During the last few decades direct human persecution of birds of prey throughout England’s moorland uplands have taken a different and sinister tack. No longer do we find nests containing smashed eggs or dead chicks with their heads decapitated. No, the strategies being used today to reduce brood sizes have now become much more subtle and shrewd. To the ordinary bystander nothing would seem odd when nests containing eggs are found abandoned or broods of several healthy young are regularly reduced to just a single fledgling. Even the experts sometimes misinterpret the clues and get it wrong; never the less the methods of breeding disruption being used today are no less effective.
Today we are reporting two instances where nests 4 and 6 which are shown in our Private Estates gallery appear to have been subjected to human disturbance and disruption. We would like to comment on site 6 first. Yesterday afternoon 11 May when the nest was re-visited by licensed field workers a single egg from the clutch of three was discovered with a dead chick hatching from the open shell. On closer examination of the two remaining eggs, it appears both eggs contain well developed dead embryos. As the eggs are still being incubated, the nest will be rechecked in a few days time to establish if the eggs are viable. However the nervous temperament and behaviour of both falcons observed yesterday during our nest examination, indicates that the nest had recently been subjected to sustained human disturbance. Such activity is a strategy now being adopted to keep breeding raptors away from their rapidly chilling eggs or small young.
The result of human activity photographed at the second nest site 4 yesterday 11 May, has significantly more relevance and clearly highlights what is meant by subtle disruption. Under current UK Wildlife Legislation it is illegal to cause reckless disturbance to occupied nest of a Schedule 1 species, such as Peregrine, when any nest is being built, or containing eggs or unfledged young The Peregrine territory (site 4) located in a stream gully has been in use by a pair of falcons throughout the last decade; last year the pair were unsuccessful. The beat gamekeeper and estate management are well aware of the sites existence, and have allowed the chicks at this ground nest established on a grouse moor to be rung on numerous occasions. On the 11 May raptor workers discovered that contractors working on behalf of the estate had commenced installing an extensive line of fence posts and stock fencing along the entire left hand bank of the stream gully. At one point the line of fencing passed within 40 metres in front of the Peregrine nest containing the 4 eggs being incubated. The tons of fence posts together with hundreds of metres of fencing materials had been flown by helicopter to the location, passing over the nesting site while delivering and unloading several separate loads of materials on 7 May. Considering the level and duration of disturbance that must have been caused by a helicopter flying within metres of the nesting site, it was a minor miracle two chicks managed to hatch and survive at all.
We would like to bring attention to the single eggs being held in the hand of a raptor worker. This egg was on the verge of hatching, however before this process was complete, a part of a second egg shell from one of the two hatched eggs appears carefully inserted over the part of a third egg about to hatch. This extremely unusual situation, almost certainly caused the premature death of the emerging third chick. The circumstances of one shell inserted like a glove over an egg about to hatch is highly unusual to say the least and has never been recorded to our knowledge at any raptor nest previously. It has been suggested that this situation could have been caused by the powerful downdraft from the contractor’s helicopter blowing the eggs and discarded eggs shells about in the nest.
It has just been reported that earlier today the Wildlife Liaison Officer for Lancashire Constabulary has been airlifted by a second helicopter to examine the eyrie and the fencing work being carried out on the moor. An independent source has now confirmed that the officer told him after careful examination of the facts together with an inspection of nest and area surrounding the nesting site, it was his opinion there is nothing suspicious about the activities being conducted close to the nesting site.
We understand the police have now instructed the estate to halt all further work along the stream gully until both young have fledged. Interestingly one of our images taken standing at the nest shows the largest bundle of fencing materials placed 40 metres directly opposite the nest. After the comments made this morning by the Wildlife Liaison Officer, we can only comment that placing this bundle of fencing materials in such a strategic position opposite the nest must have been sheer coincidence.
Having just read your article on the disturbance of birds of prey on private estates, I find it astonishing the level on un-professional conduct by the law enforcment establishment. Firstly the use of helicopters to air-lift in materials to the site seems exessive but I suppose each to their own, and if they can afford to do so, its their call, So long as they land owner knew nothing of the nest. However I do find this very suspecious, because it is fairly obvious that a helicopter flying around will cause disturbance of noe kind or another to any nesting birds. But the point I want to make about a law enforcement officer being air-lifted in to survey the site just seems ludicrus. What exactly was he hoping to discover from a helicopter? An abandoned nest purhaps? Anyone who knows anything about birds of prey knows that they are extremely nervous and easily disturbed. So who evers decision it was to send in a chopper to survey a fragile nesting site cleary should not be in charge of making those decisions. Also a helicopter? These are costly things to run and using tax payers money to gain inacurate infomation is terrible. Moreover to then conclude that it was no problem to carry out extensive fencing work 40m from a nest in just wrong. The law I supossed to be there to stop crimnal activities taking place, not add to the problem. I am just pleased about the outcome of halted work until after the beeding season.
As Derick Radcliffe the once chief scientist for NCC pointed out in his book If shooting estates do not want to play the game then they can stop shooting all together on Red Grouse Moors. He even said that game keepers could be made into wildlife wardens without the guns! Corporate shooting is ‘tax payers’ money. It is only big business which is keeping these ‘man made’ Red Grouse moors going. The way this corporate money is being spent can be changed and made so shooting is not put against tax. It is not just Birds of Prey that have lost out on this mono culture.
Firstly I’d like to commend you all on your work and constructing a superb website and findings for all to see…
Secondly i’d like to point out that the figures are SHOCKING to say the least, jaw dropping is an understatement… and last but not least, thirdly WHAT may i ask are the police doing or proposing to do about this???
Out of interest do you have any ideas who the police use for these matters?? is it an officer direct or someone with experience??? Because from what i have read it is quite obvisouly someone struggling in the brain cell deparment! A helicopter to inspect rare birds of prey sites??? Please, why not use the atomic bomb to uncover ancient Egyptian ruins??? Sorry to hear it and I apologise for my rant but sounds like your “wild life liason officer” has the same IQ as grape… What is the world coming to??????
This is appauling a Wildlife Liason Officer using a Helicopter to investigate a crime against Wildlife!
Sounds a bit like the retired Nottinghamshire Police Wildlife Liaison Officer was fined for using a cage trap baited with a live pigeon in order to catch and kill birds of prey.
According to an anti snaring site, Evidence of illeagal snaring was passed to the Lancashire Constabulary Police Wildlife Liaison Officer who immediately dismissed it. Later it was discovered that he had participated in shoots on the Hoghton Tower estate. Can this PC actually claim to be impartial when involved in cases involving Shoots?
Please note: I have removed the Officers name in order to be fair to him.
Treganin that is unbelievale… thank you very much for bringing that to the attention of all us site users…
It just goes to show what these poor birds and all wildlife in general are up against… How on earth do these people still have their jobs? Surely there needs to be an investigation into what is going on, internally by the police complaints commission???
And the fact the wild life officer shoots, well, what can you say to that??? He endorses shooting which in its own part endorses game keeping and land management which figures on this site quite clearly show are directly affecting schedule 1 birds…
Why are his superiors not doing any-thing about this???
If the percussion is “content” what is the rspb doing with the 2.4 million from defra the 10 million from central government .what is the national wildlife crime unit doing after defra paid another £150 thousand to them? What’s joint nature counsel doing sat on payments of hundreds of thousands annually? What are all the wildlife crime police doing?
What’s partnership against wildlife crime doing other than sucking huge amounts of tax payers money .what’s the British trust of ornithology doing. What’s the very rich RSPCA doing?
What’s natural England doing .they are doing NOTHING EXEPT sucking millions of pounds from every one “then” use a drop in the ocean to kick a door in for a for some unfortunate enough to keep a captive gold finch/That’s there priority it is certainly not to do something “constructive” that might bring them out of there centrally heated offices in which they manipulate even more and extreme ways to con ever more money for there pet ideas . Any way you wont get the rspb there to help they will be robbing red kites from Europe this time of year or in meeting to get more lottery money to finance there robbing trips through Europe for stolen red kites.
THEN THERES THE DEFRA INSPECTORS WHO TURN UP AT MY PLACE TO CHECK OUT MY BIRDS TO MAKE SURE IM NOT BEING NAUGHTY AND WRONGLY IDENTIFY A FEMALE SAKER FALCON AS A GOSHAWK????? WHAT A WASTE OF RESOURCES.
Oh dear, i think this just highlights the problems faced by protectionists and conservationists. they wrongly identified a female saker falcon as a goshawk?????? Sorry but i think the majority of school children would be able to tell you the difference.
I actually find that quite scary, i really do. These are supposed to be people “in the know” and “educated”. Not to mention ‘policing’ captive bird keepers in the hope of weeding out the ‘dead beats’. Yet they cant even distinguish species. Not like ones a falcon and ones an accipiter or any-thing is it?!
You should have told them it was a rare breed of canary.lol =D
One word to mention mate,,,,,, LANTRA?!
LANTRA? why would you want to mention that?
Because i too have an interest in falconry but bodies like LANTRA and DEFRA are quite obviously far from being ‘ideal’… i guarantee most of these bodies are nothing but a cash cow!!! Just like how the persecution of these birds is so obvisouly twinned with money… No thousand pound grouse shoot, no need to ‘knock off’ raptors…!
lantra has been shown up for what it is, a worthless peice of paper that proves nothing. it is not recognised in the falconry comunity as a worthwhile course.