Tag: hen harrier

Some comments on last night’s ‘Inside Out’ programme on hen harrier persecution

So, what did we learn from last night’s Inside Out programme on the illegal persecution of hen harriers?

According to Martin Gillibrand, the Moorland Association’s secretary, there is ‘no evidence’ that gamekeepers have been involved in hen harrier persecution, and the cause of their near extinction as a breeding species in England is “as a result of some very bad springs, breeding productivity has fallen off and the numbers have gone down“. Ah, so climate change is the real problem then. So if we all turn down our central heating and get our lofts insulated the hen harriers will be ok. It’s the same old story – give any explanation for the demise of the hen harrier except for the most obvious one.

Funny that he didn’t mention an earlier Moorland Association statement, given as written evidence during the recent parliamentary audit on wildlife crime (see here) –

“Until a full set of special rules allowing the positive management of hen harriers breeding on grouse moors is forthcoming from the Environment Council’s Hen Harrier Dialogue, moorland owners are within their rights and the law to deter the birds from settling on their moors to breed.”

Nor did he mention previous correspondence between the Moorland Association and DEFRA minister [grouse moor owner] Richard Benyon, discussing the possibility of derogations from international law that would allow for the legal ‘management’ of hen harriers (see here).

What else did we learn? Well, as predicted, the recent introduction of vicarious liability legislation in Scotland was touted as the solution to end raptor persecution. Unsurprisingly, this view was presented by Des Thompson of SNH – an organisation with a vested interest in making everyone believe that they’re dealing with the on-going (59 years and counting) problem of illegal raptor persecution. According to Des Thompson:

“We are seeing some real signs of success. There are indications now that the recorded incidents of poisoned birds of prey is declining“.

He went on: “We were despairing in Scotland a couple of years ago but things have got a lot better“.

Have they? Yes, the number of recorded poisoning incidents has dropped, but does that mean poisoning has dropped, or poisoning is still going on but it’s now better hidden, or that recorded poisoning incidents have dropped because other methods of persecution are now being employed? Here are three examples that suggest things have not ‘got better’ (see here, here and here).

It’s interesting that SNH should interpret the drop in recorded poisoning incidents as a ‘success’, when the only true measure of success will be if raptor populations (especially hen harrier and golden eagle) recover. If they do recover, it will take several years to see it. Sorry, but to suggest at this early stage that vicarious liability has been a ‘success’ is utter rubbish – it’s a statement with more spin than a Zanussi.

Yesterday we blogged about how vicarious liability isn’t the solution to solving the issue of illegal raptor persecution, mainly because the crux of the vicarious liability concept is that the individual criminal first has to be identified before his/her employer can be charged under the new legislation. However, this was written from a Scottish perspective, where evidence such as covert video surveillance (identifying an individual actually committing the crime) is so often banned as admissable evidence in court. However, in England, this type of evidence is frequently accepted in court and has been used very successfully to convict criminal gamekeepers. So, in this context, vicarious liability, if it was to be introduced in England, might just work.

If you missed last night’s programme you can watch it on iPlayer (here) for a limited period.

We’ll be blogging later today about the latest development from the Hen Harrier Dialogue…

For anagram fans: A SAD MORONS COALITION / MOORLAND ASSOCIATION

‘No evidence’ of gamekeepers persecuting hen harriers, says Moorland Association

As a prelude to this evening’s programme about the illegal persecution of hen harriers, there was a short piece on BBC Radio Newcastle this morning.

In an astonishing interview, the secretary of the Moorland Association (the representative body of grouse moor owners) suggests that there is ‘no evidence’ of gamekeepers being involved with the illegal persecution of hen harriers.

Fortunately, Guy Shorrock of the RSPB’s Investigations Team was on-hand to provide an eloquent and well-informed rebuttal.

It’s remarkable that the Moorland Association are still in denial, even though we’re all well aware that this species is on the very brink of becoming extinct as a breeding species in England. It’s especially remarkable given that the Moorland Association have been party to the Hen Harrier Dialogue – the discussion process set up specifically to find ways of addressing the conflict between grouse moor management and hen harriers (now in its 7th year). We’ll be blogging about the latest news from the Hen Harrier Dialogue shortly – and given the Moorland Association’s flat denial that hen harrier persecution exists, you won’t be surprised to find out the latest development…

Meanwhile, listen to this morning’s radio interview (here, starts at 1.25.30 and ends at 1.31.06) and be sure to watch the tv programme this evening (here).

Photograph below shows a hen harrier being removed from an illegally-set trap on a Scottish grouse moor in 2010. This bird was lucky – he survived. Nobody was prosecuted for setting the illegal trap.

Hen harrier being removed from illegal trap on Moy Estate

Hen harrier plight to feature on BBC this evening

BBCInsideOutBBC 1’s Inside Out programme this evening will feature the plight of the hen harrier.

The programme’s preview notes say the following: “And as hen harriers disappear from northern hills, might Scotland have found a way to stop persecution?”

Er, unless the Scottish Government has finally decided to implement a licensing scheme for so-called ‘sporting estates’, or mandatory prison terms have been brought in for those found guilty of raptor persecution, then the answer has to be a resounding NO! Scotland has not found a way to stop persecution, even though it’s almost sixty years since raptors were given legal protection.

We very much hope that this programme doesn’t try to suggest that vicarious liability is the answer. It isn’t. For vicarious liability to work, the individual who actually committed the crime still has to be identified before his/her employer can be charged. This is virtually impossible in too many cases, especially on the larger sporting estates where there are multiple gamekeepers who will all deny any knowledge of any criminal activity. Identifying the individual criminal would be possible if various legal obstacles were removed (like the admission of covert video footage showing the individual commiting the crime), but so far those with the power to implement such change seem unwilling to make an effort.

Nevertheless, it’s great that the BBC have chosen to highlight the shocking status of the hen harrier, and in a primetime viewing slot, so well done to them for that.

The programme is a regional one (North East and Cumbria) but will be available on iPlayer for those who miss the actual programme.

Click here to go to the Inside Out webpage and follow the links to watch the episode on-line after this evening’s show.

SNH species action framework conference: presentations & podcasts

species action frameworkSNH have been under fire in recent weeks over their controversial decision to authorise the use of clam traps. (Thanks, by the way, to all of you who took the time to contact SNH on this issue – we await their latest response with interest).

However, sometimes SNH do things well and this blog entry reflects that. Last November (2012), SNH held a Species Action Framework Conference in Edinburgh to discuss the results of their five-year programme focusing on the conservation and management of 32 species (see website here). Kudos to them for recently publishing the presentations, both as downloadable PowerPoints as well as Podcasts.

The following presentations may be of particular interest to RPS readers:

Managing Species Conflicts (Steve Redpath, Aberdeen University). Powerpoint presentation here; podcast here.

Sea Eagle (Andrew Stevenson, SNH and Rhian Evans, RSPB). Powerpoint presentation appears to be unavailable; podcast here.

Hen Harrier (Des Thompson, SNH and Simon Lester, Langholm Moor Demonstration Project). Powerpoint presentation here; podcast here.

The hen harrier presentation and podcast is particularly amusing, with head gamekeeper Simon Lester brushing over the reasons why none of the 34 Langholm harrier chicks raised during the current Langholm project have ever returned to breed at Langholm (er, because they’re dead?). Can’t blame the hen harrier anymore for failing grouse stock so instead he concentrated on buzzards and ravens as the prime culprits, although without producing supporting evidence. He did say that 78% of tagged red grouse had been ‘killed or eaten by raptors’. That’s quite a misleading statement – there’s a massive difference between ‘killing’ and ‘eating’. Who’s to say that the ‘eating’ wasn’t the result of scavenging the dead grouse as carrion? Anyway, we look forward, hopefully in the near future, to seeing some hard data rather than having to rely upon Simon Lester’s ‘beliefs’.

We’ll be blogging more about the demonisation of buzzards at Langholm in a later post – we’re currently reviewing some fascinating data that show, fairly conclusively on first appraisal, that red grouse are not a major component of the buzzards’ diet at Langholm. Watch this space…

RSPB hits back at Scottish Land & Estates

scotsman_logo_200The thin veneer of ‘partnership working’ is slipping.

Following recently published letters in the Scotsman concerning the grouse moor/raptor ‘debate’ (see here and here), today’s paper included a response from RSPB Scotland. It seems we weren’t alone when we described Scottish Land and Estate’s contribution as misleading guff:

“Doug McAdam of Scottish Land and Estates (Letters, 16 January) implies that the RSPB is not committed to resolving the conflict grouse moor managers perceive with birds of prey, and is not supportive of the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project. This is disingenuous.

Mr McAdam knows that RSPB Scotland was a founding partner in the Langholm project, contributes funding and remains a partner. We are encouraged that the project identified diversionary feeding as a viable tool allowing co-existence of grouse shooting and raptors.

We are disappointed by the lack of update of this by grouse moor managers. Why reject a tried and tested method that reduces (to zero at Langholm) harrier predation of grouse chicks?

Harriers at Langholm remain below the optimum and below the partners’ agreed target.

Continuing intolerance of this species outwith Langholm may well explain this sad failure.

The RSPB withdrew from one English initiative. Over the seven years of our engagement, the English hen harrier population declined to a single breeding pair. In such circumstances it seems pointless to discuss harrier management with none left to manage!

Nevertheless, we remain in dialogue with government and moor managers south of the Border and will direct our energies to any initiatives we believe can work.

The near-complete annihilation of breeding hen harriers in England shows signs of being repeated in large parts of Scotland.

Honest and meaningful dialogue is essential to stop this. Without it, Logan Steel’s hypothesis (Letters, 14 January) that raptors cannot live with intensive driven grouse shooting, may well be correct. Stuart Housden, RSPB Scotland, Edinburgh”.

[Link to the letter here]

Another poisoned buzzard in Scotland

SASA (the Government’s Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture) have just published their latest ‘Summary of Incidents’ where they report on the number of animals that have been submitted for poisoning analysis, dating from January – September 2012 (see here).

It’s an interesting read. The results from the first three-quarters of 2012 suggest a decline in the number of reported raptor poisoning incidents. Does this reflect an actual decline in poisonings, or does it mask something more cynical, such as a change of tactics in the method of persecution used? Nobody can tell for sure at this stage, although you’d have to be pretty naive to believe the first explanation, especially after the recent shocking non-poisoning incidents such as the dead golden eagle found in a lay-by with two broken legs, believed to have been illegally trapped on an Angus grouse moor and then moved by vehicle in the dead of night and dumped by the side of the road, barely alive and left to suffer an horrific death. Then there was the golden eagle that was found shot and critically injured on a grouse moor in Dumfrieshire, now making a slow recovery. And then the shot hen harrier found dead on another grouse moor in Grampian. And these are just the ones we know about.

The latest SASA results show that a buzzard was found dead in Grampian in September 2012, confirmed to have been poisoned by the illegal pesticide Carbofuran. We don’t remember seeing any police reports about this incident. Perhaps they kept it quiet so as not to hinder their investigation? Fair enough, but it’s now four months later…Perhaps Grampian Police will report where was it found, and whether anyone is being charged. They probably won’t though; yet another incident being quietly swept under the carpet? We blogged about these poisoning incidents going unreported the last time SASA published their stats (see here).

There were a number of dead buzzards that were submitted to SASA for testing between Jan-Sept 2012, including the satellite-tagged ‘Buzz’, believed to be the first sat-tracked buzzard in Scotland (see here). His last signal came from near Brechin, Angus in late September. His corpse was picked up by the side of the road. Given the location and the on-going history of raptor persecution in the nearby area, his body was submitted for a post-mortem. He hadn’t been poisoned though – SASA concluded that his probable cause of death was starvation. It would have been nice if Tayside Police had provided information about this result, given so many were following his movements on Roy Dennis’ website…

Buzz wasn’t the only buzzard to starve to death. There are four other buzzards listed in the report with the same probable cause of death; strange really, when there are some people who maintain that buzzards are gorging themselves silly on gamebirds.

Interestingly, the dead golden eagle found in suspicious circumstances on Harris in June did not not appear in the SASA results, even though the press reported at the time that poisoning was suspected (see here). Perhaps Northern Constabulary will provide an update on the outcome of this one? Yeah, you’re right, of course they won’t.

Misleading guff from Scottish Land and Estates

scotsman_logo_200The following letter has appeared in The Scotsman in the continuing ‘debate’ on grouse moor management (see here to read the earlier articles).

“Logan Steele’s letter (14 Jan) which alleges that driven grouse shooting is only viable with the persecution of birds of prey, particularly the hen harrier, is misleading.

First, official statistics demonstrate a clear decline in the number of incidents of raptor persecution.

Second land management for driven grouse shooting delivers a huge benefit for other protected wildlife, especially waders, and sustains employment and communities in remote rural areas. This is something the suggested alternative of walked-up grouse-shooting would not do.

Of particular significance is clear evidence that where grouse and hen habitat and vermin management have declined in some hen harrier “special protection areas”, this has actually resulted in lower harrier populations, as well as declines in other species such as waders.

This is a more complex situation than some make out.

The Langholm Moor Demonstration Project, set up in partnership with the government to bring back driven grouse shooting in the presence of sustainable numbers of hen harriers, is where the best hopes of progress on this issue lie.

Results at Langholm so far are that neither harriers nor grouse have recovered – not what anyone expected, but each year scientific understanding improves and practical solution gets closer.

Making progress will involve compromise on all sides.

Organisations representing grouse moor managers such as SLE are fully behind this process and it is unfortunate that RSPB has pulled out of the mediation process in England. Perhaps Scotland provides the best opportunity to make progress now.  Douglas McAdam, Scottish Land & Estates, Musselburgh”

[Link to the letter here].

And he accuses Logan Steele’s letter as being misleading!

First, which “official statistics demonstrate a clear decline in the number of incidents of raptor persecution” is Doug McAdam referring to? The ones we know of only relate to known poisoning incidents, although they are limited to poisoned birds; they do not include the discovery of poisoned baits and nor do they include suspected poisoning incidents or unreported poisoning incidents. More to the point, they do not relate to other types of raptor persecution, such as shooting, trapping, nest destruction, ‘disappearing’ birds etc. The only statistics that account for all types of raptor persecution incidents are those compiled annually by the RSPB; statistics that have never been accepted by SLE or any other game-shooting organisation.

Second, McAdam says “land management for driven grouse shooting delivers a huge benefit for other protected wildlife, especially waders, and sustains employment and communities in remote rural areas“. Another misleading statement. Land managed for driven grouse shooting is not only bad for protected wildlife (golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, hen harriers, goshawks, red kites, buzzards, peregrines, ravens, pine martens, mountain hares etc etc) but it is catastrophic for other species too (foxes, weasels, stoats, crows etc etc). And that’s without even touching on the landscape-level environmental damage.

McAdam goes on to suggest that “making progress will involve compromise on all sides“. No it won’t. Making progress will depend entirely on whether the grouse-shooting industry will accept that they have to work within the law and put an end to illegal persecution. If they do, all well and good. If they won’t, then they face a direct action campaign to ban driven grouse shooting by those of us who are sick of waiting for the government to act on our behalf. Hollow promises just don’t wash anymore. Time’s up.

McAdam’s penultimate sentence is laughable. He’s trying to suggest that the RSPB are the unreasonable ones in this 20+ year saga, for walking away from the six-year long Hen Harrier Dialogue process (see here). They are definitely not the unreasonable ones – they recognised a sham process and got out. Until SLE start to publicly expel their member estates where raptor persecution is rife (and we all know who they are, and so should McAdam – if he doesn’t, he’s in the wrong job), then the credibility of SLE’s involvement in ‘making progress’ will be viewed with as much contempt as it deserves.

“Why does a ‘keeper need an incinerator again?”

scotsman_logo_200The title for this blog entry is taken from a comment written in response to an article in the Scotsman this weekend.

The article, written by Alastair Robertson, is entitled: “Shooting and Fishing: It is relatively easy to whip up antagonism towards grouse moor owners” and discusses the precarious position of England’s hen harrier breeding population. Robertson mentions Mark Avery’s proposed campaign to ban driven grouse shooting if there isn’t a marked improvement in this year’s nesting pairs. Robertson suggests that the campaign would probably be unsuccessful, although he doesn’t write it off completely. He’s smart to not underestimate the public’s growing anger and frustration on this issue. The article can be read here.

There’s a good counter-argument to Robertson’s article, published today on the Scotsman’s letters page. Read it here.

Radio GaGa

bbcradio4120x120Raptors have been the subject of discussion in a couple of BBC Radio 4 programmes over the last two days.

On Sunday (6 January) there’s just under a minute and a half of misinformed information from Clive Aslet, editor-at-large of Country Life magazine. Mr Aslet claims that red kites are “eating up lots of larks“. You can listen here (starts at 56.32, ends at 57.52).

Today (7 January) there was a five minute discussion about hen harriers between Martin Harper, the RSPB’s Conservation Director and Adrian Blackmore, the Countryside Alliance’s Moorlands Director. Neither covered themselves in glory, although Martin Harper’s arguments did get stronger as Adrian Blackmore’s got weaker. It’s a shame that Martin didn’t mention the scientific evidence to support his opinions, particularly the Hen Harrier Conservation Framework. You can listen here (starts at 52.25, ends at 57.30).

Time, and patience, running out for the survival of the hen harrier

Hen harrier being removed from illegal trap on Moy EstateThere’s another article out today about the imminent extinction of breeding hen harriers in England (see here).

None of you will be surprised by its content. It’s the same old opponents, using the same old arguments. How long has this ‘debate’ been going on? At least twenty years and probably longer. What’s changed? Not much. The accusations are the same (grousemoor owners and their gamekeepers are systematically eradicating the hen harrier from the British uplands). The denials are the same (“it’s nothing to do with us”). The one thing that has changed is the number of breeding pairs of hen harriers: just the one, solitary and pitiful breeding pair in England in 2012.

In the latest article, Adrian Blackmore, Moorland Director for the Countryside Alliance, suggests that the decline may be due to the hen harrier’s “susceptibility to bad weather, disturbance, poor habitat and lack of available food“. He clearly hasn’t bothered to read the Hen Harrier Conservation Framework which identifies illegal persecution as the main limiting factor. The game-shooting lobby dismissed this report when it was first published and claimed, amongst other things, that it used data that were now out of date (see here). In response, SNH has agreed to have the report revised to incorporate the 2010 national hen harrier survey data. Another delaying tactic by the game-shooting lobby? Do they seriously expect the report’s conclusions to change, considering the widespread population declines that were uncovered during the 2010 surveys?! Whatever, we’re all looking forward to seeing the revised text, especially as we understand that SNH is asking GWCT to be involved with the revision, that well-known independent scientific body with no axe to grind against hen harriers and no reason to favour the grouse-shooting industry. Ahem.

Meanwhile, back on the moors, how many breeding pairs of hen harriers will be ‘allowed’ to settle this year? And will it be enough to stop the huge and legitimate swell of public anger that may well just lead to a campaign to ban driven grouse shooting (see here)?