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An adult female eagle owl has been spotted flying over Cleadon Hills in South Shields and Boldon Flats Nature Reserve in recent months. Many bird watchers believe the female bird, which has a 5ft wingspan, must be an escapee. However, the owl has been worrying many walkers, after swooping down and has even ripped a man’s jacket, and there’s talk that she’s helped herself to a few stray cats from the local farm. Continue reading Female eagle owl spotted in South Tyneside causing mayhem. West Yorkshire RSPCA officers found a peregrine falcon, a steppe eagle and a male harris hawk all dead at the Altofts home of falconer Karl Leadley. A court heard Leadley failed to adequately provide food and water and a proper diet for the raptors in his care. A female harris hawk was also found in a very poor state, but was alive. A ninth Irish red kite has been found dead from illegal poisoning, Irish park rangers have said. The breeding female bird, which had been nesting on a farm near Redcross, Co Wicklow, was found near Brittas Bay late last year. It is the latest red kite confirmed to have been killed by poison in the county, while there have been similar deaths in Kildare and a suspected poisoning in Limerick since the re-introduction project began in 2007. In a recent article published by the Countryside Alliance their Chief Executive Alice Barnard ridicules RSPB’s assertions that the hen harrier’s current precarious status in England is a result of illegal killing is nothing short of absurd. Apart from the Chief Executives obvious lack of any acceptance of Scientific facts supporting what the RSPB and even Natural England are saying, her lack of transparency or acceptance of the current plight of hen harriers on England’s uplands undermines most of Alice Barnard’s conclusions. The lady makes no mention for example of the hen harrier’s total absence throughout 99.9% of heather moorlands used for red grouse shooting in Northern England. There is also no mention of the fact that sufficient heather habitat in England exists to support at least 330 pairs of hen harrier, but last year only 4 successful nests located on just a single moorland estate in Lancashire’s Forest of Bowland was recorded. The only way to describe what Ms Barnard has written is propaganda of the worst kind. No doubt she is also aware of the loss of the majority of ‘radio tagged’ Hen Harriers from the Langholm project, which curiouslymost have disappeared on Red Grouse moors but of course their bodies were never found!! Judge for yourself, read below what Ms Barnard recently had to say. Continue reading Hen harriers, the RSPB and “persecution” according to the Countryside Alliance. In August 2010 Raptor Politics reported on the deaths of 10 red kites all found poisoned on Scotland’s Black Isle resulting from secondary poisoning caused by Rodenticide (rat poison) read the full account here. Following the successful release of red kites during last summer in Dublin and Wicklow, we also report further recent kite deaths in Fingal. There was a total of 39 red kites, collected for Fingal under licence from Wales 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. A total of 8 kites have now been recovered dead in Fingal since November representing just over 20% of the red kites released in the Fingal area., read this story here. Now further raptor deaths caused by 2nd Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides are being reported from the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Continue reading Owls Killed by Rat Poison in South Africa, Southern Ireland and Scotland. Once you have read the text below written by Mark Thomas (RSPB), you will be left with no doubt who was on trial in the recent appeal heard at Derby Crown Court brought by Glenn Brown the convicted Derbyshire gamekeeper. Dirty tricks, false accusations, attacks on RSPB credibility and intimidation tactics, all being used by Brown’s defence QC in a determined strategy initiated to discredit the RSPB witnesses just to get Brown off. Brown’s appeal was always going to be interesting as it was important to restore the damaged image of the shooting fraternity. The methodology used by Brown’s defence QC in Derby Crown Court over the last three weeks just goes to show how determined and under-handed Brown’s defence team were prepared to be. In the end it was all for nothing and justice prevailed. On top of Brown’s court costs of £17,000 there will also be a huge bill from his legal team which is likely to be at least an additional £8,000 to £10,000. This is what Mark Thomas had to say on the matter. Continue reading RSPB witnesses put on trial in the unsuccessful appeal of gamekeeper Glenn Brown! A Derbyshire gamekeeper, working on an estate within the Peak District National Park, has lost an appeal today
Continue reading DERBYSHIRE GAMEKEEPER LOSES APPEAL- An Expensive Lesson. Many of the readers of Raptor Politics sadly see so many negative articles regarding the persecution of raptors. But is there hope out there which may at last change the minds of land owners and tourist boards in our own country? The special word is tourism. Many of you will have read the article on Mull written by my son Ewan published on this web site just before Christmas, [ now worth £5 million a year] and you may remember the article on finance created from the Galloway Red Kite project, now valued at £21 million in 7 years. So what else can be brought out into the open. After nearly 3 weeks of intense testimony heard in the appeal hearing brought by Derbyshire gamekeeper Glenn Brown against his conviction for wildlife crimes, the case for the prosecution at Derby Crown Court was completed (Wednesday 18th January). Brown together with his witnesses began giving their testimony today (Thursday). It seems possible the case will continue throughout the next two to three weeks. What ever the outcome of this protracted appeal the legal costs for one side or the other are likely to be huge adding to the £10.000 in costs already incurred by Brown. A man is due to appear in court to face a charge of intentionally injuring a wild bird on the Isle of Wight. It alleged 43 year old John Winn Roberts of Woodend Meadow, Ballymagorry, Strabane, Northern Ireland, shot a Buzzard at St Georges Down in Newport on 26th November last year. He was arrested on the same day. Mr Roberts was then charged on January 4th following an investigation led by Isle of Wight-based Hampshire Constabulary Country Watch and Wildlife Crime Officer PC Nick Massey. Police are grateful for the support and assistance of the RSPCA’s Isle of Wight Inspector Mark Buggie, and the management of aggregates / construction material supply business ‘Bardon Vectis’, which runs the quarry where the alleged offence took place. Mr Roberts remains on bail until Friday (January 20, 2011) when he is due to appear at the Isle of Wight Magistrates Court. |
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