Gamekeepers in Scotland are using night vision goggles to shoot roosting golden eagles & hen harriers, according to Ian Thomson, Head of Investigations at RSPB Scotland, who has been quoted in an article published by the Mail on Sunday on 10th September.
Conservationists have long suspected this to be the case on certain estates, where the eagles’ satellite tag data have shown their sudden ‘disappearance’ from known roost trees at odd times of the night, never to be seen or heard from again. We know that gamekeepers routinely use night vision equipment for fox-shooting – the equipment is often advertised in the shooting press – so it’s not a stretch to think that some of them are also using this equipment for targeting and killing sleeping birds of prey.
Note also that Ian mentions a number of current police investigations into satellite-tagged raptors that have ‘disappeared’….news on those soon…there are a lot.
Twin brothers Alexander and Robert McKellar have today been sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow for their roles in knocking down cyclist Tony Parsons and burying his body in a stink pit on the notorious Auch Estate near the Bridge of Orchy, where their father had previously been convicted for the illegal possession of two hand guns and a banned pesticide (Carbofuran) after the discovery of a poisoned golden eagle (see here).
Alexander & Robert McKellar. Photos: Police Scotland
Alexander McKellar, who had previously been charged with murder but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of culpable homicide, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Robert McKellar was sentenced to five years and three months for attempting to defeat the ends of justice by assisting his brother in covering up the crime by burying Mr Parsons in a remote spot on the Auch Estate.
Aerial view of Auch Estate. Photo: COPFS
Mr Parsons was knocked off his bicycle by Alexander McKellar’s vehicle, part-way through a charity ride on a rainy night in September 2017. Instead of providing him with assistance, the McKellar twins drove back to Auch Estate, switched vehicles, and returned to collect Mr Parsons and his possessions and then hid everything under a tarpaulin in some woods on the estate. Mr Parson’s body was later moved to a stink pit on the estate where he was buried, and the McKellar twins burned his possessions.
Their hideous crimes only came to light in 2021 after Alexander McKellar confessed to his then girlfriend, who went to the police. That they’d been able to conceal these offences for so long, despite major searches by Police Scotland officers, mountain rescue teams, police dogs, police air support unit, as well as volunteers, and with repeated media appeals, is a clear demonstration of how easy it is for criminal evidence to be hidden on vast, remote sporting estates. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
A case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), otherwise known as bird flu, has been confirmed in red grouse in Scotland, according to DEFRA.
Red grouse. Photo: RSPB Images
The confirmation has appeared in DEFRA’s running tally of confirmed bird flu cases in wild birds, which is a spreadsheet that’s updated weekly (see here).
The spreadsheet entry states that H5N1 was detected in a red grouse in week 30 (July 24 – July 30 2023) in the Scottish Borders:
There isn’t any more detail about the location, nor how many birds have been found infected/dead, just that a single bird has been tested and found to be positive.
If this infected red grouse was found on land managed for driven grouse shooting it’s of serious concern. Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza causes severe disease and high mortality in birds and has already killed tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of wild birds in the UK, impacting on the populations of globally significant species.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza is transmitted by the spreading between birds of nasal secretions and droppings, and it also spreads to birds of prey via the predation of infected birds. Some UK raptor species have already been badly affected, including golden eagles and white-tailed eagles (e.g. see here).
We know that many driven grouse moors are (mis)managed to produce an artificially-high density of red grouse for shooting. Another highly contagious disease, Cryptosporidiosis (Bulgy Eye) is rife on many intensively-managed driven grouse moors. It was first detected in wild red grouse in England in 2010 and then spread rapidly, via communal medicated grit trays, and by 2015 had affected high density red grouse on half of the 150 grouse moors in northern England. It has also been detected in Scotland, although the extent of the spread in Scotland is not known because the shooting industry is keeping quiet, and, for reasons unknown, NatureScot isn’t undertaking any surveillance of the disease (see here).
A grit tray on a grouse moor containing red grouse faecal droppings – a disease reservoir. Photo: Ruth Tingay
If the highly contagious Cryptosporidiosis disease can spread so rapidly via red grouse secretions and droppings found in grit trays on the moors, then so can Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.
Last year I argued that it would be ‘irresponsible’ for grouse-shooting to go ahead during the avian flu epidemic (see here). In response, the Scottish Government said: ‘…there have been no recorded cases of avian influenza in any grouse species, and there are no restrictions in place on grouse shooting’.
Given that Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has now been confirmed in red grouse in the Scottish Borders, and the grouse-shooting season opens on Saturday (the Inglorious 12th), how will the Scottish Government respond?
Shouldn’t they be restricting shooting as a precautionary measure, at least until the extent of the disease is evaluated?
Further to the horrific story about how charity cyclist Tony Parsons had been killed and then subsequently buried in a stink pit by the McKellar twins on the infamous Auch Estate near Bridge of Orchy in the Scottish highlands (see here), more information has emerged in this grisly case.
The Daily Record has reported that the McKellar twins’ father was Tom McKellar, who was convicted in 2012 for the illegal possession of a banned pesticide (Carbofuran) and two hand guns at his home on the Auch Estate where he worked as a farm manager (also described in some publications as a gamekeeper)- see here and here for some background to that case.
The article in the Daily Record (here) also includes comments made by locals about the McKellar twins and it reports that the brothers ‘worked as stalkers on a hunting estate‘ and ‘had been exposed to the killing of animals for much of their lives‘.
The article continues:
‘The boys had grown up in a life where shooting animals, trapping them was a way of life, part of the running of a shooting estate that protected the game bird and deer stocks. They were both working on the land from a young age and soon working as deer stalkers. Their father was said to be highly regarded in the local community but the fact he had illegal guns and hugely toxic, illegal poison at his property didn’t exactly make him look like the best role model‘.
The article also states: ‘The men eventually buried Tony’s body in a “death hole” that was full of the rotting remains of foxes, grouse and other animals that had been killed on the estate‘.
I’m not sure that grouse shooting takes place on the Auch Estate – the habitat doesn’t look as though it would support commercial driven grouse shooting at any rate. The estate is best known for offering deer stalking and fishing, although the estate agent’s brochure from the 2020 sale does say that walked-up shooting is available and mentions rough shooting for woodcock:
Further information about the site where Tony’s remains were found was reported in an STV article (here) published last September when the case moved to trial at the High Court in Glasgow. The article reports that Tony’s body was ‘hidden under animal remains with bleach also poured on his remains‘. (Thanks to a blog reader for sending the STV link).
There has been a lot of online commentary about this gruesome case, which isn’t surprising given the shocking crimes committed by the McKellar twins. Some have questioned why I’m reporting the case on this blog. I don’t feel the need to justify what gets reported on here but in this case I thought it would have been obvious given the estate’s history as a raptor persecution crime scene, the relationship of the McKellar twins to Tom McKellar, and the use of a stink pit to bury a body.
I think it’s also interesting to highlight that a crime as serious as this one can remain hidden on large estates like Auch for years. We often refer to raptor persecution crimes on vast, privately-owned sporting estates as being the ‘tip of the iceberg’ because inevitably estate employees have every opportunity, and of course the motive, to hide the evidence of their criminal activity. The crimes that are uncovered are usually only discovered by chance.
The killing of Tony Parsons and his burial in a stink pit on the Auch Estate by two individuals who lived and worked there only came to light because someone had the courage and decency to report it to the police when Alexander McKellar confessed to her what he and his brother had done.
I see a lot of parallels.
The McKellar twins are due to be sentenced later this month.
UPDATE 25th August 2023: McKellar twins from Auch Estate sentenced for killing cyclist & burying his body in a stink pit (here)
There was a pretty gruesome criminal case taking place at the High Court in Glasgow last week relating to the infamous Auch Estate at the Bridge of Orchy.
Long-term blog readers may well remember the Auch Estate – a deer-stalking and fishing sporting estate where a poisoned golden eagle was found in June 2009 along with a carbofuran-killed fox and a carbofuran-laced sheep carcass. The discovery led to a raid at the farm manager’s home where Carbofuran was discovered in a game bag and two illegal handguns were discovered in the loft.
Three years later after prolonged legal proceedings, farm manager Tom McKellar (then aged 50) was convicted for having possession of the banned pesticide Carbofuran, although he wasn’t charged with poisoning the golden eagle or placing the poisoned bait. He was given a pathetic £1,200 fine for possession of Carbofuran and a 300-hour community service order for possession of the two handguns, a crime which would normally have attracted a mandatory five year custodial sentence (see here and here for some background to that case).
Aerial view of Auch Estate. Photo: Crown Office
The case heard last week at Glasgow High Court centred on twin brothers Alexander and Robert McKellar (now aged 31). In September 2017 after drinking with a German hunting party at a local hotel, Alexander McKellar’s vehicle hit a charity cyclist, Tony Parsons, who was cycling on the A82, causing him serious injury. Instead of helping him, the two brothers drove back to Auch Estate (where they were reportedly self employed farm workers living with their parents – Alexander McKellar was also reported to be a deer stalker), dumped their phones and changed vehicle and went back to pick up Tony Parson’s body, bike and possessions, and drove back to the estate and initially hid Mr Parsons in a wood.
They later removed him from the wood and took him to another location on the estate, reported in court as a location used for “the purposes of disposing dead animals”, in other words, a stink pit. There they dug a grave and buried Mr Parsons and burned his possessions.
Mr Parson’s remains were not discovered until January 2021 after a girlfriend of one of the McKellar brothers told police she’d been shown the grave site in 2020. Prior to her report, in 2018 the police had been tipped off to “pay attention” to the McKellar twins and had visited the estate in January 2019 but were apparently ‘asked to leave’.
Details of the case can be read here, here and here.
The McKellar brothers were due to stand trial for the murder of Mr Parsons but the court has accepted a not guilty plea from Robert McKellar and a guilty plea from Alexander McKellar to a lesser charge of culpable homicide. Both have pleaded guilty to attempting to defeat the ends of justice. They will be sentenced on 25th August at Glasgow High Court.
Let’s hope there’s some justice for Tony Parsons and his family.
UPDATE 4th August 2023: More detail emerges about McKellar twins who buried cyclist’s body in stink pit on Auch Estate (here)
UPDATE 25th August 2023: McKellar twins from Auch Estate sentenced for killing cyclist & burying his body in a stink pit (here)
10 million blog views feels like a significant milestone.
Many thanks to all the friends, colleagues, collaborators, supporters, followers, commentators and funders, who make this worthwhile.
Here’s the photograph that I publish every time a new milestone is reached. This is a golden eagle that was found dead on a grouse moor in the Cairngorms National Park in 2006. It had been illegally poisoned. It epitomises everything in its pitiful, poignant, senselessness.
Photo: RSPB
Unfortunately there is still a lot more work to do, as evidenced by the recent discovery of two young white-tailed eagles found poisoned on a grouse moor in Northern Ireland in May 2023:
Photo: RSPB
The illegal killing of birds of prey in the UK continues and so must this blog. It can often feel like no progress is being made, but it is, albeit more slowly than any of us would like.
I read a report over the weekend where representatives of the game-shooting industry said they felt ‘under siege’ from campaigners. That’s good, some of them have been allowed to get away with far too much for far too long, often assisted and shielded by the very authorities who should be holding them to account.
Change will only come when enough of us demand it.
In February this year, prominent falconer and eagle breeder Andrew Knowles Brown from Elvanfoot, Scotland 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).
That case was the first of two. For reasons that are unclear to me, charges relating to the welfare of another 90 eagles (here) were split into a second trial, which is now underway.
Andrew Knowles Brown and his associate, Alan Rothery, are alleged to have kept the eagles in enclosures which were too small, failed to provide the birds with natural light, failed to provide them with adequate water, denied them the ability to exhibit natural behaviours such as flying and bathing, and failed to protect the birds from injury, suffering and disease, between June-December 2019. Both have denied the charges.
The Scottish SSPCA started giving evidence at Lanark Sheriff Court on 8th June 2023 and will continue at the next hearing scheduled for 10th and 11th August 2023.
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.
As the second court case is live, comments won’t be accepted on this blog until proceedings have concluded. Thanks for your understanding.
UPDATE 22 January 2024: Trial continues in Scotland for falconer charged with welfare offences relating to 90 eagles (here)
UPDATE 15 October 2024: Prominent falconer & eagle breeder Andrew Knowles-Brown guilty of welfare offences relating to approx 90 eagles in Scotland (here)
In February this year it was reported that a young golden eagle, named ‘Sula’, had been found dead on the Queensberry Estate, an estate within the Buccleuch portfolio in Dumfriesshire (see here).
She was from the South Scotland Golden Eagle Project, where eagles are being translocated from other Scottish regions in an effort to boost the declining population in the south. Sula had been translocated in 2022.
Photo: South Scotland Golden Eagle Project
The Veterinary Investigation Centre at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) in Dumfries conducted a variety of tests (toxicology, histopathology, virology, bacteriology and parasitology) and have now reported that the investigation did not find a definitive cause of death, but did conclude that Sula had been in “very fit condition” before her death. Avian flu was ruled out.
The South Scotland Golden Eagle Project website can be found here.
The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) is advertising a three-year, full time position for a Raptor Conservation Officer, to deliver the actions laid out in the National Park’s latest Partnership Plan (2022-2027) aimed at increasing the home range, occupation and breeding success of golden eagle, hen harrier, merlin and peregrine across the National Park.
This is a promising move by the CNPA, who have previously faced severe criticism for not dealing effectively with ongoing raptor persecution in some areas of the Park, notably on land that’s managed for intensive driven grouse shooting (e.g. see here & here).
Crimes against birds of prey, especially those that take place within the Cairngorms National Park, are often high profile, and quite rightly so. For example the recent poisoning of a golden eagle on a grouse moor within the Park (here) and the poisoning of a white-tailed eagle on another grouse moor within the Park (here) generated widespread outrage and media coverage, as did the sighting of a young golden eagle flying around a grouse moor in the Park with a spring trap clamped to its leg/foot (here).
Last year, the CNPA stated its intention to address intensive gamebird management within the Park as part of its Partnership Plan (here), which was seen as a good move by many of us who know that raptor persecution is disproportionately associated with land managed for gamebird shooting. That, combined with the creation of this new Raptor Conservation Officer post, is indicative of things moving in the right direction.
Make no mistake though, this new post will be a challenging one. There are some fantastic estates in the Cairngorms National Park who have been hosting and protecting breeding raptors (e.g. golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, hen harriers) for some time now, but there are also other estates that stubbornly refuse to tolerate these species and still behave as though it’s the 1890s.
The post is full time for three years, attracting a salary between £33,652 – £40,362. The closing date for applications is Sunday 30th April at 23.59hrs.
A detailed job description and list of essential attributes is provided here:
Further to this morning’s news that Millden Estate in the Angus Glens has been slapped with a three-year General Licence restriction after evidence was found of raptor persecution crimes (see here), it’s worth examining the background to this case.
Millden is one of a number of grouse-shooting estates situated in the Angus Glens that has featured many, many times on this blog (see here for all Millden posts).
Location of Millden Estate in the Angus Glens. Estate boundaries sourced from Andy Wightman’s Who Owns Scotland website
Millden Estate first came to my attention in July 2009 when a young satellite-tagged golden eagle called Alma was found dead on the moor – she’d ingested the deadly poison Carbofuran (here). It wasn’t clear where she’d been poisoned and the estate denied responsibility.
Then in 2012 there was the case of another satellite-tagged golden eagle, believed to have been caught in a spring trap on Millden Estate before moving, mysteriously, several km north during the night-time only to be found dead in a layby with two broken legs a few days later (here and here). The estate denied responsibility and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association conducted an ‘analysis’ (cough) and deduced it was all just a terrible accident (here).
There have been other incidents – former Tayside Police Wildlife Crime Officer Alan Stewart describes ‘a horrendous catalogue of criminality’ recorded on Millden Estate during his time (see here). However, despite this history, nobody has ever been prosecuted for raptor persecution crimes on Millden Estate.
Today’s announcement from NatureScot that a General Licence restriction has been imposed on Millden Estate is the first sanction I’m aware of at this location. It has been imposed after three shot buzzards were found in bags outside two gamekeeper’s cottages during an SSPCA-led investigation into badger-baiting and other animal-fighting offences in 2019.
That investigation led to the successful conviction in May 2022 of depraved Millden Estate gamekeeper Rhys Davies for his involvement in some sickening animal cruelty crimes (see here). Despite his conviction, Millden Estate denied all knowledge of this employee’s criminal activities (here).
There hasn’t been a prosecution for the shooting (or possession) of those three shot buzzards, nor for the six other shot raptors found in a bag just a short distance from the Millden Estate boundary (here), and nor will there be, according to a statement provided to me by the Crown Office (here).
With this long history of un-attributable wildlife crime on and close to Millden Estate, the imposition of a General Licence restriction is welcome news, although in real terms it’s nothing more than a minor inconvenience to the estate. It doesn’t stop their legal killing of so-called pest species (e.g. crows) because all they have to do is apply for an Individual licence, which NatureScot will have to grant (although it can revoke an Individual licence if more evidence of crime emerges – as happened on Raeshaw Estate in 2017 – see here), and nor does it stop the legal killing of red grouse, pheasants or red-legged partridge by paying guests.
This photograph appeared on social media in 2017 titled ‘Team Millden’ and shows a bunch of blokes dressed in Millden tweed grinning inside the estate’s larder after a day’s grouse shooting.
I’ve written about the monumental ineffectiveness of General Licence restrictions many times (e.g. see here, here, here, here, here) and my view hasn’t changed. The only weight that a General Licence restriction carries is a reputational hit for the estate on which it is imposed, which was the Environment Minister’s aim when GL restrictions were first mooted (here).
This is useful from a campaigner’s perspective because it allows us to demonstrate that raptor persecution continues on Scottish grouse moors, despite the absurd denials of senior industry representatives (e.g. see here).
But it doesn’t stop the estate’s business activities. You might think that others in the industry, or even elected politicians, would shun a restricted estate but that simply doesn’t happen (e.g. see here and here).
And nor is it an effective deterrent – Leadhills Estate, a grouse moor in South Lanarkshire, was slapped with a second General Licence restriction after ‘clear evidence’ of wildlife crime was uncovered whilst the estate was still serving its first restriction notice (see here)!
Given the current number of grouse-shooting estates serving General Licence restrictions after ‘clear evidence’ of wildlife crime was provided by Police Scotland: Leadhills Estate (here), Lochan Estate (here), Leadhills Estate [again] (here), Invercauld Estate (here), Moy Estate (here) and now Millden Estate (here), it’s clear that the Scottish Government’s proposed grouse-shoot licensing scheme can’t come soon enough.
There are strong rumours that the Wildlife Management (Grouse) Bill will be presented to the Scottish Parliament before Easter and many of us are eagerly awaiting its publication to see the details of what is proposed and, importantly, how it will be enforced.
One thing’s for sure, it will need to be a lot more robust than the General Licence restriction and any sanctions, which should hopefully include terminating an estate’s ability to continue gamebird shooting during a determined-sanction period, will need to be deployed a lot quicker than the time it takes for a General Licence restriction to be imposed (it’s taken four years for the GL restriction to be placed on Millden Estate).
UPDATE 10th March 2023: Millden Estate says it will appeal General Licence restriction imposed after evidence of raptor persecution (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 