Tag: poisoning

Confirmed – poisoned red kite was found in September

Further to the last blog entry (here), the RSPB has now issued a press release about the poisoned red kite:

Journey’s end as red kite is found poisoned

Police are appealing for information after one of North Scotland’s most adventurous red kites was found poisoned in Ayrshire.

Shortly after fledging on the Black Isle this summer, the young bird surprised RSPB Scotland staff by immediately flying two hundred miles in just a few days.

A satellite transmitter fitted to its back, made it possible to chart the young bird’s journey down the west coast of Scotland. However, staff became concerned in September when transmissions in the Muirkirk area showed the bird had remained in the same place for several days.

It was later discovered dead close to the Muirkirk and North Lowther Hills Special Protection Area (SPA), an area of moorland that receives special legal protection because of its breeding bird of prey population.

Subsequent tests by the SASA government laboratory showed it had been poisoned by a banned pesticide.

RSPB Scotland Investigations Officer Ian Thomson said “The poisoning of this red kite is just the latest incident of bird of prey persecution in and around the SPA. Every year, breeding hen harriers and peregrines ‘disappear’ with further evidence of human interference causing nest failures. The populations of both species are declining alarmingly in this area. Only a few years ago there were 21 pairs of hen harriers in the SPA; now we are down to a mere handful”.

Enquiries by the police are continuing. Anyone with further information regarding this incident is urged to contact Strathclyde Police on 0141 532 2000, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

We understand the poisoned red kite was this one (see here).

Interesting. I wonder if this is the same red kite reported in the incident in November (see here)? Although that publicity said a kite had been found in the Lowther Hills in Dumfries & Galloway, not Ayrshire. Maybe two kites have been poisoned in this area? It’s hard to tell with this level of undetailed information and delayed reporting.

The chances of catching anyone now? A big fat zero. Never mind, the way this industry continues to flout the law,  it won’t be long before mandatory estate licensing is forced upon them.

Red kite found poisoned in Ayrshire

News is coming in that a satellite-tagged red kite from Northern Scotland has been found dead in Ayrshire. Lab tests done by SASA have reportedly shown that this young bird was poisoned by an illegal pesticide. 

We are led to believe this kite was discovered in September. If this turns out to be an accurate report, questions need to be asked about the delayed reporting.

More on this when details have been confirmed…

UPDATE: this has now been confirmed (see here)

New book published on carbofuran & wildlife poisoning

A definitive reference book was published last month that provides a comprehensive guide to the use of the pesticide Carbofuran and its role in wildlife poisoning.

Written by a series of international contributors, this book includes detailed studies of how Carbofuran is made and applied, its acute toxicity to wildlife, how much and how long it takes to poison an animal, analytical methods of detection and strategies being implemented to prevent its use. It also contains a series of global case studies from Africa, India, Europe, Latin America, Canada and the United States. One chapter is devoted to the [illegal] use of Carbofuran to poison raptors in Scotland: ‘The effect of carbofuran poisoning and other illegal persecution methods on raptor populations in Scotland‘ (Ruth Tingay); ‘A landowner’s perspective on wildlife poisoning in Scotland’ (Douglas McAdam); ‘Monitoring carbofuran abuse in Scotland’ (Michael Taylor).

CARBOFURAN AND WILDLIFE POISONING: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES AND FORENSIC APPROACHES. (2011). Editor: Ngaio Richards. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK.

ISBN 978-0-470-74523-6 (hardback)

From the publisher:

This cutting-edge title is one of the first devoted entirely to the issue of carbofuran and wildlife mortality. It features a compilation of international contributions from policy-makers, researchers, conservationists and forensic practitioners and provides a summary of the history and mode of action of carbofuran, and its current global use. It covers wildlife mortality stemming from legal and illegal uses to this point, outlines wildlife rehabilitation, forensic and conservation approaches, and discuss global trends in responding to the wildlife mortality.

The subject of carbofuran is very timely because of recent parallel discussions to withdraw and reinstate the insecticide in different parts of the world. Incidences of intentional and unintentional wildlife poisonings using carbofuran are undeniably on the rise, especially in Africa and India and gatherings of stakeholders are being organized and convened on a global basis. There is still a need to consolidate information on the different experiences and approaches taken by stakeholders. Carbofuran and Wildlife Poisoning is a comprehensive overview of global wildlife mortality, forensic developments and monitoring techniques and is a definitive reference on the subject.

It comprises of historical and current perspectives, contributions from key stakeholders in the issue of global wildlife poisonings with carbofuran, people on the ground who deal with the immediate and long-term ramifications to wildlife, those who have proposed or are working towards mitigative measures and solutions, those in contact with intentional or unintentional ‘offenders’, those who have adapted and developed forensic methodology and are gathering evidence.

Introduction and Table of Contents available here

Man charged in relation to red kite deaths in Cumbria

Further to the blog post in July 2011 about the arrest of a man in connection to the investigation of poisoned and shot red kites in Cumbria (see here), Cumbria Constabulary has today announced that a man has been charged.

Allan Armistead (74), of Oxen Park, Ulverston, has been charged with five offences under the Firearms Act and ten offences under the Control of Pesticides and Food and Environmental Protection Acts.

Armistead is due to appear at Furness and District magistrates court next Tuesday (6 December 2011).

Congratulations to Cumbria Constabulary for securing enough evidence to get the case to court, and for keeping the public updated.

Cumbria Constabulary press release here

BBC news story here

Convicted poisoner (gamekeeper) is a member of SGA

There’ll be some red faces at the SGA today. After all the proclamations of Alex Hogg, Chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, who is on record as saying, “Professional gamekeepers do not poison raptors” (see here), it turns out that the gamekeeper David Alexander Whitefield, who today was convicted of poisoning four buzzards (see here), is a member of the SGA!!

The SGA has issued a statement after today’s conviction, that says Whitefield’s membership will be suspended with immediate effect (see here). This is welcome, if belated, news. But why wasn’t his membership terminated after his earlier conviction for wildlife offences in 2008? Or is membership only terminated after a conviction for poisoning, as opposed to other types of wildlife crime?

Previously convicted gamekeeper guilty again

A previously convicted gamekeeper has today admitted to poisoning four buzzards with Alpha-chloralose laced baits. At Lanark Sheriff Court, David Alexander Whitefield (45) of Coulter, near Biggar in Lanarkshire, pled guilty to the offences that took place between March and November 2009 at Culter Allers Farm, near Biggar, where Whitefield was employed as the sole gamekeeper for pheasant and partridge shooting. He has reportedly blamed his employer (the landowner), whom Whitefield claims told him to reduce the number of buzzards.

In addition to the four poisoned buzzards found on the shooting estate, a large quantity of Alpha-chloralose was found inside unlocked outbuildings, some of it inside a coffee jar – this extremely hazardous poison could have easily been mistaken for sugar or powdered milk by an unsuspecting visitor. Culter Allers is a popular area for walkers and it is fortunate indeed that no person or pet was poisoned. The buzzards were not so lucky.

This case has been in the works for some time, first reported a year ago and then delayed for legal technicalities (see here, here and here). Sentencing for his latest conviction has been deferred for background reports and will take place in early January. We will watch with great interest.

Whitefield’s previous convictions include failing to ensure the welfare of a buzzard and possession of a buzzard. These offences took place at Culter Allers and he was convicted at Lanark Sheriff Court in September 2008. He received a pathetic £300 fine (see here). Just six months later he was poisoning buzzards. At the time of the first conviction (Sept 2008), he was reported to be a self-confessed member of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association. It is not known if he was a member of the SGA at the time of the buzzard poisoning incidents (March-Nov 2009) or whether he is still a member – you can find out by emailing info@scottishgamekeepers.co.uk

Congratulations to the SSPCA for leading this case and for securing a conviction. Let’s hope the Scottish parliament takes heed next year when they’re consulting on extending the powers of the SSPCA for the investigation of wildlife crime.

STV news story about Whitefield’s latest conviction here

BBC news story here

Tagged harrier from Langholm mysteriously ‘disappears’

Earlier this month, Environment Minister Stewart Stevenson MSP visited the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project in the Borders. The Langholm Project is an expensive, ten-year project aimed at demonstrating that hen harriers can co-exist with driven grouse shooting. The project is run as a partnership between SNH, Buccleuch Estates, RSPB, GWCT and Natural England. As part of the project, young hen harriers are being fitted with satellite tags to monitor their dispersal movements away from the moor.

The Environment Minister’s visit to Langholm was well publicised with an SNH press release (see here). In this press release, the Minister is quoted as saying: “…it was fascinating to learn that harriers that have been tagged at Langholm are being satellite tracked as far afield as France and Spain”.

Yes, that is fascinating, but of even greater interest is what has happened to the harriers that stayed behind in the UK?

According to the most recent diary entry on the project’s website (October 2011 – see here) written by the Langholm Project’s head gamekeeper, Simon Lester, one of this year’s young harriers has ‘disappeared’ –

“There is good and bad news as far as our satellite-tagged hen harriers are concerned. The ever-intrepid McPedro is certainly heading to France, across the channel from Devon. The sad news is that the hen that hatched in the nest just behind our house — and that I fed for some 60 days — has disappeared in the Moorfoots, having survived well in a relatively small range. The last ‘fix’ (or GPS position transmitted by its satellite tag) was on a shooting estate that co-operated fully when Project staff and the police tried, unsuccessfully, to recover the missing bird. Unfortunately, this bird’s particular satellite tag does not have a ‘ground track’ facility, so it may well have ended up miles away from the last transmitted ‘fix’, as, contrary to popular belief, birds can travel a vast distance in between transmissions. This latest loss is very sad, not just for the Project and our hope that more hen harriers will return to breed here, but is not helpful in our quest to help resolve the on-going raptor/grouse-shooting debate, either“.

Now, this is a fairly one-sided commentary of what might have happened to this young harrier. What Lester failed to mention was that the sporting estate where the harrier’s last known GPS ‘fix’ came from was an estate in the Scottish Borders with a well-documented history of alleged raptor persecution. This particular estate has been the subject of two police raids in the last few years. Illegal pesticides, poisoned baits and poisoned and shot raptors have all reportedly been retrieved from this estate. Apparently, no prosecutions for alleged raptor persecution crime resulted from either raid.

Lester is quite right to point out that just because the last known GPS ‘fix’ of the harrier was on this estate, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the harrier died there. As he says, the harrier could have moved off the estate before the next satellite signal was due, and could have died elsewhere – although if that had happened, why wasn’t there another ‘fix’ from the new location? The transmitter doesn’t die when the bird dies. For all we know though, the bird may not even be dead. It’s possible that the satellite transmitter failed, by coincidence, when the bird was on this estate, and the harrier has since moved away and is alive and well in an unknown location. But there is another plausible explanation too, and one that Lester conveniently chose not to include in his report. That is, this harrier could have been killed illegally on this particular estate, and its body hidden/buried/burnt before the Langholm Project staff arrived to search for it. It’s worth pointing out here that the Langholm Project policy, when searching for missing birds, is to look at the bird’s last known GPS ‘fix’, identify the landowner, and ask for that landowner’s permission before the project staff go searching for the bird, thus giving advance warning of the search.

Why Lester chose not to include this alternative possible explanation in his report about the disappearance of the harrier is not clear. It would seem that the suspicion of foul play had been considered by the project team, given that a wildlife crime police officer accompanied the team to search for the missing bird on this estate. We will wait with interest for the Langholm Project’s formal 2011 annual report to see what information is provided about this particular disappearing harrier, and about all the other tagged harriers from 2010 and 2011. So far, very limited information has been made available about the fate of the six tagged harriers, with the exception of the famed ‘McPedro’, who wisely took off to Spain in his first summer, returned to the UK this spring, and then took off south again this autumn. Given the amount of public funding that is being ploughed into the Langholm Project, a bit more transparency about the fate of some of the other young harriers wouldn’t go amiss.

Langholm Moor Demonstration Project website here

Millden Estate no longer for sale

An article in today’s Telegraph reports that Millden Estate, where golden eagle ‘Alma’ was found poisoned in 2009, is no longer up for sale. The estate, owned by investment banker Richard Hanson, was reportedly put on the market earlier this year (see here and here). According to the Telegraph, Hanson has now changed his mind after more than 5,000 brace of grouse (10,000 birds) were shot there this season.

Police raided Millden Estate in 2009 after two-year old golden eagle ‘Alma’ was found poisoned on the moor. Nobody has ever been charged with killing her (see here).

According to the Telegraph, Millden Estate and the neighbouring properties ‘vehemently deny being involved in illegal persecution’. It’s interesting then, that a grouse moor that operates (we’re told) without illegally killing raptors, can produce a surplus of over 10,000 grouse to shoot. Surely that suggests that raptors are not having a ‘significant impact’ on gamebirds and therefore licences to kill raptors on grouse moors are not neccesary?

Telegraph article here

Things to do list #2

In the November 2011 edition of Birdwatch magazine, Mark Avery calls for our views about hen harriers and grouse moors. He says that if we send our views to the Birdwatch editor, they’ll be summarised and sent to a range of organisations including the Moorland Association, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the RSPB and the Scottish Raptor Study Groups.

Is there any value in doing this? Do you think the anti-harrier brigade will pay any attention to our views? Why would they? It’s been illegal to kill harriers since 1954 – this hasn’t stopped anyone doing it, and has pushed harriers to the very brink of extinction as a breeding bird in England, and severely depleted their numbers in parts of Scotland, so why would the harrier killers stop now?

The alternative is to do nothing, giving the grouse-shooting fraternity the chance to use our silence as an indication that we simply don’t care. We can’t let that happen, can we?

In Avery’s Birdwatch article, he writes a small piece about the harrier problem, but given the limited page space he can’t explain the problem in detail. He then offers three possible options on how to deal with the harrier/grouse issue, and asks readers to comment on them, or alternatively, suggest other options. Avery’s three options are paraphrased here:

A: Just forget it. Conservationists are fighting a losing battle and should turn their attention to more important issues.

B: Keep up the fight and keep publicising illegal persecution because if we lose the harrier, other species will surely follow. Keep talking to the ‘good guys’ in shooting who also want to see an end to harrier persecution.

C: Forget about trying to work with grouse shooters – they’ve had their chance to put their house in order and have failed miserably. Instead, lobby for an outright ban on grouse shooting.

If you want to comment on the issue, email your views to: editorial@birdwatch.co.uk. You’ll need to write before the end of November.

If you want some detailed background reading on the issue, we recommend reading Avery’s earlier articles about the harrier-grouse problem that he’s written on his personal blog (see here), and some of our earlier blog posts on harriers (see here, here, here, here, here, and here).

To subscribe to Birdwatch magazine online, click here.

It’s oh so quiet

Is it just us, or is anyone else curious about the deafening silence of landowner and gamekeeper organisations following last week’s report about the discovery of poisoned bait on Glenlochy Estate (see here)?

For two organisations (Scottish Land and Estates and Scottish Gamekeepers Association) who have been making (welcome) press statements about their condemnation of criminal raptor persecution, and their desire to ‘stamp it out’ of their industry, it seems a bit of a missed opportunity. We wonder whether Glenlochy Estate is a member of the SLE? We wonder whether any Glenlochy Estate gamekeepers are members of the SGA? We don’t know, because neither group publishes their membership lists for public scrutiny. And to be fair, neither group is obliged to publish that information, but you’d think that in light of the recent discovery, which isn’t the first for this particular area (see here), these groups would want to grab every opportunity available to publicly distance themselves from what appears to be another incident of alleged wildlife crime on a Scottish sporting estate. Wouldn’t you?