Coming soon on this site are details of how sporting landowners and their gamekeepers are able to continue their persecution of protected birds of prey on their upland estates. At the same time licensed raptor workers, with over 40 years experience, are being harassed and frustrated in their work to reveal the extent of criminal raptor persecution taking place on private estates in the Forest of Bowland.
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Are Politics Undermining The Well-being of Birds of Prey?5 comments to Are Politics Undermining The Well-being of Birds of Prey? |
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i dont beleive anyone including yourselves really realises the extent to which peregrines amongst other species are being persecuted. gamekeepers are very good at knowing who is about on thier land and what is going on. anyone involved with game preserving who states that they dont persecute raptors is a liar. FACT, some are quite reasonable in thier acts, most are not. the problem is , there are numerous nests that the authorities never get to know about, and to be honest, you wouldnt believe how easy access to a lot are! they are “removed” without you ever knowing! high profile sites and thier “protection” is basically a joke. anyone wanting to steal peregrines or thier eggs or young just has to befriend a keeper. and they are gone without the authorities even knowing they were there in the first place.
egg collectors do take thier toll, im sure there are some taken for falconry,and pigeon fanciers are now more proactive than ever before, but i know for a fact, despite what they say publicly, keepers are the peregrines worst enimy , allways have been and allways will be. the number of peregrines destroyed without detection by keepers is beyond the wildest nightmares of protectionists, and yet as a falconer i have no access to this huge harvestable surplus of available birds? so the protectionists keep thier blinkers on and the slaughter continues, it will never end, its impossable to enforce. when will conservation bodies and others finally get together and agree on a mid way solution?
I read your comments with great interest Barbaryboy… A lot rings true…
However from reading some of the information on this site surely there is an argument for a step up in the policing??? Using a HELICOPTER to investigate peregrine sites??? Any one with half a brain cell can see how DAFT and irresponsible that is… I actually find it quite hard to believe i really do…
Surely with this kind of persecution occuring over all these years and with the advances in forensic science, there should, MUST be a conviction???
My personal take on it is that if one conviction is passed with a strong enough sentence (you can but hope) then it would hopefully send a shock wave through the keeping fraternity and make them realise they are not untouchable… Thoughts any one???
> 15th May 2009 While out yesterday I bumped into a couple of bird watchers on the RSPB reserve at Geltsdale. They had been walking in the area when they heard a shot which came from the New Water area of the reserve. Moments later a buzzard showing signs of shot on its flight feathers fluttered down the valley. What is amazing about this is the fact that if I had not bumped into this couple this incident would not have been reported to any one as I knew the couple. They had had a pair of breeding Peregrines removed from view of their shop and still did not report the matter to any one! How many more incidents of this nature go a miss in the town and countryside?
What are the wild life officers like in your kneck of the woods John???
I hate to say it but had i whitnessed it, shy a taking the law into my own hands, I wouldn’t report it to the police… why would I? it would just get handed to the local wildlife officer who would gladly do……NOTHING at all about it… “too busy”… And i personally don’t think they have any sort of decent resources to deal with issues like this. The government and organisations like the RSPB and the Police should be calling upon the government to invest money into dealing with issues like these. The economy maybe ‘weak’ at present but surely it doesn’t mean cutting spending so it makes crimes easier to commit with less chance of retribution???
@barbaryboy
some very good points there. In my eyes the only way to limit the amount killed is by allowing a legal wildtake for falconry. The young flacons could be parent reared in seclusion aviaries and than trained for hunting, after a succesfull season they would be released back into the wild in an area where they are less likely to be shot or other wise killed. It would ensure that the young flacons get through their first winter, which is the most difficult time of year for them. The chicks that were lost from nest 6 could be alive and well now if given to a falconer and fly around free this coming spring. Falconry is the solution to the problem.