Tag: red kite

Cumbrian man ‘not in any way connected to red kite deaths’ has outstanding charges discontinued

Following the blog posts on 6 December 2011 (see here) and 8 January 2012 (see here), Cumbrian farmer Allan Armistead, who was found guilty in December 2011 of ten pesticide and firearms offences, has today had the three remaining charges against him discontinued.

At Furness and Barrow magistrates court today, Armistead was due to be given a date for his trial to continue at crown court. The charges he faced concerned the alleged storing of pesticide sodium cyanide, storing strychnine hydrochloride, and storing lead arsenate. He had denied all three charges. The reason for the discontinuation has not been given.

It was reported by Cumbria Police that Armistead, 74, of Hulleter Farm in Oxen Park, Ulverston, Cumbria, was originally charged with pesticide and firearms offences following their investigation into the illegal killing of several red kites in the area (see here). However, during his sentencing at Preston Crown Court on 6 January 2012 (for pesticide and firearms offences), it was accepted by the court that there was no evidence that Armistead was in any way connected to the deaths of the red kites. He was fined £7,000, plus £2,300 costs, and ordered to carry out 140 hours of unpaid work for the seven pesticide and three firearms offences. It was also reported that he lost his firearms and shotgun licence.

As far as we are aware, nobody has been charged with the deaths of the red kites.

Poisoned red kite is ninth to die in County Wicklow, Ireland

The Belfast Telegraph is reporting that another red kite has been confirmed illegally poisoned – the ninth kite to be killed this way in County Wicklow, Ireland. According to the report, the breeding female (known as Blue Purple G – her wing tag code) was found by Brittas Bay late last year.

She was one of the first young red kites to have been released in Ireland in 2007 as part of the Golden Eagle Trust’s reintroduction programme. She is known to have found a mate and had successfully raised three young at her nest site. She is the third red kite to have been poisoned by Alphachloralose in the last five months.

Belfast Telegraph news report here

Golden Eagle Trust website here

Cumbrian man ‘not in any way connected’ to red kite deaths

Following the blog post on 6 December 2011 (see here), Cumbrian man Allan Armistead appeared at Preston Crown Court on 6 January 2012. Here is what was reported by the ‘In-Cumbria’ newsletter:

AN investigation into the suspected poisoning and shooting of red kites led to the discovery of breaches of regulations dealing with pesticides and firearms at a farm.

But it was accepted at Preston Crown Court yesterday there was no evidence 74-year-old Allan Armistead was in any way connected with the deaths of the birds.

The pensioner, who lives at Hulleter Farm in Oxen Park, Ulverston, was fined £7,000 and ordered to carry out 140 hours’ unpaid work.

He admitted seven offences in relation to pesticides, plus three other firearm-related offences.

The court heard a search warrant was executed at the farm last July.

Chemicals were found, most of which were unlawful to possess, due to regulations which had come in more than 10 years ago. Some of the pesticides were 60 years old.

Two rusting tins had a chemical capable of producing cyanide gas on contact with air or water. When one of them was open in safe lab conditions, some of that gas had already been produced.

Mr Brett Gerrity, prosecuting, said the finding of those tins had resulted in wildlife officers having to wear full face masks.

Other pesticides were also found. Among them was a bag containing bottles of crystallised hydrochloride strychnine. There was also a bottle of strychnine hydrochloride – a highly toxic poison used for controlling moles.

It was also found Armistead had his late father’s Home Guard rifle without authorisation, had more ammunition than he was allowed and had not disclosed he had at least three other guns. Mr Christopher Evans, defending, said the pensioner was genuinely remorseful. The chemicals had previously been legally held for many years before new regulations came in.

He said Armistead had lived at the farm since he was born. He had worked there all his life, following in his father’s footsteps, and works seven days a week.

His father’s old rifle had been kept for sentimental value.

Judge Graham Knowles QC cancelled the firearms certificate and shotgun licence that Armistead had held.

He told him: “You dealt with the guns and the ammunition and the pesticides as though the law didn’t apply to you, or didn’t matter.”

Armistead was also told to pay a total of £2,300 costs, plus a £15 surcharge.

Eight red kites found poisoned in Ireland since November

We have been asked by the Golden Eagle Trust (Ireland) to publish the following press release:

“The Irish Red Kite Reintroduction Project is part of an all-Ireland effort to restore red kites. These attractive birds were extinct in Ireland for about 200 years. The Golden Eagle Trust, National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Welsh Kite Trust have collected (from Wales) and released 120 red kites in Co. Wicklow between 2007 and 2011 and 39 red kites in Co. Dublin in 2011. The RSPB released 80 red kites in Co. Down between 2008 and 2010. There are now 10-15 pairs of red kites breeding in Co. Wicklow and 5-6 pairs breeding in Co. Down.

Following the successful release of red kites during the summer in Dublin and Wicklow, it is with disappointment that we report further recent kite deaths in Fingal. Since the release in July, this year, a total of eight (8) kites have now been recovered dead in Fingal since November.

The deaths include the satellite tagged kite known as ‘@’ which has flown as far as Co. Mayo on its travels and within a few weeks of returning to Fingal was found dead near Lusk.

Ms Phil Moore, from the Fingal LEADER Partnership expressed sadness saying ‘We just can’t believe ‘our baby’ is dead. We have all been following the satellite tagged kite since her release and have pictures all over the office of her journey; it is upsetting to know she is now dead’. 

There were 39 red kites, collected for Fingal under licence fromWales with project partners, the Welsh Kite Trust. The Fingal Red Kite release programme is part of the final and fifth year of an ambitious project to re-establish red kites in Ireland. The deaths represent just over 20% of the red kites released in the Fingal area.

The Golden Eagle Trust is managing the project, which is funded by Fingal LEADER Partnership through the Rural Development Programme 2007 – 2013 and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Fingal County Council, at Newbridge Demesne, and a private landowner hosted and facilitated the two separate release cages.

The project is widely supported throughout local communities, a suite of volunteers and landowners. There were over 100 people involved in cage building, collections, feeding and subsequent monitoring of the released kites.

Each kite is fitted with a radio tag which has allowed the project team to follow the kites’ movements since release. Whilst these tags allow us to track their daily movements they have also led us to find the dead birds.

Dr Marc Ruddock, Red Kite Project Manager, said ‘There is nothing more heart-breaking than having to pick up the carcass of bird and putting it in a bag for post-mortem after having followed its development from a small, downy chick collected in Wales and then watching it flying free in Fingal’.

Earlier this year, a post-mortem protocol was agreed between NPWS, Department of Agriculture and the State Laboratory. Each of the red kite carcasses has been sent for testing at Backweston Campus, to establish the cause of death. This process and the rigorous work undertaken is fundamental to the growing understanding of environmental issues and the threats posed to kites and other wildlife. 

It has now been confirmed that at least four of the kites contained the second-generation rodenticide, brodifacoum. This is an anti-coagulant rat poison usually recommended for indoor use only, which causes internal bleeding. It is widely recognised that rodenticides can kill non-target species.

Dietary analysis of the red kites, both in Wicklow and Dublin has shown that they are clearly hunting and scavenging rats, providing a natural control on rodent populations. The red kite is a specialist scavenger and is therefore likely to be at high risk of secondary poisoning if feeding on rats which are dead or dying from rodenticides.

We recognise the requirement for rat and mice control in terms of human health and food safety. But we urge amateur and professional users alike to ensure that rodent control programs are carefully planned and follow a defined treatment period to be effective.

The over-use of some chemicals could lead to resistance and accumulation in the environment. Those in the countryside should ensure best practice use of these chemicals to allow for more effective rodent control in the long-term and minimise the secondary poisoning risk to non-target wildlife. This includes other rodent-eating native raptors and owls such as kestrels, buzzards, barn owls, long-eared owls and red kites.

Best practice rodent eradication strategies record information such as the quantity and location of all baits and require baits to be regularly inspected and not left exposed to non-target animals and birds. Furthermore, dead rodents should be collected and disposed of safely and baits should be removed at the end of the treatment. Urban and rural rodenticide users are urged to be mindful of the potential environmental effects of the use of chemicals.

The farming and shooting communities in Fingal are very supportive of the project and are anxious to continue to control rats and mice effectively and minimise unintentional consequences for natural rat predators”. -END-

The substance used to kill the other four kites that have been discovered since November has yet to be confirmed – toxicology tests are on-going. It’s possible they were also unintentionally killed by secondary rat poison, but it’s equally possible that they have been deliberately (and illegally) killed by other poisons. For example, at the beginning of November 2011, it was reported that a red kite and a buzzard had been illegally poisoned in County Wicklow by alphachloralose (see here). In addition, a map produced by the Golden Eagle Trust in 2010 (see figure) shows the extent of illegal poisoning across Ireland (the map does not include instances of unintentional secondary rat poisoning). Species affected include red kites, golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, buzzards and peregrines, killed with alphachloralose or carbofuran.

Golden Eagle Trust website here

Repeat after me: there are too many raptors

I looked for Kim Jong-il’s name listed on the editorial board of Modern Gamekeeping and was surprised not to find it nestled between the names of Peter Carr and James Marchington. I thought he might have been a guest editor in the final weeks before his death. It seems a reasonable explanation for what looks to be obviously editorial-led comments from their four guest gamekeepers in the January issue.

Each month, Modern Gamekeeping invites guest keepers from across Britain to comment about what has kept them busy during the previous month. In the latest issue, keepers from Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and North Yorkshire all discuss suspiciously similar topics – Is it a coincidence that three of the four keepers mention ‘fox-dumping’ in their articles (a subject prominently covered on the front page of this month’s Modern Gamekeeping), even though all of them admit it’s not a current problem for them? As it seems to have absolutely nothing to do with what has kept them busy during December, why would three of the four keepers mention it at all, unless they’d been ‘influenced’ by the editorial team?

Predictably, all four of the keepers also write about what they perceive to be ‘the raptor problem’. Is this also a coincidence, or have they taken direction from the editorial staff, given that the magazine’s January editorial is all about how raptors need to be [legally] culled (see here)?

Here’s what the keepers had to say about ‘the raptor problem’:

Keeper on Ashby St Ledgers shoot: “The vermin haven’t really been a problem as we stay on top of them, but the buzzards and sparrowhawks are getting out of hand, they’re everywhere, and are a real worry“.

Keeper on Ozleworth Park: “We have a lot of buzzards that give us some problems early on in the season when birds go to pen. They are also sometimes a bother when we want to move pheasants across the valley when they show themselves and the birds flush the wrong way. Thankfully we don’t get goshawks very often, and when we do they seem to move on quickly, which is good as they could be a real problem“.

Keeper on Shortwood Estate: “Sparrowhawks and buzzards are out of control. Eight years ago you were lucky to see a pair of buzzards round here, now it’s a bad day if you don’t see five circling over your woods. There are far too many, and we also had a pair of goshawks this year that have caused me no end of trouble with the partridges“.

Keeper on Spaunton Moor: “The biggest threat to game management has to be increasing numbers of birds of prey. The North York Moors in particular have massive blocks of forestry and unkeepered farmland, and every week we’re seeing more and more of every raptor species. What people forget is that 20 years ago, there wasn’t a buzzard, red kite or goshawk up here. Now there are plenty of all of them, and they’ve got to eat something. So the biggest threat, I think, is the increasing number of birds of prey and not being able to address that increase“.

Perhaps I’m being unfair. Perhaps these keepers have not been indoctrinated at all and they all genuinely believe that raptors in their areas are ‘out of control’. Although if that’s the case, their claims are difficult to understand given that they also all wrote about how well their seasons have gone this year!! So, either keepers have been illegally killing raptors to get the fantastic bags that have been reported this year, or, raptors don’t actually have such a high impact on bags as the shooting industry would have us believe. If we believe certain organisations, it’s ‘only a few rogues’ that illegally kill raptors, so logically then, the latter explanation must be accurate. Therefore, there’s no need for licences to be issued to legally cull raptors. Sorted.

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)

Prolific egg thief jailed for fourth time

One of the UK’s most prolific wild bird egg thieves has today been sent back to jail for what is reportedly his fourth jail term for similar offences.

This time, Matthew Gonshaw (49) from London, was caught with almost 700 wild bird eggs and egg-collecting paraphenalia at his house, including eggs from Scottish golden eagles and ospreys, as well as peregrines and red kites.

At Thames Magistrates Court, Gonshaw admitted ten offences under the Wildlife & Countryside Act, including two counts of taking golden eagle eggs from sites on the Isle of Lewis in April 2010. He was sentenced to six months in prison.

Gonshaw will re-appear in court in February to find out if he will be subject to an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO), which would see him face a £20,000 fine and five years in jail if he commits more crimes.

Well done to the RSPB, Metropolitan Police and the CPS for a successful conviction.

BBC News article here

STV article here

Good photographs in Daily Mail article here

Cumbrian man in red kite investigation guilty of firearm & pesticide offences

Further to the blog post last week (see here), Allan Armistead appeared at Furness & District magistrates court today, charged with a string of offences relating to illegal pesticide storage and firearms offences.

He pled guilty to the following charges:

Possession of a firearm (believed to be a rifle) without a certificate

Storing the pesticide Cymag

Storing the pesticide Sodium Cyanide

Storing Strychnine Hydrochloride

Storing Degesch Phostoxin

Storing Aluminium Phosphide

Storing Phosdrin + Phosdrin 24

Storing Lindex with HCH seed dressing

Possessing firearm ammunition

Failing to disclose possession of ownership of 3 x 12 bore side by side shotguns.

Armistead (74), of Hulleter Farm, Oxen Park, Ulverston, Cumbria, will appear at Lancaster Crown Court on 6 January 2012 for sentencing.

Three charges against Armistead were withdrawn, relating to the possession of shotguns without a certificate.

Armistead pled not guilty to three charges:

Storing pesticide Sodium Cyanide

Storing Strychnine Hydrochloride

Storing Lead Arsenate

Armistead will appear back at Furness & District Magistrates Court on 31 January 2012, where a date will be set for his case to be continued at Crown Court.

Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, no charges were brought for the killing of red kites. Armistead was released on unconditional bail until his next court appearance on 6 January 2012. Very well done, Cumbria Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service!

Story at North West Evening Mail 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