phoned the gunman and asked whether it was him who had been seen at the hen harrier site the day before.

Because Natural England is a statutory authority, its staff have to abide by the requirements of the Police & Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). This Act is primarily concerned with the behaviour of the police (or other relevant authority), the suspect’s rights and the admissibility of evidence. According to our sources, phoning a suspect and asking whether he had been present at a potential crime scene would be a breach of PACE and, even though it’s ‘just’ a technicality, this would be sufficient for a defence agent to have any potential prosecution thrown out at an early stage.

Is this what happened in this case? Did Natural England cock up a potential prosecution, albeit unintentionally? We’re unlikely to ever get a full account out of Natural England but it does raise an important issue – does Natural England have a protocol/procedure in place for how its staff should behave in these situations? And if not, it needs to get one sorted pronto because as we’re all too aware, the illegal killing of hen harriers on grouse moors is an ongoing crime wave.

UPDATE 21 September 2020: Natural England denies cocking up police investigation at Whernside hen harrier site (here)

UPDATE 20 January 2021: Confirmation that hen harrier brood meddling estate was under police investigation for suspected raptor persecution (here)

Grouse shooting in Scotland also exempt from Covid ‘rule of six’

Following the news this afternoon that grouse shooting in England has been made exempt from the Covid ‘rule of six’ (see here), the Scottish Government has now confirmed grouse shooting in Scotland is also exempt, according to Chris Musson, Scottish Political Editor at The Sun.

Journalists and politicians had been seeking clarification from the Scottish Government this afternoon following the news from Westminster and the subsequent public backlash.

Scottish Greens MSP Alison Johnstone commented on the Westminster decision in an article in The National:

“This exemption is ludicrous. The restrictions on gatherings is a difficult but important public health measure to prevent spread of a deadly virus. Not for the first time, the UK Government has indicated that public health emergency rules don’t apply to their wealthy friends. 

This cannot be allowed to happen in Scotland. The tiny minority who derive pleasure from killing wildlife are not more important than the thousands who are being kept apart from seeing friends and family. Thirty people should not be able to gather to shoot grouse when thirty people cannot attend a wake for a lost loved one.

The Scottish Government need to urgently clarify the Scottish rules so that this doesn’t happen.”

But this evening, Chris Musson tweeted the following:

Grouse shooting exempt from Johnson’s ‘rule of six’ Covid curbs

If there was ever any doubt just how influential and well-connected the grouse-shooting industry is, have a look at this from today’s Huffington Post:

Here’s an excerpt:

Boris Johnson is facing a fresh row over his new coronavirus “rule of six” curbs after it emerged that the government has exempted grouse shooting and other “hunting” with guns from the restrictions.

New regulations published by the government for England just before midnight on Sunday have a string of exemptions for sports clubs, wedding receptions and even political protests.

But they also have an exemption for when “a gathering takes place outdoors (whether or not in a public outdoor space)” for the purpose of “a physical activity which is carried on outdoors”, where a licence, permit or certificate is held by the organiser.

HuffPost UK has learned that the Cabinet Office’s special Covid-19 Operations ministerial committee – chaired by Michael Gove – scheduled a meeting on Saturday, with one agenda item titled: “Exemption: hunting and shooting.”

The meeting was abruptly cancelled just hours beforehand, with cabinet ministers and officials told that this issue would be discussed later or via ministerial correspondence.

Insiders believe that the meeting was axed to avoid any ministers raising objections.

Instead, the “outdoor activity” wording was inserted into the regulations, opening the way for an exemption for so-called “country sports” such as grouse and pheasant shooting and hunting.

One source said the entire issue held up the publication of the regulations until shortly before the new law was due to kick in at midnight on Sunday.

Brand new government guidance published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on Monday lists “shooting (including hunting and paintball that requires a shotgun or firearms certificate license)” as a “sport or organised outdoor activity”.

It appears that foxhunting may not be exempted, but the current position is unclear.

When asked by HuffPost UK if the reference to “shooting (hunting)” included foxhunting, a spokesperson said “the exemptions are as listed in the guidance”.

Former minister Tracey Crouch said: “Many will find this topsy-turvy prioritisation from government.

“I’ve had queries about choirs, community bands, addiction therapy groups, all of whom would be worthy of an exemption and instead we are scrabbling around prioritising shooting animals. It’s bonkers.”

To read the rest of the article, please click here

Meanwhile, a photograph alleging to show a group of grouse-shooters in the Scottish Borders enjoying a non-socially-distanced-post-shoot meal has appeared on Twitter:

UPDATE 22.00hrs: Grouse shooting in Scotland also exempt from Covid ‘rule of six’ (here)

Eagle Reintroduction Wales Project: crowdfunding support needed

There have been a few blogs written on here about the potential to reintroduce golden and white-tailed eagles back in to Wales.

It’s not straightforward – there are two ‘competing’ organisations with two very different approaches (e.g. see here, here, here, here and most recently here).

The Eagle Reintroduction Wales (ERW) Project, is, in our opinion, a well-organised, genuine effort to assess the feasibility of reintroducing both eagle species to Wales. The project team is conducting itself with professionalism and due diligence and not making any grand or unsubstantiated claims, either about itself or the project.

This team needs some funding support to help continue its careful research assessments and has launched a crowdfunder to try and raise £25,000.

To find out more about the project details and to donate a couple of quid if you’re able, please click here

Northern England Raptor Forum statement on Hen Harrier 2020 breeding season

A couple of weeks ago Natural England published a press release (along with an interesting choice of ‘partners’ – the GWCT and Moorland Association) in which the 2020 hen harrier breeding season was pronounced ‘a wonderful result’ (see here).

It wasn’t ‘a wonderful result’ at all but Natural England and co put on a display worthy of a circus contortionist to make it appear so.

The RSPB wasn’t included in that press release – apparently they’d been asked to provide a quote but chose not to – instead the RSPB published its own statement, which reflected a much more honest evaluation of the state of the 2020 breeding season (see here).

Yesterday the Northern England Raptor Foum (NERF) published its own statement on the 2020 hen harrier breeding season and it doesn’t pull any punches. ‘The brass band can stand down‘.

You can read the full NERF statement (here) and here is an excerpt:

NERF is a member of the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group [RPPDG], and as such is a consultee under Action 4 of NE’s Hen Harrier Recovery Plan. Yet when Natural England went in search of supporting comments for their press release they only published comments from the shooting industry. Perhaps Natural England would like to explain why that was the case. They may also want to explain why NERF wasn’t included in the list of organisations working in partnership for the benefit of Hen Harriers.

NERF is at the forefront of Hen Harrier nest finding and monitoring during the breeding season, ringing, satellite tagging and winter roost monitoring in partnership with the RSPB. Despite this, we weren’t approached for a comment when Natural England published their press release. If we had been asked for and provided a comment we doubt that it would have been published. Natural England should be in no doubt that without the dedication of NERF members who commit hundreds of voluntary hours to monitoring and self-fund thousands of miles to monitor Hen Harriers the species would be in a much worse state than it is currently.

Natural England has ballsed this up big time, and continues to stumble from one shambolic incident to the next, some with more serious consequences than others (e.g. see this blog (here) from Mark Avery this morning discussing how it appears Natural England has misled a Minister, either through intention or ineptitude).

More to come.

Gunman filmed at hen harrier nest site with decoy eagle owl

The RSPB Investigations Team has published a blog this afternoon detailing an incident that was witnessed by a Natural England fieldworker at a hen harrier nest site in Cumbria during the breeding season.

[Hen harrier, photo by Frank Burns]

The full blog can be read here but the pertinent part is reproduced as follows:

‘We understand that a Natural England fieldworker was monitoring a hen harrier nest on moorland near Whernside, Cumbria, when he saw a man wearing camouflage carrying a firearm and a live bird of prey, believed to be an eagle owl about 300m from the hen harrier nesting area. He tethered the bird and sat a short distance away with his gun. In the circumstances there seems little doubt the intention was to draw in raptors, presumably the hen harriers, to shoot them. The use of a tethered live bird as a decoy to kill or take a wild bird is in itself illegal, but a method that seems to be increasingly used for targeting raptors. This was no doubt a highly stressful situation, we understand the fieldworker took some video footage and made himself visible. This eventually had the desired effect, and the suspect, realising he was under observation, left. It was reported to the police but due to evidential issues around establishing the identity of the suspect, it was not possible to take the matter forward to court. The RSPB would like to place on record our thanks to Cumbria Constabulary and the CPS for their determined efforts to progress this investigation. We firmly consider that this incident and the video should now be put in the public domain’.

Now, putting this news out late on a Friday afternoon isn’t helpful to anyone (apart from Natural England and the criminals within the grouse shooting industry who may hope that it’ll all blow over by Monday).

It won’t.

There is a lot to say about this incident as well as about Natural England’s continuing pisspoor conduct on all things hen harrier.

We’ll be coming back to it on Monday morning.

[Cartoon by Gerard Hobley]

UPDATE 15 September 2020: More on that gunman filmed with a decoy owl near hen harrier nest site on Whernside (here)

UPDATE 20 January 2021: Confirmation that hen harrier brood meddling estate was under police investigation (here)

Shot buzzard in Essex: an update

Last week we learned that Essex Police were investigating the shooting of a buzzard found on 4th September 2020 at Davy Down Riverside Park, South Ockendon (see here).

We’ve now been sent photos of the dead bird and an incident number has been issued: 42/141700/20

[Shot buzzard, photos via Essex Police]

There still isn’t any information about the type of weapon used to shoot this buzzard but we do know, judging by the maggots in the second photo, that it was shot well before the discovery of the corpse on the 4th September.

Anyone with information please contact PC Jed Raven from Essex Police Wildlife Crime Unit on 101 and quote reference: 42/141700/20

This is the third bird of prey shooting in Essex in recent months, following a shot buzzard found near Weeley on 2nd June (here) and a shot hobby found at North Fambridge in August (here).

Shot peregrine in Gloucestershire – an update

In mid-August we blogged about a shot peregrine that had been found critically injured in Gloucestershire and was later euthanised due to the extent of its injuries (see here).

[The shot peregrine, photo from Vale Wildlife Hospital]

There was very little information available about this crime at the time but now Gloucestershire Police are appealing for witnesses.

The shot peregrine was found near Northleach in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Anyone with information is urged to contact PC Ashley Weller on 101, quoting incident # 349/16/08.

Langholm Moor buyout one step closer

Press release from The Langholm Initiative (9th September 2020)

£1M capital investment from South of Scotland Enterprise for community moorland buyout

South of Scotland Enterprise’s Board has announced up to £1 million financial support to the Langholm Initiative charity in its venture to purchase part of Langholm Moor from Buccleuch Estates.

The Langholm Initiative is spearheading a campaign to raise enough funds to buy the land and bring it into community control. If successful, the buyout by the small town of Langholm in Dumfries and Galloway will be the first large-scale purchase of this type in the South of Scotland.

The buyout at Langholm has garnered significant support both from the local community and further afield, with nearly 2,500 people donating £200,000.

Community ownership of Langholm Moor would enable the Langholm Initiative to develop a new National Nature Reserve and capture ongoing revenue from the asset, as well as providing a platform to unlock further community-led enterprise development and job creation. It would provide significant social, environmental and economic benefits to the area.

[Langholm Moor. Photo by David Lintern]

Kevin Cumming, project leader at the Langholm Initiative, said: “This generous support is a major step towards a successful outcome for the community. We have been working closely with South of Scotland Enterprise over recent weeks, and couldn’t be happier with their commitment to support the people of Langholm.

“We still have a race against time to find the rest of the funding required for a purchase to take place. We are investigating every possible option to ensure the buyout is a success.”

Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chair of South of Scotland Enterprise, said: “We are delighted to support The Langholm Initiative project, and recognise that our significant contribution will be a tremendous step toward reaching their ambitious funding package.

“As the new economic development agency for the South of Scotland, our plans to further the region’s economic, social and environmental development are at the heart of everything we do, and helping communities to take advantage of the opportunities community asset transfer offers is one the objectives set out for us in the legislation that put us in place.

“Community ownership is a catalytic step in community development and empowerment as it enables communities to make decisions about how assets within their communities are used. The successful acquisition of Langholm Moor represents a long-term economic, social and natural capital development project, and we look forward to working with the Langholm Initiative as the situation develops.“

The Langholm Initiative was formed in 1994, as one of south Scotland’s earliest development trusts. The charity is seeking other major funders for the land buyout. To find out more and to support the crowdfunding appeal, visit langholminitiative.org.uk. Follow on Twitter at @LBuyout.

South of Scotland Enterprise is the economic and community development agency for the South of Scotland. See www.southofscotlandenterprise.com

ENDS 

These latest funds bring the total amount raised to date to approx £2.8 Million. Approx £6 Million is needed.

Scottish Land Fund: £1M

South of Scotland Enterprise: £1M

John Muir Trust: £100k

Carman Family Foundation: £500k

Public donations (inc crowdfunding): £200k approx

For previous blogs on the Langholm buyout see here, here, here, here, here here here here

Eagle shot, satellite tag dumped in reservoir, suspect identified via tag data

A man who shot and killed an eagle, removed its satellite tag and dumped it in a reservoir, and then dumped the eagle’s corpse in a bin, has been tracked down thanks to the data provided by the eagle’s tag.

This is a news story from Andalucia in southern Spain, translated via Google (here) so bear with it.

A young Bonelli’s eagle was fitted with a satellite tag in its nest in May 2020 as part of a Spanish LIFE project trying to address this species’ population decline (here).

[A tagged Bonelli’s eagle, photo from Aquila a-LIFE Project]

On 27th August, the researchers tracking the eagle’s movements via the tag’s data reported to the authorities that the eagle appeared to be floating in the Iznajar Reservoir, near a bridge.

A patrol visited the site and found the tag but no sign of the eagle.

Meanwhile, the police were able to retrace the route of the tag from the time when the data suggested the bird had been killed (11.53 – 12.23hrs) on a hunting (shooting) estate. They also located two points where they found Bonelli’s eagle feathers – one on the hunting ground and one in the area where the hunters park their vehicles.

What are described as ‘subsequent investigations’ led the police to identify the suspect, who then attended voluntarily and admitted he’d accidentally shot the eagle and panicked when he saw the tag so he removed it and threw it in the reservoir and dumped the eagle in a bin.

A prosecution is expected.

[Police officers retrieving the eagle’s corpse from a bin]

Interesting, isn’t it?

This Spanish shooter could learn a lot from his Scottish counterparts. They’ve already learned that when you kill a satellite-tagged eagle you need to disable the tag before disposing of it, otherwise the tag will continue to transmit and give away its location.

Although disabling the tag and then hiding it, and the corpse of the dead eagle, doesn’t hide the clear geographic pattern of the killings, as revealed by the superbly comprehensive and forensic analyses undertaken for the Govt-commissioned Golden Eagle Satellite Tag Review, amusingly still being described as “crap science” by those who don’t have any scientific credentials and don’t have any experience of satellite tags, but who do have a vested interest in wanting raptor satellite tracking to stop. Can’t imagine why.

The Scottish eagle killers have also learned that if you chuck a satellite tag into water you definitely need to ensure it’s been properly disabled first because some of them, depending on the tag model, will continue to function in water (remember Fred, anyone?), as this Bonelli’s eagle tag did.

Sometimes, though, simply disabling the tag isn’t always enough to cover your tracks…….there’ll be more on this very soon.