In April 2010, Eagle Owls will be included in the newly revised Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in England and Wales. Doubtless at some point the necessary legislative steps will make the revisions applicable in Scotland too. The overall provisions ban the sale of certain species and make it an offence to release into the wild any animal, or plant, that is not indigenous to Britain. A proven offence against the provisions carries a possible two year jail sentence or a £5000 fine.
There is much within the legislation that is sensible associated with, for example, the prevention of invasive plant species within watercourses, or the further introduction of non-native crayfish which have already been found to have decimated our own stocks in certain areas and so on.
When it comes to the Eagle Owl I support the intention aimed at limiting any releases to the wild, but feel there are a number of other issues the Government’s agencies need to address rather than feel the job of work is finished. To this extent its inclusion in Schedule 9 might muddy the water as opposed to providing an all embracing, once and for all solution! The whole question of the status of the species within the UK needs future examination and an unequivocal statement issued as to its position within our avifauna.
Undoubtedly some Eagle Owls have been released to the wild and some have escaped captivity. It is known that the species has bred freely and raised young in Britain in recent years too. Now whilst I feel we don’t want to see endless birds released willy-nilly into the wild, to include the bird on Schedule 9 amongst a list of other aliens begins to confuse what could be a different situation at the present time. In my opinion there are sufficient facts relating to a gradual westwards extension across Western Europe to suggest we be very careful about what label we do attach to the species!!
Birds can easily be seen in Iberia but now, much farther north, there is emerging evidence of breeding pairs in the Low Countries and of a persistent colonisation of the Baltic islands. So why not the odd migrant to Britain? Some sceptics pronounce the bird to be large and sedentary with a probable predilection against flying over a large body of water, i.e. the North Sea. Well, other raptors do it, as do Long-eared Owls, a selection of photographs of which can be seen on the North Sea Bird Club web site. Indeed it may well be the case that, as a species, it doesn’t like the idea of flying over the sea and, therefore, its westward extension comes to an abrupt stop. That presumption, at this very point in time, appears non-proven and somewhat convenient! We can’t prove immigration has not occurred, nor what would be the aftermath if a sufficiency were in Britain and part of the operating fabric of our countryside. Would they be a disastrous threat?
The web page the RSPB displays on the subject is, in my view, a fair assessment of the position despite the organization having concerns on the subject. A declaration that, if it were to arrive naturally, then they would welcome it as part of the avifauna, is firm and ad vocative and provides the clarity needed. Similarly their suggestion ( to Government 
that an impact assessment be completed of what is currently an increasing population again would provide a basis upon which better predictions could be made whatever happened in future years. The difficulty at the moment is that the offspring produced may be from escaped birds, but there is no way of knowing. Simply designating them as such is irresponsible in my view and ignores the demands of the situation, difficult though these may be.
There are those, of course, who will delight in the lack of recognition afforded to the species, and for whom its relegation to “alien status” will provide an opportunity to call for its control, or worse! At the present time I feel, quite sincerely, that we should be willing to be open minded and make every attempt to determine what the true situation might be. Difficult, of course it is, and demanding of imaginative ways of tackling a very challenging problem, but attempting to achieve this through “labelling” will never give us the truth and will be used by some to distort the situation. If, in the fullness of time, the population reaches a plateau, and then diminishes, we can accept the current provisions to be adequate and reflect the correct perspectives of the situation. In the meantime it seems to me that we should be open to a possible changing process and set prejudice and self interest aside so as to witness, properly, what could be a natural phenomenon ( running in parallel to what has been a similar “domestic” phenomenon in recent times ).
Discussions with colleagues have raised various points, almost legal points , about which I haven’t yet reached clarity in my own mind due, mainly, to a lack of precise knowledge on my part. Given Eagle Owl is a resident, “accepted ” species in Continental Europe it is obviously, and its young, afforded protective status under the European Birds Directive . As we are part of the European Union presumably the young produced in this country from parents whose derivation is presumed at the moment, not documented or proven, could be ( should be? afforded the same protection. Such would mean it being accepted into our avifauna? Heigh ho, that should get the “grey suits” in a state of flux!!!
John S. Armitage
John,
A very interesting post, especially after the recent BBC Country File program in which a member of the staff at the British Wildlife Centre described the Eagle Owl as native.
Who actually advises Natural England on the status of birds in instances like this?
Gavin
Just to update our readers on the legal status of the Eagle Owl in Britain. The species in the wild is afforded full protection under the European Bird Directive. In addition Eagle Owls reared in the wild, together with any eggs laid at nests throughout Britain are also provided full protection by the Wildlife & Countryside Act. Anyone damaging a nest in our country containing eggs or chicks would be committing a criminal offence.
The European expert on Eagle Owls has said that no ‘ringed’ European Eagle Owl will be found in the UK due to lack of ringing. We await the paper in British Birds that suggests that an Eagle Owl found dead in Norfolk had eaten prey in Europe [isotopes].If the field is not clear if these birds can make it across the North Sea or English Channel then surely there is a case that no Eagle owl can be killed in the UK until further knowledge is obtained especially as 99% of their prey is rabbit which causes £200 million of damage each year to farming, gardens and industry.
Gavin, just a response to your query. I believe that the advsiers to Nat.Eng.primarily are part of JNCC, after contact with other bodies too. One of the problems I see within this is that the consultation to the revision commenced in 2006 and ” attitudes” were possibly based on evidence slightly before then. The situation could be more dynamic than that!! There is a review facility in seven years I believe. In any case there is nothing amiss with it being prohibited to be tippling out captive bred birds, it’s the status afforded the birds discovered in the wild from now on that is critical and for which we need to have an open mind. In many senses the debates surrounding Northern Goshawk in years gone by were similar to the current dialogue on Eagle Owls. Doubtless the debates will go on some time yet!!
Having read the content contained within “raptor politics” relating to the pair of breeding Bowland Eagle Owls last year, there appears little for anyone to concern themselves with. Taking the negligent and cavalier attitude demonstrated throughout last season by United Utilities in cooperation with their professional advisors, allowing access to mark the clutch of eggs against the expert advice which was given, it is almost guaranteed the nesting birds located in the Dunsop area have a very insecure and uncertain future ahead.
Here we go! This is exactly what we at the World Owl Trust have been expecting to happen. The ongoing refusal of the BOU to recognize the Eagle Owl as a native species despite the successful breeding of unringed birds in recent years (i.e. not proven to be deliberate releases or escapes),and the news that this bird is to be placed on the revised Schedule 9 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act in April, will we predict, lead to it ultimately being pronounced as an ‘undesirable alien’ which needs to be eliminated like the Ruddy Duck. How the ‘anti-Eagle Owl’ brigade will love that!
John Armitage’s timely (and fair) article is a very sane assessment of the present situation, but this is a complex matter which the WOT has been investigating for over 25 years and our findings are too lengthy to include in this reply. We are therefore in the process of producing a detailed document of this issue which will be placed on our website http://www.owls.org in the very near future. We will be happy to have this posted on the Raptor Politics website in due course and continue the dialogue.
In the meantime we would confirm Admin’s comment that since the Eagle Owl is protected under the EU Birds Directive (to which the W & C Act is subservient since the UK is a member of the EU)it is illegal to destroy this species or its nest and eggs – and even if young were bred in the wild from escaped/released birds these would be legally classed as ‘wild’ individuals and thus be subject to the same protection.
Like John Miles, we await the ‘British Birds’ paper which will hopefully finally prove that birds from Europe are coming over to the UK, but being perhaps more cynical than John, we are asking the question “will it actually appear, or will it be suppressed”? Perhaps the editor of BB will answer this one?
The question of the long term future of the Bowland Eagle Owls is one the WOT is personally involved in, so at this point we would prefer to keep this ‘in house’ until some awkward questions have been answered.
Just in case the ‘British Birds’ paper, which hopefully will finally prove Eagle Owls originating from Europe are migrating to the UK is censored, or not published at all for ANY reason, then the raptor politics web site would be pleased to publish the document in full.
Let us remind everyone out there, this is England, and censorship of important scientific data was a component of the cold war era and has no part in a progressive democracry.
My paper will be published in British Birds in April. It will not be’censored’ but has been peer-reviewed. Basically, I demonstrate that there are two generations of feathers in an eagle owl found injured in Norfolk in 2006. Stable isotope analyis of feathers (and knowledge of moult pattern) was used to imply the provenance of the bird. I compared feathers from the Norfolk owl with feathers from owls from Norway, Neteherlands and known captive escapees. The juvenile feathers had a vey low 2H/1H ratio, significantly different from the ‘adult’ feathers, suggesting that the bird had originated in an area with very low 2H/1H signatures. That, I suggest corresponds with those found in Scandinavia. It is not difinitive proof, and further work needs to be done, but it does suggest that this bird made it to Britain on its own.
Is it not just like this crazy country we live in. Andrew Kelly’s paper was first put forward for release for December. The risk assessment is for 6th February and now the paper is due in April. Surely if these people cared about British Birds they would have had the paper in December so there was no need for the Risk assessment at all!!
I am in complete agreement with Tony Warburton’s comments and The International Owl Society is also looking into this situation which does not look good for The European Eagle Owl. There is no doubt that this was a native species until it was hunted to extinction by the human race, the attitude being if you don’t like it shoot it, this has to be made as public as possible, in my opinion this magnificent owl will never populate this country in enough numbers to cause any lasting harm, anyone who watched Roy Dennis’s documentary on the Yorkshire Pair will know that they preyed mainly on rabbit and were never reported taking any thing that people accuse these birds of doing. I have spent years trying to educate the public on owls and their conservation and I firmly believe that there should be some form of law which prevents these birds from being sold to people who have no knowledge of their care in captivity, but although we would all agree there are escapees out there I am sure that continental Eagle Owls have started arriving here, when placed on Schedule 9 of the W&C Act this will give every trigger happy bird of prey hater an excuse to shoot them, we are all aware of the big problem with bird of prey persecution and are being asked to be vigilant, what message does this send out to people, this cannot be allowed to happen and we must all work together to help this Owl.
I love Eagle Owls and have been to Dunsop and North Yorks to see them and think its disgusting that they are been persecuted just because of their size and their diet.If they decide to cull the Eagle Owls does this mean they will cull all the non indigenous game birds and stop them being bred and released every year and the Ring-necked parrots down south as well or does this only happen to birds of prey.
Well said Phillip. Whats going to happen with the pheasant for instance? The ones released near to me on the local shoot desimate my acres of wheat.
But thats okay i suppose as pheasant shooting generates millions of pounds in taxes per year.
An uprising is brewing in the birding world and if you ask me it cant come soon enough…!
The most worrying aspect is the underhanded way the risk assessment has been implemented. It is very clear few members of the bird watching public were made aware of the consultation or its implications for breeding eagle owls in the UK. The fact that eagle owl naturalists/experts with an interest in conserving eagle owls were not even informed indicates the one-sided agenda of what is now going on.
It is VITAL that every person with an interest in protecting British wildlife sends their concerns immediately to FERA. The details of contact addresses and e-mail are already on this web site, so please do not delay and pass this message on to anyone with an interst. The 6 February is the closing date for replies!
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My attention has been drawn to the comments of ‘Fellwalker’ – January 7 – (as usual on this site someone not brave enough to use his own name!)and in particular those of Peter Adams – January 11 – who has accused me of disclosing the grid references of eagle owl nests in Bowland.
Let ‘Fellwalker’ state where these grid references were ‘given out’ (sic) and I invite Peter Adams and Raptor Politics to withdraw the reference to myself immediately since I certainly have not disclosed any sites at any time since I became involved with these birds in Bowland in 2007. I further request that Mr Adams reveals the basis for his claim – which I consider libellous – or take the consequences.
Editor’s Comment. Mr Warburton you must appreciate Raptor Politics accept all comment posted upon this web site on face value. We are pleased to accept what you say and that there is no substance to what Fellwalker and Peter Adams have both stated. The comments will both be removed and we offer to you an apology.
Thank you. Pity the culprits couldn’t be so magnaminous or honest!!!
In ref to Tony Warburton.
First and foremost i do not want to get involved in a argument with you/anyone. I DID not mention your NAME. You ask me to state were i obtained the grid refs from?
Pls go to site http://www.owls.org/Archive/feathersfly.htm para 6, it clearly states grid refs etc,
regards
Fellwalker
Why would anyone want to make public their exact whereabouts and even give a grid reference, this is not helping to protect them and let them breed in peace, this is encouraging every Tom, Dick or Harry to go to the nest site and disturb these owls which could result in the owls deserting the nest anyway, I have seen this article and yes the grid references are published in it, perhaps this article should be removed or ammended very quickly no matter how long ago it was published.
Pity you didn’t mention that this item was written in the Spring of 2007 – i.e. 5 years ago when the site had already been widely given away by ornithological publications, both local and national, and the pair were in grave danger of being destroyed; nor the reason why the item was written and clearly explained. Your comment gave readers, including evidently Peter Adams, the impression that I had revealed grid references this year. Perhaps it was meant to?