August 2007. One of the 30 red kite chicks sent to Ireland in a project to reintroduce the species there has been found shot dead.
red kite chicks
The kite was among a batch taken from Powys to the mountains of County Wicklow six weeks ago.
Police in Ireland are investigating after it was found with seven shotgun pellets .Tony Cross of the Welsh Kite Trust in Rhayader, who worked on the scheme, said the shooting was a setback but did not “invalidate” the plan.
18/06/2009 A red kite found partially poisoned in Angus has been returned to the wild after being nursed back to health. The young female kite was dazed and exhausted when discovered at Tannadice earlier this month. She was taken to the Scottish SPCA’s Middlebank Wildlife Rescue Centre near Dunfermline where staff feared she had been poisoned.
Tests carried out by the Scottish Government’s Science and Advice for Scotland Agriculture Laboratory confirmed the year-old bird had consumed the banned pesticide alphachloralose.
A tag on the bird’s wing showed she had hatched in Inverness-shire in 2008 and spent the autumn on the Black Isle in Ross-shire before moving to Perthshire for the winter. She has now been fitted with a radio transmitter so her future movements can be followed.
The bird was set free by rangers from the Argaty red kite feeding station, near Doune, in Stirlingshire.
RSPB Scotland’s head of investigations Bob Elliot said she had only survived due to recent good weather. He said: “Alphachloralose tends to bring on hypothermia in its victims. This bird is very lucky that it was found during the warmest week of the year so far, otherwise it would have died.“It’s despicable that yet again some of our most magnificent wildlife continues to be indiscriminately poisoned by criminals who have no regard for our natural heritage or the law.”
No arrests have been made for the poisoning offence.
Police are investigating the suspected poisoning of one of the UK’s rarest birds of prey. The red kite, which had been radio tagged by RSPB Scotland, was found near Tomintoul, Moray in May 2007. A post mortem examination found it had died from ingesting the highly toxic and illegal substance Carbofuran. Grampian Police said it strongly suspected that the red kite had eaten bait laced with the chemical and intended to kill birds of prey.
The dead bird, which had originally come from the Black Isle, was found in dense woodland in the Cairngorm National Park in May. It is believed its corpse had been lying dead at the site since April.
Carbofuran had previously been licensed for use as a root crop insecticide in the vegetable growing industry but its use and even it’s possession is now a crime in the UK
A red kite released in the summer of 2001 as part of a programme to reintroduce the species to Britain was found poisoned later the same year. The rare bird of prey was found in the Balmagie area, north of Castle Douglas in Dumfries & Galloway, and was the 8th red kite to be poisoned in Scotland during 2001. The bird was one of 33 radio-tagged kites released this summer in Dumfries & Galloway. It is the fifth bird of prey that has been found poisoned in the area after the bodies of two buzzards, a tawny owl and a sparrowhawk were found.
Also in 2001, a red kite was found poisoned in the Borders, and six red kites were found poisoned on or near shotting estates in Perthshire, Stirlingshire and Inverness-shire.
Red kites were persecuted to extinction north and south of the border and were reintroduced into Scotland in the late 1980s. In 2001, there were around 40 breeding pairs.
Two birds of prey found dead on a shooting estate were killed by poison, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
The RSPB says tests on a rare red kite and a buzzard revealed that they were killed illegally by the pesticide carbofuran.
The red kite had been tagged as a chick and was being tracked.
It was found in remote woodland near Cromdale in Strathspey by RSPB staff. They say no charges will be brought.
Carbofuran is a powerful insecticide which was once used to protect crops and is dangerous to any living creature. It is now totally illegal to use or store carbofuran in the UK .
8 buzzards and 1 red kite were found dead on the Corrybrough Estate, Tomatin, near Inverness in March 1998. One buzzard was found in a spring trap with its legs chewed up. Many of the dead birds were found on a rubbish dump and later tests showed they had been poisoned with Carbofuran.
POLICE forces in Scotland have been accused of failing to tackle wildlife crime after it was revealed that just 24 cases of illegal killing of birds of prey have been taken to court in five years.
Out of 157 cases involving killing the birds – including golden eagles, red kites and hen harriers – just 15 per cent have resulted in court action.
And the average penalty for a crime linked to persecution of birds of prey was just £240, despite the maximum available penalty being £10,000 or a year in jail.
A third red kite has been poisoned with a banned pesticide in Perthshire, police have said.
The Dead Glenturret Red Kite
The dead bird was found on the edge of the Glenturret Estate near Crieff in August 2007.
Two other red kites have also been killed this year and tests have shown all the birds had eaten bait laced with carbofuran, which was outlawed in 2001.
Tayside Police have appealed for information about the deaths, which have been called “sickening” and “an absolute disgrace”.
The force’s wildlife and environment officer said those involved in the deaths should “hang their head in shame.” Alan Stewart said: “It is an absolute disgrace that a method commonly employed to kill birds of prey two centuries ago is still in use in 2007. Pesticides can easily kill people as well as wildlife yet these deadly baits are still left out in the open” He added that it would be “naive” to think the three dead red kites found in Tayside were the only poisoning incidents this year, as most baits and victims were never reported to the police.
Red Kites were absent from Scotland’s skies for over a century due to human persecution. In 1989 a reintroduction programme was initiated by SNH and RSPB to bring this elegant bird of prey back. Although this programme has been successful it has been dogged by illegal poisoning. The red kite’s scavenging feeding habits make it especially vulnerable to this type of crime.
Three poisoned red kites were found near Laurieston, Dumfries & Galloway in April 2003. A post mortem revealed they had died from Carbofuran poisoning. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2985915.stm
Later the same month, in the same area, two sparrowhawks were poisoned from Carbofuran that had been laid on pigeon baits.
The bodies of dead red kites that have been poisoned or shot are becoming more common in the Scottish landscape.
A dead red kite found in January 2008 on a farm near Laurieston, nine miles north of Castle Douglas in Dumfries & Galloway, had been poisoned with Carbofuran.
Re-introduced kites in this area, as well as other areas in Scotland, have been heavily targeted by poisoners who mistakenly think that the birds are a threat to their gamebirds. Red kites feed mainly on carrion (animals that have already died), worms and insects. They are highly susceptible to poisoning because they eat so much carrion, so it is easy for someone to stake out a poisoned bait in an area where kites forage for food.
No-one has been found responsible for the death of this red kite.
Raptor Persecution UK 