Tag: peregrine

Shot peregrine successfully rehabilitated & returned to wild

In March we blogged about the discovery of a shot peregrine that had been found in Hampshire (see here). This was a bird that had hatched from a nest ledge on Salisbury Cathedral in 2014.

Following the shooting in March, the peregrine, ‘Peter’, was taken to the Hawk Conservancy Trust near Andover where he began a period of expert veterinary care and rehabilitation for a fractured wing caused by gunshot.

A few days ago, Peter was successfully released and returned to the wild. Fantastic work by all involved! The full story can be read on the Hawk Conservancy Trust website here.

The photo of Peter being released is by James Fisher.

UPDATE 22 July 2018: Salisbury peregrine ‘Peter’ – shot last year, Dad this year (see here)

Suspected peregrine nest robbery: NWCU appeals for info one year on

The National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) and Cheshire Police are appealing for information about a suspected peregrine nest robbery in May 2016.

The following press release was posted on the NWCU website yesterday:

Peregrine falcons have regularly nested on property owned by Railtrack at Dutton Viaduct in Cheshire.  However, nesting attempts have failed for 9 successive years.  Human interference has been suspected on a number of occasions.

Overnight 1st to the 2nd May 2016 (please note this is 2016) the nest failed.  On this occasion, the images of three men were captured on a trail camera that had been placed on land owned by Railtrack near to the nest.  In the early hours of the morning of 2nd May 2016 the three men were pictured heading up towards the nest site.  A short time later the same men triggered the camera as they headed back down the same route.

There is no public right of access and there seems no legitimate reason why these men should be at the location.

Cheshire Police and the National Wildlife Crime Unit would like to speak to the men shown in the images below in order to ascertain whether they have any information relating to the failure of the nest.

 

Peregrine falcons, their nests and eggs receive the highest level of protection and it is an offence to take, kill or injure the bird, take or possess their eggs or to disturb them whilst they are in or near a nest containing eggs or dependent young.

Anybody with any information should contact the Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

ENDS

It’s not clear why there has been an interval of one year before this appeal for information was made.

This case, along with the theft of gull eggs from Poole Harbour, featured on yesterday’s edition of Countryfile (available on iPlayer for the next 29 days here). The use of covert camera surveillance on raptor nests was mentioned as “a vital tool” in catching egg thieves red-handed.

They didn’t mention that camera surveillance was also pretty good for catching raptor killers red-handed, but if the footage was filmed on land being used for game bird shooting then every legal obstacle possible would be put in the way of it being used as evidence in court. Funny that.

Three dead peregrines in Forest of Dean

In March 2017, news emerged of two dead peregrine falcons that had been found dead near the Devil’s Pulpit in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. We didn’t blog about these birds as we were waiting for the Police to publish the findings of a post mortem examination. We are still awaiting those results.

However, yesterday Gloucestershire Constabulary issued another statement about a third dead peregrine found in the same area on 15 April 2017:

Three dead peregrines found in the same area within a month sounds pretty suspicious, especially as there has been a spate of confirmed peregrine persecution incidents in England over the last few months (see here for recent RSPB Investigations blog on these crimes).

Let’s hope the post mortem results on the Gloucestershire peregrines are completed and published without any further delay.

Peregrine photo by Megan Lorenz

Peregrine found shot in Devon

News of yet another shot peregrine, this time in Devon.

The female bird was found on 6 March 2017 next to Milton Abbot primary school in Tavistock. She was taken to a vet where an x-ray revealed a piece of shot lodged in her right shoulder (x-ray & photo courtesy Westmoor Veterinary Hospital, Tavistock).

The peregrine is currently being cared for by a local falconer.

Further details of this incident, and several other shot peregrines that have been found this year, on the RSPB’s Investigations Team blog here

Peregrine found shot in Hampshire

The RSPB’s investigations team is reporting the discovery of a shot peregrine in Hampshire.

The bird, which hatched on Salisbury Cathedral in 2014, was found in King Somborne, Hants, on 11 March 2017, unable to fly.

It was taken to the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Andover where an x-ray revealed it had a fractured wing with gunshot fragments lodged next to the fracture site.

The peregrine is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the Hawk Conservancy Trust.

For further details see the RSPB Investigations Team blog here, which also lists some of the other peregrines that have been found so far this year, either shot or found dead in suspicious circumstances.

Meanwhile, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has joined forces with the Northern Ireland Raptor Study Group to proactively protect peregrine breeding sites throughout the region. Real partnership working – good for them. More information can be found on the NIRSG website here.

UPDATE 25 May 2017: Shot peregrine successfully rehabilitated and returned to the wild by Hawk Conservancy Trust (see here).

UPDATE 22 July 2018: Salisbury peregrine ‘Peter’ – shot last year, Dad this year (here)

Dead peregrine in Cumbria: x-ray reveals historical lead shot fragments

Cumbria Constabulary have launched an investigation after the discovery of a dead peregrine, according to the Westmorland Gazette.

The bird was found by walkers on a public footpath in Bove Wood, Newbiggin but the article doesn’t say when the corpse was found.

The peregrine was submitted for a post mortem and although the cause of death couldn’t be established, an x-ray revealed the bird was carrying three fragments of lead shot, thought to be historical.

PC Sarah Rolland said: “It is quite apparent that the peregrine recovered from Newbiggin had been shot at some stage in its life. However, the post mortem indicates the fragments of shot may be historic and were not the direct cause of its death. It is therefore difficult to establish when or where the bird was shot“.

As an aside, it’s interesting that Cumbria police accept that the x-ray clearly shows the peregrine had been shot, and yet an equally clear x-ray of hen harrier Rowan’s leg, containing metal shot fragments, wasn’t deemed to be clear and only resulted in the Cumbria police statement, ‘Rowan was likely to have been shot‘. Fascinating.

Scarecrow placed at peregrine breeding site on Northumberland grouse moor

An interesting case highlighted in the latest edition of the RSPB’s Legal Eagle newsletter:

Notorious egg thief on the run

jeffrey-lendrumJeffrey Lendrum, a notorious international falcon egg thief, has gone on the run in Brazil and there are fears he may well turn up back in the UK this year to go after peregrine eggs.

In January 2016 Lendrum, 55, was sentenced to four and a half years in jail after being convicted of being in possession of rare falcon eggs at Sao Paulo airport, enroute from Chile to Dubai (see here). However, he had recently appealed his sentence and the Brazilian authorities released him on bail pending his appeal.

He has since disappeared.

Lendrum has a string of previous convictions for falcon egg smuggling, dating back as far as 1984 in Zimbabwe. In 2002 he was arrested in Canada for stealing peregrine and gyrfalcon eggs. In 2010 he was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment in the UK (reduced to 18 months on appeal) after being caught with 14 peregrine eggs at Birmingham Airport. He’d stolen them from nests in south Wales and was enroute to Dubai (see here).

If you’re involved with monitoring peregrine sites in the UK, keep an eye out for this face.

Deja vu

Yesterday we published a map. It showed part of the East Arkengarthdale Estate in North Yorkshire where an illegal cache of poisons had been discovered in 2014. Here’s the map again:

shaw-farm-map

Did anyone else get a sense of deja vu when looking at that map? Have a look at that forest block at the top of the map. That’s Stang Forest and it’s got quite a distinctive shape.

Now have a look at this map, which we published a year ago in December 2015:

stang-forest-copy

Why did we publish this map last year? Well, it was to illustrate an area where a peregrine had been found shot dead on 23 August 2015 ‘on the south east edge of Stang Forest’.

An interesting area, eh?

Stang Forest shot perg - Copy

‘Giant buzzards’ eating dogs, warns Tipperary newspaper

The following article was headline news last week in the Tipperary Star, a local rag in the Irish Republic:

ATTACKING BUZZARDS TARGET TERRIERS

By Noel Dundon

A call to have the protection orders on buzzards lifted has been made following a number of incidents in which the birds of prey have taken terriers and other animals in deadly swoops through mid Tipperary.

Buzzards are causing major problems in the mid-Tipperary area at the present time with a number of terriers having been taken, leading to a call for protection orders to be lifted.

Two families have been left in distress after their dogs were preyed upon and killed by giant buzzards in the Templetuochy area where hares, rabbits, cats and other small animals have also been taken.

However, it has also been revealed that are birds of prey circling overhead Deputy Michael Lowry in Glenreigh, Holycross, while Moyaliffe, Drombane, Inch, Clonmore and Castleiney are also areas where buzzards have been spotted on the attack.

There is one report of a Yorkshire terrier having been attacked, but survived and was patched up by a veterinary surgeon, only to be attacked again and killed a short time later – all by the same buzzard which can have a wingspan of up to three feet with very powerful and strong claws used to take prey.

Forested areas which afford cover are the best hunting ground for buzzards and dog and cat owners are being advised to be on the watch out for their pets which could be taken at the blink of an eye.

There are also concerns that with the increase in buzzards, the spring lambing season after Christmas could be an ideal hunting ground for them – but a very costly one for sheep owners.

ENDS

The online version of the article was illustrated with this photograph, entitled ‘A buzzard on the rampage’.

Is this ‘journalist’ having a laugh? Since when did ‘giant buzzards’ (or even normal-sized buzzards) start killing dogs, and since when did the sight of soaring buzzards above a politician’s head become a cause for alarm?

This type of sensationalist, ignorant, scare-mongering would be funny if it didn’t have consequences. Unfortunately, this baseless demonisation of birds of prey does have consequences, and serious ones at that. As we see all too often, there are still people clinging on to 19th Century attitudes who think that raptors are ‘vermin’ and should be destroyed. Articles like this one above will only fuel their prejudice and lead to the illegal persecution of these birds.

Tipperary is no stranger to raptor persecution – in the last few years the following crimes have been recorded:

July 2015: shot buzzard

May 2014: poisoned peregrine

January 2014: shot white-tailed eagle

July 2013: shot peregrine

June 2013: shot peregrine

June 2013: shot peregrine

Raptor persecution is a serious issue in Ireland, and the latest official report shows the trend is pointing upwards with 35 confirmed persecution incidents in 2015 – the highest number since recording began in 2011 (see here).

We’d encourage strong (but polite) words of complaint to the Tipperary Star:

Email journalist Noel Dundon: nd@tipperarystar.ie

Email editor Anne O’Grady: aog@tipperarystar.ie

UPDATE 6/12/2016: BirdWatch Ireland has issued a strong statement in response to the Tipperary Star (see here).