Tag: golden eagle

SNH agrees to collaborate with GWCT – should we be concerned?

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the government’s statutory advisory body on nature conservation, has recently pledged its intent to work closely with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT – formerly known as The Game Conservancy). Here is their published joint statement of intent – unfortunately a rather turgidly written set of objectives – that includes reference to predators such as buzzards and ravens.

It’s an interesting alliance and one which will no doubt be a cause of concern for some.

The GWCT  defines itself as an “independent charity”. Some commentators suggest that the GWCT is not independent of the shooting industry; a claim based on the interests of its good directors and officers (see here).

The GWCT accepts sponsorship from Artemis Investment Management Ltd (see here). All perfectly lawful of course but open to scrutiny nevertheless.

The GWCT’s Scottish Committee Chairman was questioned over the mysterious disappearance of a dead white-tailed eagle, reported to have been discovered on his estate but then it apparently vanished in to thin air when the police arrived the following day (see here). He denied any involvement.

The GWCT is reported to be involved with controversial ‘research’ commissioned by Songbird Survival. This ‘research’ is aimed at killing corvids and it has been suggested that in future it could extend to killing raptors (see here).

The GWCT was at the forefront of criticism into the SNH-funded Hen Harrier Conservation Framework Report. Basically, the GWCT did not accept the peer-reviewed scientific findings that hen harriers are being systematically slaughtered on UK grouse moors. Instead they wanted to deflect attention on to golden eagle/hen harrier interactions (a bit difficult seeing as golden eagles are also absent breeders on most grouse moors) and on to predation of harriers by foxes (foxes are just as unwelcome on grouse moors as hen harriers so the impact must be minimal, and certainly not enough to cause two-thirds of the harrier population to ‘disappear’).

So, a joint partnership a cause for concern? You decide.

GWCT website here. SNH website here.

Latest SASA figures reveal widespread poisoning incidents in early 2011

The latest figures detailing illegal animal poisoning incidents in the first quarter of 2011 have just been released by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The figures cover the period January to March 2011, and show that criminal raptor poisoning incidents were detected in each of the three months. They include 3 buzzards, 1 golden eagle, 1 red kite and 2 peregrines.  Poisoning incidents were widespread, taking place across Scotland, including in the Borders, Strathclyde, Tayside, Grampian and the Highlands. The illegal poisons used included Carbofuran, Chloralose and Strychnine. So much for the game-shooting industry’s self-regulation. I guess 2011 will not be the year they ‘stamp out’ illegal raptor persecution.

Not for the first time, two of the five recorded incidents were apparently unpublicised in the media: 1 x buzzard poisoned with Carbofuran in the Borders in January 2011, and 1 x red kite poisoned with Chloralose in the Highland region in February 2011.

SASA poisoning figures for period Jan – Mar 2011 available here

A recent history of golden eagle persecution in Scotland

Two years ago in July 2009, Alma, a two-year golden eagle who had been satellite-tracked across Scotland from her birth place on the Glenfeshie Estate, was found dead. She was discovered lying face-down in the heather on Millden Estate, Angus and later tests showed she had been poisoned by the banned pesticide Carbofuran.

The police conducted a search of Millden Estate and the local community responded with anger to Alma’s death. They wrote letters of concern to the local estates, the Environment Minister and the Chairman of Scottish Natural Heritage. On the second anniversary of her death, has anybody been brought to justice for killing her? Not that we know of.

Alma’s death is not a stand alone case, as we are all too aware. Prior to her killing in 2009, 17 golden eagles were confirmed victims of shooting, trapping or nest destruction in Scotland, between 1989 and 2009, according to this RSPB report. In addition, in the same report a further 24 golden eagles were confirmed victims of illegal poisoning in Scotland during the same period, including Alma.

The killing didn’t end with Alma. Since her death in 2009, a further 5 golden eagles have been confirmed killed – four of them last year (3 of them at Skibo Estate and one on an un-named grouse moor near Inverness ) and at least one known death so far this year, on North Glenbuchat Estate. That makes a total of 46. And these are only the ones we know about. There are other suspicious incidents, such as the four golden eagle leg rings reported to have been found in 2010 in the possession of convicted gamekeeper James Rolfe of the Moy Estate. As this report points out, these rings were originally fitted to golden eagle chicks prior to their fledging from nests in Sutherland, Grampian, Mull and Skye. These rings must have been removed from the dead eagles but how they came to be in Rolfe’s possession is unclear.

Add these four to the grand total and you get a minimum of 50 golden eagles illegally persecuted in Scotland since 1989. Nobody has ever been convicted for any of these reported crimes.

Poisoned golden eagle at Glen Orchy – two years on…

Two years ago today, this dead golden eagle was discovered by hill walkers in Glen Orchy, Argyll. Government tests later showed it had been poisoned by the illegal pesticide Carbofuran. This poisoning incident made the national press (e.g. here).

Several days later, a multi-agency search was conducted in and around Glen Orchy. The police-led operation included the Oban Community Policing Team, specialist wildlife crime officers from three police forces (Strathclyde, Lothian & Borders and Central), experts from the National Wildlife Crime Unit, pesticide experts from the Scottish Government and representatives from the RSPB and Scottish SPCA. The police said afterwards that they were following a positive line of inquiry.

Meanwhile, during the police search two handguns were found in gamekeeper Tom McKellar’s loft. Eighteen months later in December 2010, McKellar was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow for having prohibited weapons. However, he avoided the usual mandatory five year custodial sentence and instead received 300 hours community service. Story here

So what happened to that ‘positive line of inquiry’ in the eagle poisoning investigation? Good question.

Bird boycott

Here is a letter that was published in today’s edition of The Scotsman:

“I recently had another holiday in Scotland – my third visit this year – principally to do bird and wildlife watching.

Like many others I have always wanted to go bird watching in Malta and Cyprus, but have boycotted these islands on principal because of their hunting and persecution of birds.

On each visit to Scotland I learn of more illegal poisoning and persecution of raptors – including a major tourist attraction, the iconic golden eagle.

I am beginning to think that my patronage of your tourist industry is somewhat hypocritical in view of my stance on the European countries I mentioned.

It appears that wildlife crime detection is grossly underfunded and that penalties are woefully inadequate.

What good is a fine of a few thousand pounds to a gamekeeper whose multi-millionaire lord and master will pay the fine anyway?

I think a universal boycott by wildlide enthusiasts would be damaging to the economies of Scotland, and I implore the Scottish Government to make a concerted effort to stamp out these crimes.”

P. Bateson, Halifax.

The Scotsman letter here

“Professional gamekeepers do not poison raptors” says Alex Hogg

Episode 11 of the BBC 2 Scotland ‘Landward’ programme went out on Friday 27 May and included a segment on the new vicarious liability regulation in the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011. The programme is available here for a limited period.

The segment opened with Duncan Orr-Ewing, Head of Species at RSPB Scotland, who told the interviewer, “Bird of prey poisoning is particularly associated with driven grouse moors in the upland of Scotland, in the central and eastern highlands, parts of Perthshire and also down in the southern uplands”.

The interviewer, Dougie Vipond, asked: “So who is doing this? Who is killing the birds?”

Orr-Ewing: “Well, it is estate employees, gamekeepers who are usually involved, but they are only employees, they are acting under the direct instructions so ultimately it is the landowners that are responsible for this”.

A short section followed with a brief interview with Liz Plath, listed as a rural law specialist and a partner at Thorntons Law LLP. Basically she explained in simple terms how vicarious liability brings the landowner or the employer into the frame in cases of raptor poisoning.

Next up was Alex Hogg, chairman of the SGA, whose opening line was: “Professional gamekeepers do not poison raptors”. Funny that, because if you bother to look back at the statistics on raptor poisoning for the ten-year period that Hogg has been in post, you’ll see that raptor poisoning incidents have been recorded on many estates, and yes, ‘professional’ gamekeepers have been convicted.

He then contradicted himself (and not for the first time) by saying: “It’s only a small minority that are still at it. A rogue few if you like”.  Lest we forget, here is the official government map showing confirmed raptor poisoning incidents between 2006-2010. Widespread, I’m sure you’ll agree, and the trend is pointing upwards.

He continued: “And we’ve tried our hardest over the past, I’ve now been in this job for ten years, to impress on everybody that it’s absolutely illegal to poison raptors”. Peer pressure from Hogg and co., while welcome, has been ineffective. It can’t help the situation when he and others from his industry continue to claim that raptors are having a significantly negative effect on game birds, songbirds, waders and lambs. Is there any scientific evidence for this? No, not a shred.

Next up came David Hendry, listed as the proprietor of Cardney Estate, near Dunkeld in Perthshire. Now this was an interesting interview. The piece opened with an introduction to Hendry, and video footage of a diving osprey on his estate. We were told that this estate ‘is home to many endangered birds of prey’. Unfortunately, Hendry was not asked how many and what species of raptors made their home there. The osprey was implied, but of course the osprey only eats fish, not exotic red-legged partridge (also known as French partridge) or pheasant, which are reared and released in large numbers for sport shooting on this estate, according to this shooting directory.

Vipond talked about the belief that the only way to stop poisoning is to introduce a licensing system which would allow landowners to control [kill] raptors. Hendry agreed, and suggested “it should become the gamekeeper’s job for instance to look after the rare raptors like harriers, your merlins, bring on your red kites, but they should also be allowed to reduce buzzards and sparrowhawks to numbers that are sustainable, because what we have today is not sustainable”.

Ok, so this is the first time we’ve officially heard that sparrowhawks are also the landowners’ intended target for licensed killing. Until now, the list has ‘just’ included buzzards and ravens. So what happens if they get the go ahead to kill these species? Will we see goshawks added to the next list? They’re just an over-sized sparrowhawk after all, so why not? And golden eagles? They’re just over-sized buzzards, so why not? Where will it stop?

It’s also very interesting that he thinks the current number of buzzards and sparrowhawks is ‘unsustainable’. According to this shooting website, Cardney Estate offers shooting days where between 200-400 exotic birds (partridge/pheasant) can be shot. That’s 200-400 birds per shooting day, depending on the time in the season. In September 2010, a record 677 birds were shot on one day according to one participant! Sounds to me like this sporting estate is doing very nicely thank you, without the need to kill off any indigenous protected raptors, whatever species they may be.

We then went back to Orr-Ewing, who was asked for his opinion about the need to ‘manage’ [kill] protected raptors. “These birds of prey are rightly protected because they’re vulnerable. We have a history of killing birds of prey in Scotland, many species are just recovering from that situation, there’s no other country in Europe that [legally] kills birds of prey”.

His first three points are accurate, but his last statement is not. In 2008 the provincial government of Lower Austria issued a decree allowing hunters to shoot 1,000 buzzards and 250 goshawks over the following five years. It previously allowed the killing of Montagu’s harriers until the EC stepped in to halt it. The decree allowing the legal persecution of buzzards and goshawks resulted in an international public outcry – the same can be expected if the licensed killing of raptors for the benefit of the game bird-shooting industry is permitted in Scotland.

And of course, it’s not just poison that is used to illegally kill raptors. Unfortunately our government does not produce annual statistics on the other incidences of raptor persecution that take place every single year. Thankfully, the RSPB does. Their annual reports (one covering bird persecution in the UK as a whole, and the other covering incidents in Scotland) are a welcome insight into the extent of the problem. Their 2010 annual reports are due for publication in the very near future. Their efforts to compile and publish these reports are worthy of the public’s gratitude because without them, we would only have Alex Hogg and co’s word about the extent of illegal raptor killing on Scotland’s sporting estates.

Skibo Estate results

Dean Barr, a gamekeeper (and reported elsewhere as being the sporting manager) on the Skibo Castle Estate, has been convicted of having enough illegal poison “to wipe out the entire Scottish golden eagle and red kite populations several times over”. Barr, 44, of East Lodge, Clashmore, Dornoch, admitted possessing 10kg of the banned pesticide Carbofuran. He admitted carrying the poison from his previous job as head gamekeeper on the Raeshaw Estate to Skibo Castle Estate in 2008, because he had ‘not known how to safely dispose of it’.

The Carbofuran haul was discovered in a locked store on the Skibo Castle Estate, for which Barr had the keys. According to the Northern Times and Northern Constabulary, the poison was discovered within premises operated and solely accessed by Barr on Skibo Estate land.

Today he was fined £3,300 “to mark the court’s disapproval”. This was apparently reduced from a £5,000 fine for his early plea.

Despite this conviction, the Crown accepted he had ‘no part’ in the deaths of two poisoned golden eagles and a sparrowhawk (killed with Carbofuran) found on the estate in May 2010 (along with a dead buzzard and a third poisoned golden eagle killed by Aldicarb).

Barr’s defence lawyer said Barr was well regarded personally and professionally by his current and previous employers. “If it was thought that he was involved in the use of this material, they would not be so supportive”.

This is not the last we will write on this case.

The Scotsman news story

BBC news story

STV news story

Case against Skibo Castle gamekeeper opens at Inverness Sheriff Court

Following blog post 12 May 2010…

A year on from the discovery of THREE poisoned golden eagles, 1 buzzard and 1 sparrowhawk in or close to the grounds of Skibo Castle Estate, the case against one of the gamekeepers opened today at Inverness Sheriff Court.

The case against Dean Barr, originally from Northern Ireland, is to be continued on 26 May 2011. The charges against him are not yet being reported as he has not yet entered a plea. Last year, Mr Barr made a public statement in The Daily Record suggesting that the dead birds had been ‘planted’ by the RSPB – see blog post 22 June 2010 here: https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/skibo-gamekeeper-blames-rspb-for-stuff-turning-up/

Golden eagle found poisoned on North Glenbuchat Estate, Aberdeenshire

An investigation is underway after the discovery of a dead golden eagle found poisoned on the North Glenbuchat Estate in Aberdeenshire. The young eagle, being tracked by satellite, was found dead on 29 March. Tests have confirmed the eagle had been poisoned by Carbofuran. Grampian Police raided the estate yesterday and items have been removed for forensic testing but nobody has been charged as yet. Well done to Grampian Police for publicising this incident.

 BBC news story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-13292307

This is not the first time that North Glenbuchat Estate has been at the centre of a wildlife crime investigation. In July 2006, the head gamekeeper at North Glenbuchat was convicted of three offences: killing a wild bird, possession of birds’ eggs, and possession of a proscribed pesticide under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981. The head keeper, who had been employed at the estate for 30 years, was fined £850 (see here).

So, here we go again. Another year, another golden eagle found poisoned on a Scottish sporting estate, despite the rhetoric of the SRPBA and the SGA that this is a ‘rare’ event and they’re doing their best to put a stop to it. These continuing persecution incidents are nothing short of bloody outrageous.

Tetra Pak heiress accuses lairds of killing golden eagles

Today’s Daily Telegraph newspaper (Sat 12/03/2011) carries the story of wealthy heiress Sigrid Rausing, the owner of Coignafearn Estate in the Monadhliath mountains, who accuses lairds and their gamekeepers of killing golden eagles in Scotland because they believe it is a “victimless crime”.

In an intelligent and well informed attack on Victorian attitudes to land ownership and management,  Dr Rausing told The Daily Telegraph that many owners of sporting estates took the view that “they own the land, and no one has the right to interfere”. She went on to say, ” On the other hand most landowners are in receipt of quite substantial grants.  There is no reason why the public should pay grants to landowners whose philosophy of land management is hostile to the whole idea that the public has a right to intervene.”

Sigrid Rausing, a philanthropist and publisher who is the daughter of Hans Rausing, the Swedish billionaire whose father built the Tetra Pak packaging empire, is a breath of fresh air in Scottish highland estate ownership. When she took over the estate one of her first actions was to ban the estate keepers from killing raptors and introduce policies at Coignafearn to incorporate a “traditional model of a sporting estate within a conservation model” to prove it is possible to “transcend the hostility between the two ways of viewing land ownership.”

Dr Rausing certainly has not let the grass grow under her feet since she has taken over at Coignafearn as far as encouraging eagles is concerned. Four artificial golden eagle eyries have been built in locations where the birds used to breed and two have been “built up” by immature eagles, but so far no breeding pair has returned.  Dr Rausing has stated the most likely reason is that “individuals have flown over the estate boundary and been killed on other estates”. She added: “The food supply and habitat on Coignafearn is excellent for eagles, with plenty of red grouse, blue hares and red deer grallochs. We also protect blue hares on the estate. At any one time, probably up to ten to 12 juvenile, immature and sub-adult golden eagles might be present on the estate.”

Sigrid Rausing, we applaud your enlightened attitude and congratulate you on your actions to encourage a truly balanced habitat on your estate .

Telegraph article here – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/8376111/Tetra-Pak-heiress-accuses-lairds-of-killing-golden-eagles.html