Tag: buzzard

Buzzard found shot in Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

North Yorkshire Police are appealing for information after the discovery of a shot buzzard in Nidderdale AONB.

Press release (7 May 2020):

Appeal for information after injured buzzard found near Kirkby Malzeard

North Yorkshire Police investigating after incident in which bird appears to have been shot

A member of the public was walking on a footpath near Belford Lane, Kirkby Malzeard, on 13 April 2020 when they found an injured buzzard. After seeking expert help, the bird was caught and taken to a local vet where x-rays showed the bird suffering a broken wing and also the profile of a shotgun pellet in the wing.

[Buzzard x-ray, via North Yorkshire Police]

[RPUK map showing approximate location of Belford Lane, Kirkby Malzeard, in Nidderdale AONB]

The bird’s injury was too severe to be treated so it was sadly put to sleep. A specialist avian veterinary surgeon has subsequently reviewed the x-rays, concluding:

“The buzzard has suffered an open fracture of the left humerus (upper wing). A shotgun pellet is visible sitting in the axilla/shoulder joint. There appeared to be soft tissue changes and a potential dislocation of the shoulder. No shotgun pellet is present at the fracture site, however it is possible that either

  1. The shotgun pellet entered through the wing, damaging and fracturing the humerus before settling in the axilla region – it is difficult to tell without examining the bird for open wounds or changes to the feathers suggesting shot.
  2. The damage to the shoulder resulted in the bird injuring its wing after being unable to fly”

Buzzards, along with all wild birds, are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and it is a criminal offence to kill or injure any wild bird.  The government has set persecution of birds of prey as one of their wildlife crime action priorities.

If you have any information which could help this investigation please contact North Yorkshire Police on 101 quoting reference number: 12200064619 or alternatively contact the investigating officer PC820 Hickson by email: bill.hickson@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk

END

Nidderdale AONB, again. What a surprise, said nobody, ever.

Regular readers of this blog will be only too aware of Nidderdale AONB’s reputation as a massive wildlife crime scene. We’ve blogged about it many, many times including the poisoning and shooting of red kites, hen harriers, buzzards, marsh harriers on Nidderdale grouse moors (as reported by the AONB partnership in September 2019). As recently as January this year the police were appealing for information after a kestrel had been found shot. A bloody kestrel, FFS!

We’ve also seen how the local community is turning against the criminals in their midst which is hardly surprising when according to the Chair of the Nidderdale AONB these crimes are “starting to have a damaging effect on tourism businesses”. 

[Nidderdale AONB sign, photo by Ruth Tingay]

Earlier this year, the game shooting industry issued a statement claiming a ‘zero tolerance’ stance against the illegal killing of birds of prey (see here). It appears to have had zero effect, with raptors still being targeted even though the country is in lockdown in the midst of a national health crisis. This latest victim is just one of a number that we’re aware of – several other recent cases from around the country are still to be publicised.

Well done North Yorkshire Police for the relatively quick appeal for information, especially when many police resources have been diverted to deal with Covid 19. Having a specialist veterinary surgeon review the x-rays and provide an expert opinion was a particularly good move in light of some of the most ridiculous denials we’ve seen from some within the gameshooting industry in recent weeks.

This, for example, following the recent shooting of another buzzard in North Yorkshire, where first it was implied that rehabilitation expert Jean Thorpe might consider faking a crime by using an old x-ray and then that the x-ray shouldn’t be believed anyway because apparently it could easily show a buzzard that had been killed in a road traffic accident with bullets glued on to the corpse to fake a shooting:

You couldn’t make it up, could you?

One more time: If you have any information which could help this investigation please contact North Yorkshire Police on 101 quoting reference number: 12200064619 or alternatively contact the investigating officer PC820 Hickson by email: bill.hickson@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk

Jean Thorpe successfully releases rehabbed shot buzzard

For those of you not on social media who may have missed this…

Wildlife rehabilitation expert Jean Thorpe has worked her magic again and, after just under two weeks of superb care and attention, has been able to successfully release the buzzard that had been found with shotgun injuries near Shipton, North Yorkshire on 29 March 2020 (see here and here).

To see a short 13 second video of the buzzard’s release back to the wild click here (via Jean’s Facebook page but you don’t need to have a Facebook account to watch it).

[The buzzard during rehab. Photo by Jean Thorpe]

Incredibly, Jean has been on the receiving end of some vile trolling from some within the game shooting industry after news emerged that she was trying to help this latest victim. Here’s a small example:

It’s pretty disgusting but to be honest not entirely surprising. To be fair, there were others within the shooting industry who were supportive of Jean’s efforts and just as appreciative of her work as we all are.

For those still in any doubt, a vet confirmed that this buzzard had been shot and the crime has been reported to North Yorkshire Police, who are investigating. They have issued a crime number and have appealed for information (see here).

Shot buzzard in North Yorkshire ‘more than just a statistic’

The buzzard that was found shot near Shipton in North Yorkshire on 29 March 2020 (see yesterday’s blog, here) is now in the care of wildlife rehabber extraordinaire Jean Thorpe.

Jean’s no stranger to having to rehabilitate birds of prey – she lives in the county that has a consistent record of hosting more annual raptor persecution crimes than any other county in England, mostly on land managed for grouse, pheasant and partridge shooting.

She’s been tweeting about the latest victim, the shot buzzard:

She’s also been making some videos to document the buzzard’s treatment. She told us she didn’t want this buzzard to be lost as ‘just another statistic’ but rather wanted people to see it as an individual bird.

The first video has been posted on Jean’s Facebook page. You don’t need to be a Facebook user to watch it here

Jean’s Facebook post:

What this video actually does is demonstrate the extraordinary skill, care and attention required to help just one injured bird. Imagine doing this, as a volunteer, for countless birds and other wildlife, every single day.

Presumably we’ll be hearing in due course about the three other raptor victims currently in Jean’s care.

If you are on Facebook, or on Twitter, please go and support her and show her your appreciation.

Shot buzzard found injured near Shipton, North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire Police are appealing for information following the discovery of a shot buzzard found injured on 29 March 2020.

North Yorkshire Police press release (8 April 2020):

Appeal for information after buzzard found shot near Shipton, York.

Injured buzzard x-rayed and found to contain pieces of shot

[Photos via North Yorkshire Police]

North Yorkshire Police and the RSPCA are appealing for information after a buzzard was found injured near Shipton Grange close to Shipton-by-Beningbrough, York on 29 March 2020.

The buzzard, a male, was found by a local farmer who called the RSPCA and the charity’s Inspector Claire Mitchell collected the bird.

Claire said: “The farmer didn’t know the bird had been shot, but he wasn’t flying so the farmer knew there was something seriously wrong with him.

“He was a big healthy bird otherwise, and still quite feisty.

“I took him to a local vet for treatment and x-rays, and that’s when they discovered the shot.”

X-rays showed the bird contained five pieces of shot, two in a foot, one in a leg and two in a wing. The bird is now recovering well in the care of a local wildlife rehabilitator and will be released into the wild once ready.

North Yorkshire Police Rural Task Force Inspector, Matt Hagen, said:

“This is yet another despicable act of someone deliberately injuring a bird of prey in our county. I would urge anyone who has any information about this incident or might have seen anything which could help our investigation to please get in touch with us on 101.

“North Yorkshire should be a haven for wildlife and we will do everything in our power to ensure we deal with the individuals who target our birds of prey in this way.”

Anyone with information should call 101 quoting reference number: 12200052238 or the RSPCA appeal line 0300 1238018 and ask to leave a message for Claire.

ENDS

Well done, North Yorkshire Police. This is a fast and detailed response with good illustrative photographs, and it needs to be. The illegal persecution of birds of prey in North Yorkshire is relentless.

Recently North Yorkshire Police have recorded reports of a shot kestrel (here), a shot buzzard (here), another shot buzzard (here), a shot hen harrier (here), another shot kestrel (here), a poisoned red kite (here), a shot marsh harrier (here), another shot hen harrier (here), another shot buzzard (here), another shot hen harrier (here), another poisoned red kite (here), another shot hen harrier (here) and another red kite that was both poisoned and shot (here). This list isn’t exhaustive, it’s just the ones remembered off the top of the head and of course there are records of similar crimes in this country going back years and years.

Meanwhile, the game-shooting industry feigns ‘zero tolerance’ for crimes against birds of prey and the Westminster Government, with all its vested interests, refuses to acknowledge there’s even a problem, let alone a systemic culture of wildlife crime.

UPDATE 9 April 2020: Shot buzzard in North Yorkshire ‘more than just a statistic’ (here)

Shot buzzard found dead on Scottish sporting estate

Police Scotland are appealing for information after a dead buzzard was discovered on a Scottish sporting estate in the Highlands.

A member of the public discovered the corpse in woodland ‘in the Dulsie area’ on 15 March 2020 and a subsequent post-mortem revealed it had been shot.

An x-ray revealing the extent of the shot damage has not been released so it’s impossible to comment on the likelihood that the bird was shot close to where it was found or whether it had been able to travel some distance before succumbing to its injuries.

Police wildlife crime officer Constable Daniel Sutherland said: “Positive work is constantly ongoing in the Highlands in relation to raptor persecution so it is sad and disappointing to find another incident like this reported to us.

I am grateful to the member of the public who came across the bird and reporting it. Our enquiries to establish the full circumstances are ongoing.

Anyone with information is about this incident or may have seen anything suspicious in this area are asked to contact Police Scotland on 101 quoting reference NM502/20 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 if you wish to remain anonymous.”

Buzzard & kestrel suspected poisoned in Derbyshire

Derbyshire Constabulary has published the following message on social media this evening:

Derbyshire Rural Crime Team is investigating after two birds of prey were found dead in the Ault Hucknall area of Chesterfield.

A Kestrel and a Buzzard were found on Monday 23 March. Initial investigations lead us to believe they have been poisoned rather than shot.

The birds have been recovered and an investigation launched.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Rural Crime Team by emailing DRCT@derbyshire.police.uk quoting reference 20000159754.

You can also pass information anonymously to Crimestoppers by calling 0800 555 111 or visiting https://crimestoppers-uk.org/

ENDS

Well done to the police for a very speedy notification. Obviously the investigation is still in the early stages although the proximity of a plucked wood pigeon in these photos is probably a big clue.

UPDATE 3rd August 2020: Buzzard and kestrel confirmed illegally poisoned in Derbyshire (here)

General Licence restriction on Leadhills Estate: some fascinating details

In November 2019, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) imposed a three-year General Licence restriction on Leadhills Estate in South Lanarkshire following ‘clear evidence from Police Scotland that wildlife crimes had been committed on this estate’ (see here, here, and here).

Those alleged offences included the ‘illegal killing of a short-eared owl, two buzzards and three hen harriers’ that were ‘shot or caught in traps’ on Leadhills Estate since 1 January 2014 (when SNH was first given powers to impose a General Licence restriction). SNH had also claimed that ‘wild birds’ nests had also been disturbed’, although there was no further detail on this. The estate consistently denied responsibility.

[The shot short-eared owl that was found shoved under some heather on the Leadhills Estate grouse moor. Photo by RSPB Scotland]

In December 2019 Leadhills Estate appealed against SNH’s decision to impose the General Licence restriction (see here) but on 31 January 2020 SNH announced that it had rejected the estate’s appeal and the General Licence restriction still stood (see here).

We were really interested in the details of Leadhills Estate’s appeal so a freedom of information request was submitted to SNH to ask for the documents.

The information released by SNH in response is fascinating. Some material hasn’t been released due to what appear to be legitimate police concerns about the flow of intelligence about wildlife crime in the Leadhills area but what has been released provides a real insight to what goes on behind the scenes.

First up is an eight page rebuttal from Leadhills Estate’s lawyers about why it thinks SNH was “manifestly unfair” to impose the General Licence restriction.

Download it here: Leadhills Estate appeal against GL restriction decision

Next comes SNH’s six-page rejection of the estate’s appeal and the reasons for that rejection.

Download it here: SNH rejects Leadhills Estate appeal against GLrestriction

Prepare for some jaw-dropping correspondence from Leadhills Estate’s lawyers, including a discussion about how the raptor workers who found the hen harrier trapped by it’s leg in an illegally-set spring trap next to its nest last year ‘didn’t take steps to assist in the discovery of the suspect, which could have included placing a camera on the nest’.

Are they for real??!! Can you imagine the uproar, had those raptor workers placed a camera pointing at the nest and identified a suspect who was subsequently charged? We’ve all seen how that scenario plays out, with video evidence dismissed as ‘inadmissible’ and the game-shooting lobby leering about the court victory. That Leadhills Estate is now arguing that the failure of the raptor workers to install covert cameras is reason for the estate to avoid a penalty is simply astonishing, although the next time covert video evidence is challenged in a Scottish court it’ll be useful to be able to refer to this estate’s view that such action would be deemed reasonable. Apart from anything else though, those raptor workers were too busy trying to rescue that severely distressed hen harrier from an illegally-set trap:

[The illegally trapped hen harrier. Photo by Scottish Raptor Study Group]

Other gems to be found within this correspondence include the news that a container of an illegal pesticide (Carbosulfan) was found on Leadhills Estate in May 2019 and contributed to SNH’s decision to impose the General Licence restriction (this information has not previously been made public – why not?) and that during a police search of the estate (sometime in 2019 but the actual date has been redacted) the police seized some traps. The details of why those traps were seized has also been redacted but SNH write, ‘Although this in itself does not establish criminality it certainly adds weight to our “loss of confidence” [in the estate]’.

The Estate claims that the alleged impartiality of the witnesses should have some bearing on proceedings but SNH bats this away with ease, saying that the evidence on which the restriction decision was made was provided by Police Scotland and that the partiality of witnesses has not been identified as a significant factor of concern for the police, and thus not for SNH either.

It’s also amusing to see the estate claim ‘full cooperation’ by the estate with police enquiries. SNH points out that this so-called ‘full cooperation’ was actually largely limited to “no comment” interviews!

We don’t get to say this very often but hats off to SNH for treating the estate’s appeal with the disdain which, in our opinion, it thoroughly deserves.

Meanwhile, following SNH’s decision in January to uphold the General Licence restriction on Leadhills Estate due to ‘clear evidence’ of wildlife crime, we’re still waiting for Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) to respond to our enquiries about whether Leadhills Estate is still a member and whether Lord Hopetoun of Leadhills Estate is still Chairman of SLE’s Scottish Moorland Group.

 

Buzzard shot in Worcestershire

The RSPB and West Mercia Police are appealing for information after a buzzard was shot in Worcestershire.

[The shot buzzard. Photo from RSPB]

Map showing Shelsey Beauchamp, Worcestershire:

From an RSPB press release issued 6 March 2020:

On 20 January 2020, eyewitnesses saw a buzzard being shot from a light-coloured [blue] van near Shelsley Beauchamp, Worcestershire. The bird was brought to Vale Wildlife Centre but due to an irreparable broken wing the bird had to put the bird to sleep.

Unfortunately no further details are provided.

If anyone has any information about this wildlife crime please contact West Mercia Police on 101 or fill in the RSPB’s confidential online reporting form here

 

Derbyshire police respond to criticism over poisoned buzzard investigation

In early February we blogged about an illegally poisoned buzzard that had been found dead in the Peak District National Park, next to an illegal poisoned bait (see here). The focus of the blog was the long delay from discovery (April 2019) to publicity (Jan 2020) and even then the publicity had come from the RSPB, not from the police.

[The illegally poisoned buzzard. Photo by Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group]

We then wrote a follow-up blog last week (here) after Derbyshire Constabulary had claimed, with straight faces, that the discovery of the poisoned buzzard next to the poisoned bait was ‘inconclusive’, even though the official toxicology examination had concluded that,

“The evidence therefore suggests that the Buzzard died as the result of the deliberate and illegal use of a high concentration of chloralose on a partridge bait, rather than through secondary poisoning from a different legally applied source…..”.

Derbyshire Constabulary came in for some well-earned criticism and have now responded with the following post on Facebook:

First the good points. This post is more conciliatory and far less antagonistic than recent posts on Derbyshire’s Rural Crime Team’s Facebook page. That’s a smart move. It’s also helpful to explain to the public the high workload demands, the large geographic area and the small size of the team. Like most police forces, they’re up against budget cuts and lack of resources. It’s good for the public to be reminded of these things to help manage expectations.

It’s also good to hear that the new civilian coordinator has been invited to join the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG) and that he’s working with partner agencies, including the RSPB’s Investigations Team, to develop a standard operating procedure investigation guide. Although it’s hard to believe that such an SOP doesn’t already exist, especially in a county that has such a long running history of bird of prey persecution in association with driven grouse shooting.

However, this ‘update’ from the Rural Crime Team doesn’t address the initial issue at all – that is, what appears to be a fundamental cock-up in to the investigation of a dead poisoned buzzard that was found next to a poisoned bait. There’s no acknowledgement that there has been a cock-up, certainly no apology, and no indication that anything further will be done.

Police Supt Nick Lyall, who Chairs the national Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group has been made aware of this case and he’s looking in to it:

 

 

Poisoned buzzard, next to poisoned bait: circumstances ‘inconclusive’ says Derbyshire Constabulary!

I don’t know what’s going on at Derbyshire Constabulary’s Rural Crime Team but someone needs to check that Amanda Anderson isn’t moonlighting.

You may recall a couple of weeks ago we blogged about an illegally poisoned buzzard that had been found dead in the Peak District National Park, next to an illegal poisoned bait (see here). The focus of the blog was the long delay from discovery (April 2019) to publicity (Jan 2020) and even then the publicity had come from the RSPB, not from the police.

[The illegally poisoned buzzard. Photo by Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group]

The story doesn’t end there.

On Friday (14th Feb), the following post appeared on Derbyshire Constabulary’s Rural Crime Team’s Facebook page:

Er….right oh.

The Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group has called out this nonsense with another blog and an open letter of complaint to the Derbyshire Police & Crime Commissioner – read it here.

Of particular note, this official toxicology report on the buzzard and the poisoned bait, written by Dr Ed Blane (National Coordinator for the independent Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme, HM Inspector Health & Safety Executive) who writes:

“…..The evidence therefore suggests that the Buzzard died as the result of the deliberate and illegal use of a high concentration of chloralose on a partridge bait, rather than through secondary poisoning from a different legally applied source…..”

And yet Derbyshire Constabulary’s Rural Crime Team claims “There are too many unknown variables to conclusively say that the buzzard has been poisoned deliberately“.

And guess who’ll be using that ‘official police statement’ to play down the ongoing problem of illegal raptor persecution in the Peak District National Park?

Supt Nick Lyall – you need to be looking at this with some urgency.

UPDATE 23 February 2020: Derbyshire Police respond to criticism over poisoned buzzard investigation (here)