In a week that has seen total despair regarding the Bowland Eagle Owls are we now witnessing the end of a short era when these birds graced the moors of Bowland? More bird watchers from around the country came to visit the area bringing with them much needed revenue into the community just to see Hen Harriers and other moorland birds including Eagle Owls. Escaped or not the Eagle Owl is a bird which reminded people of a wild place. Not every one goes abroad to watch birds and here was the largest and most powerful owl in Europe that everyone could watch, learn about and admire.
Let’s not get it wrong we have learnt a lot about these truly magnificent birds and their effect on other wildlife. Last years camera work showed at one stage 97% of the food predated by eagle owls was rabbits. Rabbit populations explode due to ‘tunnel trapping’ carried out by the shooting estates to controll the numbers of Stoats, Weasels and Polecats which prey on them. Rabbits cause £200 million worth of damage a year to farming, horticulture and private gardens throughout the UK. This increase in Rabbits allows other birds of prey to increase like we have seen with the Buzzard when not persecuted. Other food taken by the Eagle Owl included Rats, Voles, Hedgehog, Gulls, Woodcock, Pheasant and even Red Grouse. No remains of Black Grouse were found at Geltsdale even with the population booming.
Have Eagle Owls had any effect on breeding Hen Harriers? Well going by the pair at Geltsdale the answer would be NO, as still no harriers grace these moors even with Eagle Owls well gone. Given the status of the Hen Harrier on Bowland this year the answer would be another NO given the fact that it is felt that at least one adult Eagle Owl once again may have been destroyed!
Most of the Spanish Eagle Owls are all found around Rabbit colonies, so here in Britain the birds could have taken off if they had not touched the sacred game bird, the Red Grouse! Given that Birds of Prey are not tolerated on Red Grouse moors because they take Red Grouse, the answer to the decline if not extinction in Britain of the Eagle Owl is almost complete. Had our dear MP, Mr. Benyon given the Eagle Owl cull the go a head, he knew he would have been wasting the tax payers money as his trusted friends the gamekeepers were willing to do the job for free.
Only one bright spot appears on the horizon and that was confirmed last night with the local elections. Would a new Labour party do anything for this lost cause of the uplands ever producing the Birds of Prey as they should do! There will certainly be no favours done by this present government as they live in the hands of these Red Grouse moor owners even reducing the tax they should pay back to the general public. Will the Short eared Owl go the same way as the Eagle Owl as so many Red Grouse Moors remove this bird as well even if they are carrying a European passport!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MbgmOLTLhk&feature=share
John Miles
It would appear that NE and the RSPB have achieved their aims to be rid of these birds after all. So much for our esteemed, (so-called), wildlife protection bodies, the only thing they are capable of protecting is themselves. To hell with the controversial side of the wildlife protection laws when their own personal reputations are at stake, after all, it’s only the really serious and experienced conservationists and ornithologists who really know what they get up to. Wildlife loving Joe public only see what they want them to see, pay us your pound and we’ll show you the birds in our specially crafted artificial wildlife reserves. They go away smiling thinking everything is rosy and not realising that many of our wildlife species and the environment they live in is under threat like it has never been before and is on the brink of total loss.
The RSPB seem to be distancing themselves from the plight of the Bowland Eagle Owls this year. Andrew Farra (RSPB) in a conversation with Chrissie Harper last week informed her the RSPB had no involvement with monitoring these birds what so ever, this role was the responsibility of Natural England. Andrew seems to have over looked the fact that the RSPB team comprising of Mr. Michael Domain and two RSPB voluntary field workers have been monitoring Bowland’s eagle owls on behalf of the Society since 2006..
Can Chrissie confirm the conversation with Farra? Its just that there has been two men at the EO Dunsop site many evenings from late January to March every Spring for the last 4-5 years! My friend tells me they are from a bird club? Iv also been told they play tape recordings of a “hooting Owl” to get the Owls to display? Does anyone know if this is true? Why would anyone do that? Is it done, if true, to help find the breeding scrape?
Editor’s Comment. We have contacted Mrs Harper because she is unable to respond to this comment until Tuesday.
No internet connection where she is at this time.Be assured she will reply to your question. However there will be others out there who also may wish to make their own comment.
Is this perhaps a case of the chickens coming home to roost? From your description the two men you describe may be the two RSPB wardens responsible for monitoring the pair of owls. They have permission to take their vehicle up the track and are the only two people who have been seen using a tape lure to call to the eagle owls at night. If these two individuals visit the valley as often and as regular as stated, surely they would at some point have encountered the two men who may have sent the letter to Chrissie Harper and who claim to have been visiting the eagle owl nests over such a long period. Or are we talking possibly about the two same people?
An astonishing and deeply depressing chaptor in British conservation – based on this sorry episode you would swear the year was 1912, not 2012!!
Derek I think you may be correct, it sounds like the two wardens. They are well known for their rather dubious methods of finding nests (thrashing rank heather with sticks to find ground nesting raptors!), so it sounds like something they would try. Two men have also been seen in the chipping area trespassing in farmers barns, disturbing nesting barn owls. For the raptors I’m afraid it is a case of, With”friends” like this who needs enemy’s!
Editor’s Comment. Norman regarding the two individuals seen visiting farmers barns, if you have proof any nesting barn owls were disturbed and permission from the farmer was NOT obtained, even if the two people had licenses, this is a clear breach of licence conditions and the police and Natural England must be informed. However, depending upon who the two men may have been don’t expect any action to be taken. We have found some licensed individuals are bomb proof and appear to get away with anything.
Been following this depressing saga on and off for the last few years and I think the conservation authorities should hang their heads in shame. Yes, I realise the dubious status of the eagle owl in the UK, but taking such a “textbook” approach to such an unnatural ecosystem as the UK seems like a mistake when you consider the bigger picture. Native or not, the eagle owl could have become a charismatic symbol for the Bowland area and helped win the ongoing battle against persecution. At the very least, the RSPB could have been honest about whether or not they were protecting these birds or not.
Its utterly shocking that eagle owls dont get help from the RSPB. We expect gamekeepers to kill anything that moves (as history shows legal or not) but we dont expect the RSPB/Natural England/United Utilities to be in bed with the enemy of raptors – the shooting industry. It seems theyre prepared to “sell their souls” to try and protect hen harriers only.
The RSPB have a policy of “avian ethnic cleansing” killing corvids on some reserves (as well as shooting foxes). Its the ruddy/white headed duck ethical issue all over again. Im not a member of the RSPB and whilst they cuddle up to the likes of for example the Dee Wildfowlers, I wont be in the future either! Ironic name isnt it the Royal Society for the PROTECTION of Birds …. but only SOME birds eh?
Editor’s Comment, Dave you have a point, however the way United Utilities manage their Bowland estate relating to all raptors has now demonstrated they need a fresh approach, sooner rather than later. In 2007 The Duke of Westminster advised the Manager of United Utilities estates the company should return gamekeepers onto the estate. Ian Grindy replied that if he did so there would be no hen harriers left within one year. Grindy subsequently negotiated three shooting syndicates to enter onto the Bowland estate despite his warning. This year his predication has come back to haunt him.