FIRECREST TOURS : Guided Birdwatching & Wildlife Days

Regular readers of this blog will be very familiar with the Leadhills (Hopetoun) Estate in South Lanarkshire. We’ve been blogging about it for years, not only as a well known hotspot for illegal raptor persecution but also because of the owners’ links to the establishment and to landowners’ lobby group Scottish Land & Estates. Here’s […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2x9fSZa

It was good to see a feature on raptor persecution on Tuesday’s edition of Countryfile Summer Diaries. Well done to experts Ian Thomson (RSPB Scotland) and David Anderson (Forest Enterprise Scotland) for telling it how it is. Available to watch on BBCiPlayer for 29 days (starts at 15.33) – click HERE And….cue calls from the […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2gpQJmJ

A few weeks ago we created a map for Mairi Gougeon MSP (Angus & Mearns, SNP) to show her the areas of her constituency where satellite-tagged raptors had either been found illegally killed or had ‘disappeared’ in suspicious circumstances. Unsurprisingly, the main hotspot area was centred on the grouse moors of the Angus Glens. Mairi, […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2wkVQIR

At last weekend’s British Birdfair at Rutland Water we joined with Chris Packham to launch a new joint project. Privately funded by a pair of extraordinarily generous and supportive philanthropists, this project has been in development since the New Year. We are grateful not only to our funders, but also to a number of people […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2isbsH3

A three-month old red kite has been found shot dead in County Down, Northern Ireland. The bird, hatched in May and tagged ‘Black 5W’, was found dead on a public road last Thursday (17 August 2017) outside Moneyslane, between Banbridge and Newcastle. An initial x-ray revealed pieces of shot in the bird’s corpse and the […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vVwKlo

Press release from Devon & Cornwall Police, 18 August 2017: POISONED PEREGRINE FALCON: WITNESS APPEAL Officers are investigating an incident after being contacted by staff at Glendinning Quarry in Ashburton, on Tuesday 15 August, following reports of an injured Peregrine falcon. The falcon had been located on the floor of the quarry which is home […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2xjIXOD

We’ll be launching a new project at the British Birdfair this weekend, in collaboration with Chris Packham and a number of others. Come along to the Events Marquee at 11am on Saturday morning (19th August) to find out more! For those who can’t attend the Birdfair, we’ll be blogging about the project next week. Hope […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2fNzwDD

The Sun’s take on the news that satellite-tagged Montagu’s harrier, Sally, has ‘disappeared’ in Norfolk: Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2wiK0kw

So, last night we posted a blog about a Times front-page article and a Times leader article that quite clearly was an attack on the good name of the RSPB. The author of the front-page article was Magnus Linklater, a ‘journalist’ with a reported association with grouse shooting and a track record of producing fake […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2v4Wd8c

Natural England has been fitting tags (radio and satellite) to hen harriers since 2002 as part of what was called the Hen Harrier Recovery Project. That’s 15 years of tagging. (Photo by Jenny Weston) In all that time, they’ve managed to publish just two summary reports: A future for the hen harrier in England (2008) and then […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2w3R2tP

Slightly away from our usual blog topics, some of you may have seen a full page advert in some national newspapers today, placed in the form of an open letter to RSPB Scotland (see: Times Coalition advert) by a consortium of companies hoping to be involved in the construction and/or operation of a massive offshore […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vJgDFC

‘Species Champions’ are members of the Scottish Parliament who have agreed to provide political support and awareness for Scotland’s threatened wildlife, under a scheme organised by Scottish Environment LINK. Mairi Gougeon (nee Evans) MSP is the Species Champion for the hen harrier, and it was fantastic to see her attend Hen Harrier Day at Loch […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2wNLHUQ

If it’s not news of a hen harrier being persecuted, or a marsh harrier being persecuted, then it’ll be a Montagu’s harrier. The RSPB has just published a blog detailing the ‘disappearance’ in Norfolk of satellite-tagged Montagu’s harrier ‘Sally’ on 6th August 2017. Sally was an adult female who had featured on the BBC’s Autumnwatch […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vA2vAc

Last month we blogged about the minutes of a Natural England Board meeting (held 22 March 2017) in relation to the proposed reintroduction of hen harriers to southern England. The published minutes stated: ‘The NE Board has considered the overall objective of the southern reintroduction [of hen harriers] and agreed this was to help relic […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vXUplK

Dear oh dear. It’s only been six weeks since Michelin-starred chef Andrew Fairlie was told by Perthshire Council’s Food Standards Officer to stop referring to red grouse as being organic (see here), and yet now the Angus Glens Moorland Group Coordinator is claiming that red grouse are “100% organic“. Lianne MacLennan was quoted in the […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2w9gJss

Last Thursday (10th August 2017) North Yorkshire Police issued an appeal for information about several armed men, dressed as gamekeepers, who had been filmed trying to shoot a nesting Marsh harrier on a Yorkshire grouse moor in May. Some more armed men, still dressed as gamekeepers, were also filmed removing eggs from the Marsh harrier’s […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2uCBFbE

For those who couldn’t make it to Hen Harrier Day in the Highlands, here’s a short video of the presentation given by Ian Thomson, Head of Investigations RSPB Scotland. Well worth 11 minutes of your time. Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vBo1mD

Last month the Scottish Mail on Sunday published some right old tosh about how game shoot licensing would threaten the livelihood of gamekeepers and their families (see here). In one of the articles, a comment piece by gamekeeper’s wife Carrieanne Conaghan (who, we’ve since been told, works as a sales rep in a publishing house […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vVYeIP

Ian Thomson, Head of RSPB Investigations Scotland has written an interesting blog examining the ‘disappearance’ and/or illegal killing of satellite tagged red kites and hen harriers – see here. It’s well worth a read. And take a close look at this map, illustrating the locations of suspicious disappearances as well as where the corpses have […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vWbdZW

If anybody has been foolish enough to believe any of the grouse shooting industry’s recent propaganda onslaught in the run up to the Inglorious 12th, here’s a shocking reminder of what really goes on. Press release published today by North Yorkshire Police: POLICE INVESTIGATE PERSECUTION OF BREEDING MARSH HARRIERS North Yorkshire Police are investigating an […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2wxNcq0

A couple of days ago, the following extraordinary tweet appeared on the West Yorkshire Police Firearms Licensing Department’s official twitter account: This is a shocking abuse of position. According to the national Policing Code of Ethics, police officers and staff are supposed to be impartial and non-political. For an official police account to use the […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vS6XM3

  RSPB press release: The RSPB has fitted a record number of hen harrier chicks with satellite tags in the UK this year, more than doubling the number from any other year. More than 24 birds have been fitted with transmitters so far, the majority of them in Scotland, as part of the conservation organisation’s […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2freGK4

While hundreds of extremist armchair conservationists (an oxymoron, surely?) turned out in force to support Hen Harrier Day events up and down the country last weekend, the grouse shooting industry was preparing to unleash a barrel of propagandist articles and ‘new research’ in a desperate attempt to greenwash the rampant criminality that threatens to take […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vK22MX

The Moy (Highland) Game Fair kicks off today, where the great & good of the game shooting world gather to celebrate their activities. Fergus Ewing MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity, will be there again this year, especially as this is bang slap in the middle of his constituency and he’s a […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vyh1JQ

Hopefully by now you’ve all had a chance to listen to Ian Botham’s masterclass in how not to do a radio interview – the best car crash radio for some time (see here). Now Botham’s having a tantrum, claiming he was “ambushed by an anti-shooting agenda” and has threatened to boycott the BBC “unless something significant […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2hr9PsX

North Yorkshire Police have issued a further appeal for information about the shooting of a red kite in Nidderdale. The kite was found near Greenhow in Nidderdale on Saturday 11th March 2017 (see here). Since then, a number of rewards have been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved. One […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2uj4mph

Suffolk Police are investigating the shooting of a young male peregrine in Ipswich. The bird, one of four to have fledged this year from the Mill Tower at Ipswich Waterfront, was found alive but in an emaciated condition at the weekend. He was taken to Riversbrook Veterinary Practice where an x-ray revealed he had been […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2vnB8JO

The RSPB has just announced the results of the 2017 hen harrier breeding season in England. There was a pathetic total of three successful nests (England has the capacity for ~330 pairs). The three successful nests (with ten fledglings) were on land managed by the Forestry Commission in Northumberland. Read the full, sorry details on […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2hk33oL