Apparently there won’t be much grouse shooting taking place this year when the season opens on Monday (12th August). According to various reports from the grouse shooting industry, this is due to a combination of factors including a cold wet spring and an extraordinarily high worm burden on many moors.
Red grouse photo by Ruth Tingay
They may not be shooting many red grouse but they’re more than making up for it by shooting themselves in the foot instead, particularly in Scotland.
I’ve read quite a few newspaper articles in the last few days about the so-called Glorious 12th but a couple of them stood out – whoever is advising the shooting organisations on their PR strategy is hanging them out to dry! Not that I’m complaining, if they want to make complete fools of themselves it saves me a job.
The first article that made me laugh out loud was an opinion piece in TheScotsman by Peter Clark, BASC’s Scotland Director:
I’m not going to reproduce the whole article because it’s too dull – you can read it here if you want to – but I do want to highlight a couple of points.
His opening paragraph goes like this:
“Grouse shooting is crucial to rural upland communities, with the start of the season representing the culmination of a year’s hard work, grit, and determination. Unfortunately, this season doesn’t look as promising as previous ones, with counts looking less positive“.
I wondered if the grit he refers to is the tonnes and tonnes of toxic, medicated grit that grouse moor managers chuck out on the moors, with minimal regulation, to medicate the so-called ‘wild’ red grouse to stop the natural, cyclical population crashes caused by parasites? I somehow doubt it – the industry’s leaders prefer to keep this dodgy practice under the radar.
Peter’s article goes on (and on) about how much shooting is worth to the economy, but predictably he lumps ALL types of shooting together rather than just focusing on grouse shooting, presumably to make grouse shooting look more economically viable than it actually is. It’s a common tactic. He also fails to include in his calculations the economic costs of grouse shooting to society. Again, a common ploy by the defenders of this so-called ‘sport’.
But the real PR disaster comes further down the article where he’s discussing the new grouse moor licences that have been introduced for the first time this year as the Scottish Government’s latest attempt to stop the illegal persecution of birds of prey on grouse moors. Peter writes:
“We clearly communicated to Jim Fairlie, the Scottish Government’s minister for agriculture and connectivity, before the Wildlife Management Bill became an Act that he should pursue amendments to make it more practical.
These proposed adjustments included removing provisions for adding additional game bird species to the shooting licenses, eliminating expanded investigative powers for the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and refining the scope of what are considered to be “relevant offences” under the licencing scheme. These offences include those under wildlife legislation, ranging from the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, right through to the new Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) was clear that the scope of the relevant offences was too broad, given that the sole focus of this licensing regime from its inception was to tackle raptor persecution.
Despite presenting strong evidence of the risks these aspects pose to the sector, our specific proposed changes were not included. While the BASC and other shooting organisations successfully won amendments to the Bill and challenged many aspects of what was originally proposed, ultimately, the shooting community now faces new layers of regulation.
Consequently, BASC is defending its members and seeking legal advice regarding the final version of the licensing scheme, which has now been implemented ahead of the start of the season“.
So let me get this right. Peter seems to be arguing that it’s just not fair that grouse shooting licences could be suspended and/or revoked if offences, other than those relating to raptor persecution, such as badger persecution or the hunting of foxes with more than two dogs, are uncovered on grouse moors!
“BASC is defending its members…” he says. What, by saying that BASC members shouldn’t be sanctioned if these other types of wildlife crime are uncovered??
Is he for real?!!
BASC is not alone in making the industry look ridiculous. In another article, published yesterday in the Guardian (here), BASC, along with industry lobby groups Scottish Land and Estates (SLE) and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) are also arguing that the licensable area to which these new regulations apply should be restricted to just the grouse moor area and that’s it’s ‘unnecessary and unfair‘ if the licence applies to other parts of an estate.
Eh? Where’s the logic in that? It’s blindingly obvious that estates would simply restrict their illegal activities to estate land next to the grouse moor, e.g. shooting a sleeping eagle as it roosts in trees on the edge of the moor, thus carefully avoiding culpability and a licence sanction, let alone a criminal prosecution.
The raptor killers have been exploiting this loophole for a long time – the most favoured practice being placing poisoned bait on the tops of fenceposts on an estate’s boundary line, especially at the top of a hill, making it more likely that a poisoned raptor will die further downhill on an adjoining estate and thus putting that neighbouring estate in the frame for the illegal poisoning.
As for the extent of the licence coverage being “unnecessary“, if that were so, why would the shooting organisations be so keen to limit the licence’s geographical extent if they’ve got nothing to hide?
There’s a quote at the end of the Guardian piece from Professor Colin Galbraith, Chair of NatureScot’s Board, discussing the entire coverage of an estate with a licence:
“If they’re not doing anything wrong, why worry about it?“.
Dave Sexton, the RSPB’s Mull Officer, is retiring after spending over two decades leading the local community’s efforts to protect the island’s famous White-tailed and Golden eagles and, through his extensive media work, helping to establish Mull as one of the best wildlife tourism destinations in Scotland.
Dave’s contribution has been immense and has been recognised with multiple awards for his work. He’s written a few words to mark the occasion:
All good things…
It’s hard to know where the years have gone but, much like the white-tailed eagles which have shaped my career, they’ve certainly flown by! I came to Mull as the RSPB Mull Officer in 2003 on a short-term, one year contract. It was a bit of a gamble walking away from a permanent Head of Department managerial job in Edinburgh but the call of the wild was getting increasingly louder. And, remarkably, 21 years later, I’m still here! Just. But all good things must come to an end…or at least they must change. That’s life. Change isn’t always easy but it’s inevitable. So, whilst this isn’t exactly ‘goodbye’ it is a kind of ‘farewell’…for now at least. I’m not leaving Mull, but I think the current way of describing things is that, after 16 August 2024 and two decades of field seasons here, I’ll be ‘stepping back’ from this role. The post of RSPB Mull Officer will conclude, and I’m honoured to have followed in the giant footsteps of those who went before me – the much-missed Mike Madders and Richard Evans.
Dave Sexton with his dog Cally. Photo by Olivia Sexton
If my 21 years on Mull have flown by, my overall 36 years with the RSPB have positively flashed by in the blink of an eye. My first day at Scottish Headquarters in Edinburgh in 1988 was as an Assistant Reserves Manager looking after reserves and staff from the Mull of Galloway in the south, to Fetlar in Shetland and Balranald in the Western Isles! That’s some geographic spread and it gave me the chance to see and travel the length and breadth of Scotland. But there was always one place which kept drawing me back. The Isle of Mull. I’d first set eyes on Mull in 1978 on a school geography and biology field trip. For a kid from south London to see mountains, glens and lochs…and then a golden eagle was simply awe inspiring. A spell had been cast. Then two years later I was back on holiday and saw my first white-tailed eagle flapping low across Loch Spelve and the second spell was cast. It was a sighting which was to transform my life in ways I could never imagine. From protecting the first nest in 1984, to guarding the first chick in 1985, to the present day where I’ve been fortunate to monitor Mull’s 23 pairs of sea eagles, this bird has given me a long career in a place I love. You can’t ask for much more than that. It’s also meant my wonderful supportive family – Caroline, Bethan and Olivia – have had a home and childhoods filled with memories of a safe, carefree island life running on sandy beaches, trekking through forests, climbing mountains and being part of this special place. That’s why I’ll go on being a voice for white-tailed eagles long beyond this change because, well, I kind of owe them and Mull, pretty much everything.
This job would not have been possible without the people, organisations and agencies who work on or own parts of this amazing island. For some, I know, living and working alongside the eagles is challenging and a distinctly mixed blessing and I’ve always appreciated and understood that. We’ve often had to agree to differ over the years, but I also hope I’ve helped in some small way, whether with farming, forestry, or other interests (even including the new helipad!), by finding practical and pragmatic ways through any problems encountered. For others, the eagles are a significant and important part of their lives too and I couldn’t have done this job without the many additional eyes and ears of residents and visitors alike.
There’ll be more to say about future work in the months ahead but one other change earlier this year made me stop and reflect. Our gorgeous, best and beautiful girl Cally had been my constant companion in the field on countless eagle forays for 11 years. Suddenly she was gone from our lives, and something had changed forever. It was time to take stock and realise that, indeed, all good things… We miss her so much and shared so many adventures that now my days with the eagles feel somehow emptier.
For now, as I said, it’s not exactly goodbye but a farewell and a deep, heartfelt thank you to everyone, both inside and outside the RSPB, who has been a part of this incredible journey and made it all possible. And to the eagles, to whom I owe so much, fly free and may you soar to even greater heights!
The Scotsman has published my opinion piece today about the potential impact of the new licensing scheme for grouse shooting in Scotland.
You can read it on The Scotsman website (here) and it’s reproduced below:
I call them ‘The Untouchables’. Those within the grouse-shooting industry who have been getting away with illegally killing golden eagles, and other raptor species such as hen harriers, buzzards and red kites, for decades.
They don’t fear prosecution because there are few people around those remote, privately owned glens to witness the ruthless and systematic poisoning, trapping and shooting of these iconic birds. If the police do come looking, more often than not they’re met with an Omertá-esque wall of silence from those who, with an archaic Victorian mindset, still perceive birds of prey to be a threat to their lucrative red grouse shooting interests.
For a successful prosecution, Police Scotland and the Crown Office must be able to demonstrate “beyond reasonable doubt” that a named individual committed the crime. As an example of how difficult this is, in 2010 a jar full of golden eagle leg rings was found on a mantelpiece during a police raid of a gamekeeper’s house in the Highlands. Each of those unique leg ring numbers could be traced back to an individual eagle.
The gamekeeper couldn’t account for how he came to be in possession of those rings, but the police couldn’t prove that he had killed those eagles and cut off their legs to remove the rings as trophies.
Despite the remains of two red kites, six illegal traps, an illegally trapped hen harrier and poisoned bait also being found on the estate, the gamekeeper was fined a mere £1,500 for being in possession of one dead red kite, that was found mutilated in the back of his estate vehicle.
In another case in 2010, three golden eagles were found poisoned on a grouse-shooting estate in the Highlands over just a few weeks. Even though the police found an enormous cache of the lethal poison – carbofuran – locked in a shed to which the head gamekeeper held a key, they couldn’t demonstrate that he was the person who had laid the poisoned baits that had killed the eagles. This meant he was fined £3,300 for the possession of the banned poison, but wasn’t prosecuted for killing the eagles.
In recent years, researchers have been fitting small satellite tags to young golden eagles which allows us to track their movements across Scotland, minute by minute. Analysis has shown that between 2004 and 2016, almost one third of tagged eagles (41 of 131 birds) ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances, mostly on or next to grouse moors.
Satellite-tagged golden eagle prior to fledging. This eagle was tagged in 2014, ‘disappeared’ on a Strathbraan grouse moor in 2016 and it’s satellite tag was found wrapped in heavy lead sheeting in the River Braan in 2020. Photo by Duncan Orr-Ewing
The lengths the criminals will go to avoid detection were exposed in 2020 when a walker found a satellite tag that had been cut off an eagle, wrapped in heavy lead sheeting – presumably to block the signal – and dumped in the River Braan. The tag’s unique identification number told us it belonged to a young eagle tagged in the Trossachs in 2014. This eagle had disappeared without trace from a Perthshire grouse moor in 2016, in an area where eight other tagged eagles had vanished in similar suspicious circumstances. Nobody has been prosecuted.
The remains of the satellite tag that had been cut off the eagle, wrapped in lead sheeting and dumped in a river. Photo by Ian Thomson, RSPB Scotland
The most recent disappearance of a tagged eagle happened just before Christmas 2023, close to the boundary of a grouse moor in the Moorfoot Hills. ‘Merrick’ was translocated to the area in 2022 as part of the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project. Her tag data told us she was asleep in a tree immediately before she disappeared. Police found her blood and a few feathers at the scene and concluded she’d been shot. Who shoots a sleeping eagle? Again, no one has been prosecuted.
This situation has persisted for decades because although golden eagles have been afforded legal protection for the last 70 years, to date there hasn’t been a single successful prosecution for killing one. The chances of getting caught and prosecuted have been so low that the risk of committing the crime has been worth taking, over and over again. Until now.
Earlier this year, the Scottish Parliament passed new legislation, the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, which introduces a licensing scheme for grouse shooting. For the first time in 170 years, red grouse shooting can now only take place on estates that have been granted a licence to shoot.
How will this stop the slaughtering of golden eagles and other birds of prey on Scotland’s grouse moors? Well, the licence can be revoked for up to five years if there is evidence of wildlife crime on the estate. Significantly, this will be based on the civil burden of proof which has a lower evidential threshold than the criminal burden of proof.
This means that instead of the police having to prove ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ that a named individual was responsible, they now have to prove that it’s based only on the ‘balance of probability’. This is a real game-changer because instead of being perpetually ‘untouchable’, now there are real, tangible consequences for the grouse shooting industry if these crimes continue. Estates will no longer be able to rely on the implausible protestation that ‘a big boy did it and ran away’.
As with any legislation, it will only be effective if it is strongly enforced. The jury’s out on that and we’ll be keeping a close eye on performance, but as the licensing scheme is based on a policy of mistrust, the Scottish Government has sent an unequivocal message to the grouse shooting industry. We all know what’s been going on and the public will no longer tolerate it.
Stobo Hope is a valuable moorland habitat near Peebles in the Scottish Borders, part of a landscape designated as a National Scenic Area. It’s an important site for a number of species, not least Black Grouse and Golden Eagles.
Part of the site was formerly a grouse moor but that stopped quite a while ago and the heather ‘strips’ you can see in the distance in this photo is where the heather has been cut (as opposed to muirburn) for grazing management.
However, approximately ten square kilometres of this land has been bought by a company and approximately seven square kilometres is being planted with non-native Sitka Spruce, apparently in support of tackling climate change (but see here for a cautionary tale on tree-planting schemes in other areas of Scotland published on the always-interesting ParkWatchScotland blog).
This massive conifer plantation at Stobo has apparently been given the go-ahead by the Scottish Government (via its agency Scottish Forestry) and has awarded a grant in excess of £2 million (tax payers’ money) to support the development.
Local campaigners (Stobo Residents Action Group Ltd) claim that Scottish Forestry failed to follow the required legal protocols when assessing this development because they determined that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) wasn’t required. The campaigners argue that NatureScot advised that an EIA was necessary because the conifer plantation was likely to have ‘significant and adverse affects’ but it appears that Scottish Forestry has ignored this advice, and similar advice from others.
In April this year the Stobo Residents Action Group lodged a request at court to seek judicial review of Scottish Forestry’s decision to allow the development without an EIA. The Scottish court has just given the campaigners approval to proceed (which means the court agrees that the group has an arguable case) and the group is now preparing for the case to be heard, probably in the autumn.
Meanwhile, back on site, preparation of the ground for the Sitka plantation is well underway with ploughing of the carbon-rich soil, the construction of large roads and the widespread application of a herbicide that campaigners say ‘has wiped out important plant communities including heather, blaeberry and many species of wildflowers, grasses, ferns, lichens and mosses. This will also have had a devastating effect on faunal populations, destroying the habitat, cover and food supply for mammals, birds, reptiles and invertebrates including the red-listed black grouse‘.
Here are some photos of the recent work on site (all photos by Stobo Residents Action Group):
Herbicide application
Herbicide application
New road built in National Scenic Area
Ploughing on carbon-rich peatland for planting of non-native Sitka Spruce
As many of you will know, judicial reviews cost money and these local residents are now crowdfunding to try and raise the estimated £35,000 needed to take the case to court. As always with these things, there’s no guarantee of success but the fact the court has now approved the application for judicial review is encouraging and gives these campaigners a fighting chance.
The campaigners have raised £15,500 so far of their £35,000 target. If you’d like to support them, please visit their crowdfunder page here.
In fact I’d recommend you visit it anyway and click on the ‘updates’ tab to read in more detail what they’re fighting against. If you’re able to contribute a few quid I know they’d really appreciate your help. Thank you.
UPDATE 11 September 2024: Legal success for Stobo Residents Action Group fighting against commercial forestry project (here)
Two mainstream BBC TV programmes, Landward and Countryfile, last week included features on raptor conservation projects in south Scotland – both worth watching on BBC iPlayer if you missed them.
Landward featured the brilliant George Smith, a volunteer from the Scottish Raptor Study Group, who has been monitoring peregrines across south Scotland for almost 40 years. He’s filmed visiting peregrine nest sites to ring chicks (under licence) and to collect DNA samples (also under licence).
It was a direct result of George’s dedicated and meticulous research that led to the recent conviction of part-time gamekeeper Timothy Hall and his son, Lewis Hall, for the illegal laundering of wild peregrines that were stolen from nests in south Scotland and then sold on to falconers in the Middle East, allegedly for enormous profit according to the Crown.
Worryingly, some more peregrine nests that George is monitoring this year have failed in suspicious circumstances and Police Scotland are currently investigating.
This episode of Landward is available on BBC iPlayer here (peregrine segment starts at 7 min 48 sec) and is available for the next 11 months.
Countryfile had two features of interest to readers of this blog. First was an overview of the conservation restoration work going on at the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve, the former Langholm grouse moor that was bought out from Buccleuch Estates by the Langholm community in 2022. Tarras Valley NR Estate Manager Jenny Barlow provides a commentary on the significance of the reserve and describes some of the projects underway.
Then Dr Cat Barlow from the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project took a presenter out into the hills in search of one of the satellite-tagged golden eagles that had previously been translocated to south Scotland to boost the formerly tiny remnant population. Cat discusses the project’s successes as well as the ongoing threat of illegal persecution, highlighted by what Police believe was the illegal shooting and killing of golden eagle ‘Merrick‘ last October, very close to the boundary of the Raeshaw Estate in south Scotland. Unfortunately Cat didn’t discuss the suspicious disappearances of a number of the translocated sub-adult eagles from the Western Isles that are rumoured to have ‘vanished’ when they dispersed north from southern Scotland. The piece also includes some of the important educational work the project is undertaking with local school children in south Scotland in an attempt to improve the future protection of eagles in this region.
This episode of Countryfile is available on BBC iPlayer here (Tarras Valley segment starts at 39 min 10 sec and South Scotland Golden Eagle Project segment starts at 46 min 30 sec). This episode is only available for another 26 days.
Cast your mind back to November 2023 when Police Scotland issued an appeal for information about the suspicious disappearance of a satellite-tagged golden eagle in the Scottish Borders in October 2023, which Police said at the time they believed “has come to harm” (see here).
We later learned that this young golden eagle, called ‘Merrick’, was part of the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project, a lottery-funded conservation initiative which is translocating young golden eagles from various sites across Scotland to boost the tiny remnants of the golden eagle breeding population in south Scotland (see here).
Camera trap photo of golden eagle Merrick, from South Scotland Golden Eagle Project
Recent research has demonstrated the need for these translocations as golden eagles from further north in Scotland rarely visit south Scotland of their own accord (see here) so without translocations the golden eagle population in south Scotland was at serious risk of extirpation, especially with the ongoing persecution of these local eagles (e.g. see here), despite the desperate denial of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (see here).
Today there has been a further update about the police investigation into the disappearance of golden eagle Merrick, with a press release issued by the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project. It is revealed that Police Scotland believe Merrick was “shot and killed” whilst sleeping in a tree before “someone then removed her body and destroyed her satellite tag“.
I’m going to reproduce the press release below, but then I’m going to discuss what wasn’t said in the press release because I always find the omissions more interesting.
Bear in mind when you read this press release that it was constructed by all the project partners involved in the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project, including those from the grouse-shooting lobby, who, unsurprisingly, appear to have used it as a vehicle to pump out some gratuitous pro-grouse shooting material.
I’m told by other project partners that this press release has been argued over for months, presumably because some partners wanted to do a damage-limitation job on it. Kudos to the Project team though for at least getting something out and providing a good deal of transparency about the circumstances of this eagle’s disappearance.
Here’s the press release – all photos supplied by South Scotland Golden Eagle Project. My comments will follow underneath:
PERSECUTION SUSPECTED IN DISAPPEARANCE OF GOLDEN EAGLE MERRICK
Following an investigation by Police Scotland, representatives for a groundbreaking conservation initiative, which attributes its success to overwhelming support from the public, raptor workers and land managers, have today (Wednesday 1 May 2024) confirmed that they are confident Merrick the golden eagle’s disappearance is due to persecution.
Merrick (F43), a female golden eagle that the project team translocated to southern Scotland in 2022, was reported missing in autumn 2023. With permission from Police Scotland, further information about the circumstances of Merrick’s disappearance and the evidence left behind can now be revealed.
Sharing further details, Project Manager, Dr Cat Barlow said: “We can confirm that Police Scotland has found clear evidence that a wildlife crime has been committed. They are confident Merrick’s disappearance was due to persecution.
“The South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project is incredibly angry, upset and disappointed that her disappearance appears to have been at the hands of an individual or individuals who consider themselves above the law.
“The Project’s translocated eagles have captured the hearts and minds of all our supporters, from conservationists, and raptor workers to landowners and the wider community, including children, visitors and business operators, who all share in our utter shock and disappointment.
“However, this incident, and the staunch support we have had, makes us utterly determined to fight the persecution of golden eagles and continue our successful translocation work to reinstate a resilient population of golden eagles across southern Scotland.”
Chair of the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project, Dumfriesshire farmer Michael Clarke added: “Whoever committed this deplorable wildlife crime should hang their heads in shame. Golden eagles are back to stay in the South of Scotland, and we very much hope they continue to spread from here to all parts of the UK.
“We thank everyone for their support at this tough time. We are grateful to Police Scotland for their support and using all the resources at their disposal to establish the full circumstances. We remain more determined than ever to establish a sustainable population of golden eagles in the South of Scotland.”
Merrick (F43) originated from Rottal Estate near Kirriemuir in the Angus Glens, a traditional sporting estate, which is accredited by Wildlife Estates Scotland (WES) for its commitment to protecting and restoring wildlife and biodiversity. Speaking about her disappearance, estate owner and Chair of Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) Dee Ward said: “We utterly condemn raptor persecution in the strongest possible terms and it is right and proper that anyone who commits such an act is prosecuted and convicted.
“Merrick is an eagle our own family estate donated to the project and we’re incredibly proud of the part we and many other estates, land managers and gamekeepers have played in the success of the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project. Indeed, the project has otherwise been an incredible success built on respect and co-operation between keepers, farmers, foresters and raptor conservationists.
“This incident makes us all the more passionate about continuing that support and we will do all we can to prevent, detect and condemn anyone who thinks this kind of abhorrent behaviour is acceptable.”
Merrick was the fifth eagle collected in the summer of 2022, the last to leave the aviaries, and the heaviest eagle translocated that summer, at 5.2 kg. She was named after the highest peak in the Southern Uplands, by the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project’s host charity, the Southern Uplands Partnership (SUP).
The project team has followed Merrick’s journey since her release using round-the-clock surveillance techniques, alongside reports of sightings from the Moorland Association and shooting estates across the country. She was thriving before her disappearance and exploring widely across the south of Scotland and Northern England. She was even photographed on a trip to Weardale and filmed in Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Each of the project’s eagles are fitted with a state-of-the-art satellite tag which transmits regular, reliable and accurate information about the birds’ wellbeing and movements. Until her disappearance, Merrick’s tag had been transmitting normally. During the eight days before her disappearance, she was exploring the Moorfoot Hills. Then on 12 October, her tag suddenly stopped transmitting, indicating “no malfunction”, which strongly suggested human interference.
On a visit to check on a juvenile eagle in the area, Eagle Officer, John Wright, inspected the relatively bare branches of a Sitka Spruce, Merrick’s last known roosting spot. He very quickly noticed a small golden lanceolate shaped head feather, two small wing coverts and some white under-down laying on the moss directly below the tree. Recalling his visit to the site, John said: “I saw a film of blood stretched across the grass stems. It subsequently turned out that a considerable amount of blood was present in and below the moss layer. As I stood back from the feather and blood location, I could see small downy feathers scattered in the dense spruce foliage below the roosting branches.
“Merrick had been roosting (sleeping perched) in a tree when her tag stopped transmitting. Golden eagles, as apex predator, have very few natural predators and so fears that Merrick had been fatally injured whilst roosting were quickly dismissed. Police Scotland have told us that they are confident humans were involved in the demise of this eagle.”
The Project team contacted Police Scotland, who promptly reached the site before weather destroyed any evidence to investigate the incident. This allowed them to confidently eliminate most other potential causes of death or disappearance. The nature and pattern of feathers and blood, and all other evidence, indicated to the Police that Merrick was shot and killed.
Dr Cat Barlow said: “Looking at the evidence, Police Scotland believe she was shot then fell to the ground, where she bled considerably through a single wound. Police Scotland believe that someone then removed her body and destroyed her satellite tag.”
In November, Police Scotland issued a statement stating that they believed she had “come to harm” and were treating her disappearance as “suspicious.”
Detective Sergeant David Lynn, Police Scotland Wildlife Crime Coordinator, said: “Since the report was made, officers have been working with a range of partner agencies to establish more details and gather further information to establish the circumstances.
“The bird was last seen in the area to the west of Fountainhall, between Heriot and Stow on Thursday, 12 October. A full search of this area was carried out and officers believe the bird has come to harm and are treating its disappearance as suspicious.
“We are determined to protect these magnificent birds. We work closely with a number of partners to tackle wildlife crime, which can be challenging and complex to investigate. I urge anyone with any information to contact us through 101 quoting reference number 1193 of 18 October. Alternatively, please contact Crimestoppers though 0800 555 111, where anonymity can be maintained.”
The South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project partners the Southern Uplands Partnership, RSPB Scotland, Scottish Land & Estates, Scottish Forestry, GWCT and NatureScot all share in the bitter disappointment of today’s news.
Since the first chicks were released in 2018, the project has had significant success, quadrupling the local population of golden eagles to the highest number seen in the area for centuries. Survival rates of the translocated birds are 90%, which is incredibly high.
The translocated golden eagles regularly and safely visit upland areas, which are managed for shooting and are a natural habitat for the golden eagle. The project has had excellent support from shooting estates in the area, who have worked with the team in many ways to ensure golden eagles thrive in southern skies – from the provision of chicks to supporting the development of artificial eyries in a safe place on their land.
That last image is what I want to focus on. It shows the location of Merrick’s last known roost spot and where her blood and feathers were found.
According to Andy Wightman’s fantastic Who Owns Scotland website (if you don’t already subscribe I recommend you do), this location is several metres from the boundary of Raeshaw Estate in the Moorfoot Hills.
RPUK map showing the boundary of Raeshaw Estate, derived from data on the Who OwnsScotland website
Screen grab from Who Owns Scotland website, annotated by RPUK, showing the proximity of Merrick’s last known location and the Raeshaw Estate (shaded in blue)
It struck me as odd that in the press release, although there are frequent references to how great ‘traditional sporting estates’ are for golden eagle conservation (and in the case of Rottal Estate where Merrick hatched, justifiably so), nobody seemed to want to mention the proximity of Merrick’s last known location and the discovery of her feathers and blood to the ‘traditional sporting estate’ known as Raeshaw. Why is that?
It would seem quite a significant piece of information to me, given that government-funded scientific research has identified a link between the proximity of some driven grouse moors and golden eagle persecution in Scotland. Not all driven grouse moors, but some.
Regular blog readers will recognise the name of Raeshaw Estate. I’ve blogged about it many times before as this was one of the first estates to be hit with a General Licence restriction back in 2015 based on ‘evidence provided by Police Scotland of wildlife crime against birds‘ although there was insufficient evidence to link the crimes to a named individual (see here), hence the GL restriction as opposed to a prosecution.
Raeshaw took NatureScot to court to challenge the decision under judicial review but lost the case after the court considered NatureScot’s decision to be lawful (here).
During the time Raeshaw was serving a General Licence restriction, employees applied for an individual licence to permit the continued (lawful) killing of so-called ‘pest’ birds on the estate (e.g. 1,000 birds reported killed under one of these licences, see here), but then even the individual licence was later revoked after NatureScot found ‘multiple instances of breaches of conditions of an individual licence that had been granted to cover essential management activities‘ (see here).
NatureScot also said, ‘These breaches may also constitute offences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, so SNH has reported the details to Police Scotland‘. I’m not aware of any subsequent prosecution in relation to those alleged offences.
It’s worth pointing out here that as far as I’m aware, nobody from the Raeshaw Estate has ever been prosecuted for any of the alleged wildlife crimes reported from this area.
It’s also worth pointing out that, just because Merrick’s last known location and the discovery of her blood and feathers was just several metres from Raeshaw Estate’s boundary, that doesn’t mean we can automatically assume that anyone associated with Raeshaw Estate was involved. There’s no direct evidence to demonstrate a link. Indeed, I heard on the grapevine that Police Scotland was refused permission to obtain a search warrant because the Crown Office didn’t consider there was sufficient evidence to justify it.
According to Andy Wightman’s research, Raeshaw Estate is owned by an overseas entity called Raeshaw Holdings Ltd, which according to Companies House is registered in the tax haven of Jersey (here). Last year it was reported that the beneficial owner of Raeshaw was billionaire Tory donor Louis Moore Bacon.
The sporting elements of the estate are managed by one of ‘grouse moor guru’ Mark Osborne’s companies, a sporting agency called ‘JM Osborne Rural and Sporting‘. Members of the grouse shooting industry, who you’ll recall routinely profess to have a zero tolerance policy towards raptor persecution, even in the press release above, clearly do not consider there to be any link with the apparent shooting and killing of Merrick and anyone employed on Raeshaw Estate. If they did, various gamekeeping organisations such as the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, National Gamekeepers Organisation, Southern Uplands Moorland Group and the Angus Glens Moorland Group wouldn’t this week be promoting on social media the latest gamekeeper vacancy on what is described as the ‘prestigious’ and ‘cracking’ Raeshaw Estate:
Screen grab from the Scottish Gamekeepers Association’s Facebook page, 30 April 2024
Screen grab from the National Gamekeepers Organisation’s Facebook page, 29 April 2024
Screen grab from the Facebook pages of gamekeeping organisations the Angus Glens Moorland Group & Southern Uplands Moorland Group, 29 April 2024
And grouse moor lobby group Scottish Land & Estates certainly wouldn’t be providing regular, full page advertising space in its quarterly LandBusiness magazine to any of Mr Osborne’s companies (JM Osborne Rural & Sporting and his gun-making company William Powell) if it considered there was any link:
Screen grab from SLE’s LandBusiness Magazine, Autumn 2022
Screen grab from SLE’s LandBusiness Magazine, Spring 2024
And pro-game shooting charity Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) certainly wouldn’t be accepting generous raffle prizes worth a value of tens of thousands of pounds from any company even suspected of having a link to raptor persecution – see here and:
Screen grab from GWCT website
And surely neither would the British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC) be accepting generous raffle prizes worth £13,000:
Screen grab from BASC website
To summarise then:
Golden eagle Merrick, like so many satellite-tagged golden eagles before her, ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances in October 2023.
Some of her feathers were found next to pools of her blood at her last known roost site.
Police Scotland believe she was ‘shot and killed’.
Although this incident took place in close proximity to the boundary of Raeshaw Estate, there is no suggestion whatsoever that anyone there was involved.
Police Scotland found no evidence to allow them to arrest and charge anyone in connection with Merrick’s disappearance or death.
A fascinating new study has been published today in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Diversity, providing an in-depth analysis of the movements of young satellite-tagged golden eagles in Scotland and an examination of the physical barriers (water and unsuitable terrestrial habitat) that may restrict movement between different regions of Scotland.
Here’s the citation: Fielding, A.H. Anderson, D., Barlow, C., Benn, S., Reid, R., Tingay, R., Weston, E.D. and Whitfield, D.P. (2024). Golden Eagle Populations, Movements & Landscape Barriers. Diversity, 16(4), 195.
It is the latest in a long line of scientific papers produced by the Golden Eagle Satellite Tag Group (GESTG), a formal collaboration of scientists and researchers from several organisations that are involved with golden eagle research in Scotland who share tag data & other information for the purpose of furthering golden eagle research and conservation. I’ll try and blog about the other papers soon.
Golden eagle adult & nestling. Photo by Chris Packham
Using over 7 million dispersal records from satellite tags fitted to 152 golden eagle nestlings between 2007-2022, this research found that there were no movements by young golden eagles tagged in the Highlands to the southern uplands.
Similarly, there were no movements from eagles tagged in south Scotland to the Highlands, with the exception of one young eagle in 2015 which flew north to the Highlands in 2016 but was later probably illegally killed in the notorious Eastern Highlands in May 2016.
Fig.3 from the paper showing golden eagle flight lines during natal dispersal across Scotland & Northern England. Map copyright Fielding et al. 2024
These results provide justification for the bolstering of the vulnerable south Scotland golden eagle population by translocating chicks and juveniles from further north. Natural recolonisation by golden eagles from the Highlands is quite clearly unlikely.
The study also demonstrates the reluctance of golden eagles to undertake large sea crossings, as evidenced by the already-known genetic isolation of the golden eagle sub-population in the Outer Hebrides. No satellite-tracked eagles tagged as nestlings moved between the Outer Hebrides and the Inner Hebrides or mainland Highlands, in either direction. Three tagged eagles from the Outer Hebrides made several possible but apparently aborted attempts to fly towards the mainland Highlands.
Flights across smaller water bodies were less problematic with frequent movement of golden eagles between the Inner Hebrides and the Highland mainland. However, eagle flights between Lewis/Harris and the Uists in the Outer Hebrides were surprisingly rare.
The paper concludes that the Scottish golden eagle population appears to be composed of three relatively isolated sub-populations. The largest is in the Inner Hebrides and in the mainland (Highlands) north of the Highland Boundary Fault; the second is the large Outer Hebridean sub-population; and the third, and much smaller and more vulnerable, is the southern Scotland sub-population. The authors suggest that recolonisation of golden eagles in northern England is likely to occur from terrestrial flights from south Scotland as opposed to flights over water into NW England.
This study, along with all the others the GESTG has produced, highlights the importance of satellite-tagging golden eagles in Scotland and puts to bed the ridiculous claims made by the grouse shooting industry that ‘tag data serve no purpose other than to try and entrap gamekeepers‘ and there’s no need to satellite tag golden eagles because ‘we know all we need to know‘.
Of course we don’t know all there is to know about golden eagles in Scotland – indeed the research undertaken by the GESTG is revealing just how little we previously understood and how much more there is to learn. What is more certain is understanding why the grouse shooting industry is so against any form of raptor tracking (see here, here, here, here and here). Indeed, it was the result of satellite-tracking golden eagles and uncovering patterns of widespread illegal persecution on some driven grouse moors that played a significant part in the Scottish Parliament’s decision last week to introduce a grouse moor licensing scheme to tackle ongoing illegal persecution.
Thanks to generous funding from Natural Research, the paper is available free of charge and can be read/downloaded here:
The Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs & Islands Committee met again on Wednesday 21st February to undertake its second day of consideration of the Stage 2 amendments of the Wildlife Management (grouse moor reform) Bill.
For new readers, this is proposed new legislation to regulate grouse shooting and its associated management practices by way of licensing schemes, introduced because of the continued illegal persecution of birds of prey on many Scottish grouse moors.
A report on what happened during the first day of consideration that took place two weeks ago can be found here.
Newly appointed Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie MSP was in the hot seat. Screengrab from Scottish Parliament TV, 21 Feb 2024
Two separate sessions were required on Wednesday (one in the morning and one in the evening) to get through all the amendments, bringing Stage 2 of this Bill to a close.
Newly-appointed Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie MSP led the Government’s response, taking over from Gillian Martin MSP whose Ministerial responsibilities have been moved elsewhere after the recent mini-reshuffle.
There were two other new faces on the Committee – Emma Harper MSP (SNP) who replaces former Committee member Jim Fairlie, and Elena Whitham MSP (SNP) who replaces former Committee member Karen Adam MSP who left after taking on commitments on a different Committee.
Other MSPs in attendance were Edward Mountain MSP (Conservative), Jamie Halco Johnstone MSP (Conservative, representing Stephen Kerr MSP) and Colin Smyth MSP (Labour), none of whom were eligible to vote on the Stage 2 amendments but who were present to speak to amendments they had lodged.
Wednesday’s two sessions were straight forward and once again there weren’t any big surprises with Committee members mostly voting along party lines, which meant that the numerous wrecking amendments put forward by the Conservatives, designed to weaken the Bill, were not supported by the majority. It also meant that various amendments put forward by Colin Smyth MSP (Labour), designed to strengthen the Bill, were also unsupported by the majority. Overall, the Bill passed Stage 2 pretty much in the format that the Government had introduced it, which is what had been anticipated.
I won’t go through the amendments one by one because there were too many. For those interested in proceedings the archive video of the two meetings are linked below, as is the meeting transcript.
The big ‘wins’ from our perspective were as follows:
There was majority support for Ministers to be given the power to add additional gamebird species to the licence if there is evidence that wildlife crime, such as raptor persecution, is taking place to facilitate the management of gamebirds such as pheasants and red-legged partridge. Ministers will have the authority to take evidence, consult and then vote on adding those species to the licence at a later date, if deemed appropriate.
This is a very important amendment especially given the recent trend in the release of red-legged partridge on grouse moors where shooting red grouse is no longer a viable commercial activity. Red-legged partridge and/or pheasants may be used by some grouse shooting estates as an alternative quarry if their licence for shooting red grouse has been revoked so having the power to include these additional species on the licence will close the loophole that some grouse moor managers may have sought to exploit in order to continue killing raptors without consequence. Amendments seeking to exclude this provision were lodged by Conservatives Edward Mountain and Rachael Hamilton but they were not supported.
Red-legged partridge pens placed on a moor in south Scotland
There was support for an amendment that provides a requirement for the use of medicated grit to be included in the Code of Practice being developed to support the new legislation. This is a timely amendment given the research published last week by the League Against Cruel Sports and Wild Justice that demonstrated widespread bad practice and the complete lack of monitoring of medicated grit use (see here).
REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform has just released a campaign video to highlight those findings:
The details of what requirements will be made in the Code of Practice in relation to the use of medicated grit are still to be determined but the Government’s support for medicated grit use to be included is very good news indeed, especially when some grouse shooting organisations have been arguing against its inclusion.
The Minister discussed his intention to introduce a requirement in the Bill to undertake monitoring and reporting of raptor populations – specifically golden eagle, hen harrier and peregrine, species identified in the Werritty Review as being significantly impacted by raptor persecution crimes on grouse moors.
This monitoring would provide a key measure of success (or failure) of the Bill to tackle raptor persecution, which is one of its primary objectives, and whether the new legislation has been effective in this respect. The Minister said he would return to this issue at Stage 3 after discussions with NatureScot and the Scottish Raptor Study Group about the resources required to undertake monitoring and reporting. Rachael Hamilton lodged an amendment that called for a limit on the reporting of some raptor persecution incidents – she wanted to only include crimes that had been proven by conviction. In other words, to exclude incidents described as ‘suspicious’ such as those relating to the suspicious disappearance of satellite-tagged raptors on grouse moors. Her amendment was not supported.
One of the most significant ‘wins’ came from the majority vote to support the introduction of additional powers for the Scottish SPCA to allow them to investigate offences under the Wildlife & Countryside Act – an extension of their current powers to investigate offences under the Animal Health & Welfare Act. As regular blog readers will know, this issue has been kicked down the road repeatedly by the Scottish Government over a 13-year period (see here for timeline) so getting support after so long is particularly satisfying.
Of course there were the usual inaccurate and non-sensical objections from the Conservatives, with Edward Mountain claiming this “would give powers to people who have never had such powers before” and “It should be the police, not other people, who implement the law” and “It would give powers to third parties who I do not believe are qualified or have the legal training to exercise such powers“.
These continued claims about the SSPCA’s supposed inexperience and inability to investigate wildlife crime are laughable, given that they’re already an official specialist reporting agency to the Crown Office so know all about due process, they already work in partnership with Police Scotland and other agencies in raptor persecution investigations, and through their skill, experience and expertise routinely bring some of the most sadistic wildlife-abusers to justice, including badger baiters such as the recent case against a depraved gamekeeper employed on the Millden Estate in the Angus Glens (here). Edward Mountain should be thanking the Scottish SPCA for its tireless and often challenging work, and its willingness to undertake even more of it under this new legislation at no cost to the tax payer. Seriously, who would want to oppose the addition of more expert professionals to bring the wildlife criminals to justice?
Another big win came via Kate Forbes’s amendment to see the closing of the muirburn season brought forward to 31st March. Currently, gamekeepers can burn heather up until 15th April, and in some cases even to the 30th April where landowner discretion allows. This late season burning overlaps with the breeding season of various moorland bird species, and when that breeding season is predicted to get earlier in response to climate change it’s obviously idiotic to allow burning to continue during that period, just on the precautionary principle alone.
Grouse moor muirburn. Photo: Ruth Tingay
The 31st March was seen as a compromise as Conservatives Edward Mountain and Rachael Hamilton wanted burning to be permitted until 30th April whereas Green MSP Ariane Burgess suggested 15th March. There will be powers in the Bill to allow Ministers to review the 31st March cut off date to take account of future research findings.
Given that the majority of muirburn in Scotland currently takes place in April, the grouse shooting industry will not be at all happy with this new restriction. They’ve lobbied hard against it, including taking the newly-appointed Minister Jim Fairlie out to visit a muirburn site at the beginning of the week, but their lobbying influence is clearly not as powerful as they like to suggest it is.
They do have some influence, of course. Bizarrely, Kate Forbes found support amongst the Committee for another, related amendment, which will allow the beginning of the muirburn season to start two weeks earlier (i.e. 15th September as opposed to the current start date of 1st October). There is no justification for this other than to appease the grouse shooters by not shortening the overall muirburn season. In a climate emergency, this is bonkers. It suggests that the Scottish Government thinks that burning the moors to facilitate excessively large numbers of red grouse for a few selfish people to shoot for fun is more important than the global climate crisis. Actually it does more than suggest it – the Scottish Government was clear in its argument against Colin Smyth’s amendment (#143) that it thinks muirburn is acceptable for the sole purpose of maintaining & increasing red grouse so they can be shot for ‘sport’.
Although how much muirburn will actually take place in September remains to be seen – the heather will still be green-ish so won’t burn well and grouse shooting will be well underway so gamekeepers may have limited time to run around lighting fires. Let’s see.
A ‘sort-of’ win came with the acceptance of a change to the definition of ‘peatland’ as being ‘land where the soil has a layer of peat with a thickness of more than 40 centimetres’ (where “peat” means soil which has an organic content of more than 60%). The current definition of peatland in the Muirburn Code is peat with at least 50 centimetres depth, so dropping this down to 40cm is obviously good news as it means a larger area of peatland will now be protected (landowners will not be issued a licence to undertake muirburn for the purpose of grouse moor management where the peat depth is 40cm or greater). Edward Mountain’s amendment to increase the definition of peatland to 60cm peat depth, and Rachael Hamilton’s amendment for it to remain at 50cm, were unsupported. The Bill will also include a provision for Ministers to keep the definition of peatland under review as further research emerges.
The new peatland definition of 40cm peat depth will probably have a significant impact on the management practices of many grouse moors, particularly in Eastern Scotland where new research has shown a widespread disregard by grouse moor managers for the Muirburn Code restriction of burning on peatland with a 50cm depth (see here). The difference going forward will be that if they disregard the new 40cm depth restriction it will lead to the revocation of their muirburn licence. Having a serious consequence like that should encourage behavioural compliance (again, let’s see!).
I’ve described this one as a ‘sort-of’ win because although the change in definition is welcome (and long overdue), it could have gone so much further. The new definition of peatland could have been lowered to 30cm depth in line with the UK Peatland Strategy‘s definition (also followed by many countries internationally). Or, the definition of peatland could have removed the artificial construct of any peat depth altogether, as eloquently argued by Green MSP Ariane Burgess. There’s a very strong argument against using peat depth as a valid definition of peatland, to properly protect all peatland, including critically important shallow peatland, as explained recently in an excellent guest blog (here). However, the Minister didn’t support this approach.
Other amendments that passed during Wednesday’s sessions included a decision that falconers will not need to apply for a licence to hunt red grouse – that seems reasonable given the low number of people engaged in this sport and the lack of associated raptor persecution offences linked to it.
There was also a decision that grouse moor licences should be issued for a five-year period instead of the one-year period originally suggested in the Bill. The grouse shooting industry wanted a ten-year licence but five years was seen as more suitable to provide oversight and review capability by the regulating authority. In essence, the length of the licensing period is pretty inconsequential to us because the most important aspect is that the regulator (NatureScot) will still have the capacity to suspend or revoke a grouse moor management licence at any time during that five period if offences occur.
So, Stage 2 of the Bill is now complete and it moves on to the final Stage 3. This is when further amendments can be lodged and some will be selected (by the Presiding Officer) for a debate by the whole Parliament in the main chamber. Until Stage 3 is complete we won’t know for sure how strong this Bill is but it’s reasonable to think that there won’t be any catastrophic changes given the dominant voting power of the SNP and Greens. A date hasn’t yet been set for the Stage 3 debate but it is anticipated that it’ll take place in March.
After that, the development of the various Codes of Practice designed to support the new legislation will pick up speed and the details of those will take on great significance. A watchful eye will be kept on these to ensure that they are robust and fit for purpose.
Here is a copy of the Bill as amended after Stage 2:
The Scottish Government’s Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Bill is making its way through the parliamentary process. For new readers, this is proposed new legislation to regulate grouse shooting and its associated management practices by way of licensing schemes, introduced because of the continued illegal persecution of birds of prey on many Scottish grouse moors.
Poisoned golden eagle next to a poisoned bait found on a grouse moor in Cairngorms National Park. Photo by RSPB Scotland
The Rural Affairs and Islands Committee was due to scrutinise and vote on the Stage 2 amendments tomorrow but a notice has just gone around that this has now been delayed until Wednesday 7 February 2024 (no reason for the delay was provided).
This also means that more amendments are now allowed to be lodged, up until 12 noon on Thursday 1st February 2024.
So far, the lodged amendments are predictable with no real surprises (e.g. see here for commentary on some earlier ones).
Let’s see what else gets lodged between now and 1st February and I’ll try and provide an overview shortly afterwards.
UPDATE 22.15hrs: Political shenanigans with Stage 2 of Wildlife Management Bill – back on tomorrow? (here)
The trial of prominent falconer and eagle breeder Andrew Knowles-Brown from Elvanfoot, Scotland continued at Lanark Sheriff Court last week where leading international avian vet Neil Forbes DipECZM(Avian), FRCVS was called as an expert witness for the prosecution.
This is the second trial Knowles-Brown has faced – in February 2023 he was cleared of all charges at Lanark Sheriff Court in relation to the alleged mistreatment of ten imported White-bellied sea eagles at the Scottish Eagle Centre (see here).
The current trial is separate to the first one and is concerned with alleged welfare offences relating to 90 eagles kept at Knowles-Brown’s breeding facility in Scotland. Knowles-Brown has denied all the charges.
Knowles-Brown is a prominent figure in the falconry world, having served as the Chair of the Scottish Hawk Board and Vice-Chair of the UK Hawk Board. The Hawk Board, which includes a representative from the Countryside Alliance, represents falconers, hawk-keepers and falconry clubs and provides welfare guidelines for those keeping raptors in captivity. It also engages in political lobbying (e.g. it was against the Scottish Government’s decision to afford the Mountain Hare full legal protection) and Knowles-Brown himself has provided evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs Committee when it was considering its draft Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Bill.
This second trial began last summer (see here) and looks set to continue for some time. The next expert witness for the prosecution is due in court on 27 February 2024.
Please note: as the case is still live, comments won’t be accepted on this blog until proceedings have concluded. Thanks for your understanding.
UPDATE 15 October 2024: Prominent falconer & eagle breeder Andrew Knowles-Brown guilty of welfare offences relating to approx 90 eagles in Scotland (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 