FIRECREST TOURS : Guided Birdwatching & Wildlife Days

A 34-year old gamekeeper, James Hartley, appeared at Preston Magistrates Court today to face a series of charges relating to the alleged killing of two peregrines on the Bleasdale Estate, Bowland, in April 2016. The charges read out in court were as follows: Killing a Schedule 1 wild bird. On 13 April 2016 at Bleasdale […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2fByZFa

Further to this morning’s blog about the mystery gamekeeper from north east Scotland who was filmed allegedly setting an illegal trap near a goshawk nest and who has subsequently been slapped with a General Licence restriction order by SNH, but whose name and employment details have been withheld. Who could he possibly be and where, […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2xzSB0T

So, SNH has today announced it has imposed two General Licence restriction orders, based on evidence provided by Police Scotland of alleged raptor persecution crimes. We know that one of those restriction orders has been placed on Edradynate Estate, Perthshire, because SNH has been quite upfront about it and has named the estate (see here). […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2wjg3xO

As many of you will know, SNH has the ability to impose a three-year General Licence restriction order on land, or an an individual, where there is ‘clear evidence’, substantiated by Police Scotland, that raptor persecution has taken place (see SNH framework here). This measure, based on a civil burden of proof, was introduced by then […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2y7mQ26

Earlier this month Harry Huyton (on behalf of OneKind) presented evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee in support of a petition calling for greater protection for mountain hares. This petition, signed by over 11,000 people, specifically calls for: ‘The Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce greater protection for mountain hares […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2xI3ZKa

Back in June we blogged about the prosecution of former Edradynate Estate gamekeeper David Campbell for alleged offences including the malicious damage of crops (it is claimed he poisoned them by spraying with an unknown substance, causing them to rot and perish) and the alleged theft of a thermal imaging spotting scope (see here). What […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2xAm6Bd

Earlier this year, Les Wallace lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee calling for a comprehensive and independent study into the full economic impacts of driven grouse shooting (see here). This petition was due to be heard by the Petitions Committee last week but they ran out of time so they deferred […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2yt0HIH

North Yorkshire Police have tweeted about the shooting of a raptor two days ago in the North York Moors National Park: At the moment there is no further information about the circumstances of this reported incident, the species, the extent of its injuries, and whether it’s alive or dead. Hopefully the police will issue a […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2xi8YBe

Earlier this year a peer-reviewed scientific paper was published in the journal British Birds, documenting the long-term decline of merlins on four driven grouse moors in the Lammermuirs, south east Scotland (see here). In that paper the authors, all members of the Lothian & Borders Raptor Study Group, detailed the results of their 30-year study […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2xi2Bya

Last week we blogged about how Natural England has been withholding 15 years worth of hen harrier tagging data, most of it paid for with public funds, and we encouraged blog readers to email them and ask for the data to be released without further delay (see here). Specifically, we wanted to find out how […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2wC65XU

Every year a proportion of the Scottsh golden eagle population is surveyed by licensed experts from the Scottish Raptor Study Group. This phenomenal voluntary effort (currently 373 home ranges [approx 53% of known ranges] monitored by 150 eagle experts) provides invaluable data that are submitted to the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme and are used to […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2jDM3Lp

Booking is now open for this year’s Northern England Raptor Forum (NERF) annual conference, which takes place at Northumbria University in Newcastle on Saturday 18th November 2017. For further details and to book your place, please visit the NERF website here. Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2x4lO6g

Dim-witted DUP dinosaur Jim Shannon MP (Strangford, Northern Ireland), a member of the Countryside Alliance and not known for having a sharp intellect, posed the following written parliamentary question on 5 September 2017: Question 8483: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, if he will consider controls on the number […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2x7cNbS

Huge congratulations to Brian Etheridge, Andrea Hudspeth and Logan Steele, three Scottish Raptor Study Group members who have been shortlisted in this year’s Nature of Scotland Awards. Brian Etheridge is on the shortlist for the RSPB Species Champion Award. To be shortlisted for this award ‘the entrant will have achieved something extraordinary to conserve a […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2h63ShD

Natural England has been fitting tags to English hen harriers since 2002. First it was radio tags and then, since 2007, it’s been satellite tags. So far, Natural England has refused to release detailed information about the fate of these tagged hen harriers because the data were being collected as part of a PhD study. […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2xwNpxH

More angst for the dark side this week as yet more political attention is given to driven grouse shooting and mountain hare culling. The Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee will convene on Thursday 14 September to discuss a number of new petitions lodged by members of the public. We’re interested in two of these petitions: […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2jkg1DU

As many of you will know, the mountain hare is listed on Annexe V of the EU Habitats Directive (1992), which requires member states to maintain this species in favourable conservation status. As you’ll also know, the mountain hare is a legal quarry species in Scotland (during the open season of Aug-Feb) and is routinely […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2eSELxV

This morning the RSPB announced that two of this year’s satellite-tagged hen harriers, Mannin & Grayse, had died in non-suspicious circumstances. Both had been tagged at a nest on the Isle of Man in July 2017. Grayse was discovered dead on the island on 9th August. Her brother Mannin left the island on 14th August […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2gXIVW9

Earlier this year the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority opened a public consultation to inform its next five-year Management Plan (2018-2023). Residents and visitors were invited to submit comments on three open-ended questions: What do you love about the National Park? How do you think the National Park can be improved? What do you think […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2xSjrjI

A few days ago we blogged about a series of letters published in The Times (Scotland) relating to the disappearance of a young satellite-tagged hen harrier Calluna, who recently vanished after visiting a Deeside grouse moor. Scottish Land & Estates used the incident as an opportunity to falsely accuse the RSPB of not following agreed […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2jaqAt1

This is hilarious. In the latest edition of the Hawk & Owl Trust’s members magazine (Peregrine, No 106, Spring/Summer 2017) there’s an article entitled ‘The Hen Harrier – A Controversial Bird‘. There’s a bit about their 2016 satellite-tagged hen harrier, Rowan: “Three months after being tagged, Rowan’s satellite data indicated that something was awry. Stephen […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2eEkBYg

In response to last week’s news about missing hen harrier Calluna, who disappeared from a grouse moor in the Cairngorms National Park just a few weeks after fledging, there will be a peaceful protest this Friday outside the Scottish Parliament against the continued persecution of hen harriers. This demo is a spontaneous response, hastily organised […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2eJSDhP

So, following RSPB Scotland’s recent appeal for information relating to the suspicious disappearance of hen harrier Calluna on a grouse moor in the Cairngorms National Park, we’ve blogged a bit about the response given by landowners’ lobby group Scottish Land & Estates (SLE). First of all we had SLE’s Chairman Lord David Johnstone (Dumfriesshire Dave) […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2xMbjSm

Raptor persecution, and particularly the illegal killing of hen harriers, has been identified as a National Wildlife Crime Priority. Interesting then, that following last Friday’s news that Police Scotland is investigating  the disappearance of another missing hen harrier (‘Calluna‘), who vanished in suspicious circumstances on a grouse moor in the Cairngorms National Park in August, […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2eDosse

In a move that is fast becoming as predictable as the disappearance of a satellite-tagged raptor on a driven grouse moor, a representative of landowners’ lobby group Scottish Land & Estates (SLE) has launched an attack on the RSPB following yesterday’s news that hen harrier Calluna has ‘disappeared’ after visiting a Deeside grouse moor. In […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2gz8oIH

Well that didn’t take long, did it? Just a few weeks after fledging, one of the 2017 cohort of satellite-tagged hen harriers has already ‘disappeared’, with its final signal emitted from a grouse moor on the 12th August, the opening day of the grouse-shooting season. Hen harrier ‘Calluna‘ (photo RSPB Scotland) RSPB Scotland press release: […] Read in full at Raptor Persecution UK http://ift.tt/2wWfJcz