FIRECREST TOURS : Guided Birdwatching & Wildlife Days

by Steve Portugal Sometimes it can get a little depressing when all the news about the state of the environment and Britain's countryside is bad; farmland devoid of birdlife, wetlands being drained and forestry being cut down. But it's not all doom and gloom, over the last decade many threatened species have been able to make successful comebacks, thanks mainly to the help of conservation charities and organisations such as English Nature, the RSPB and hundreds of dedicated volunteers from estate agents to students to housewives and the police.

Fight Against Illegal Bird Killing, Trapping, Hunting & Egg Collecting Poisoned Golden Eagle by Murdo Macleod Show your support for stricter laws against bird crimes to help save birds from illegal killing, poaching, persecution, trapping, hunting & egg collecting. We can use power in numbers via social media to express our concerns & encourage enforcement of stricter laws against, change in governments' attitudes towards, & raise awareness of, bird crimes & what needs to be done to stop these atrocities. 'Like' the Fight Bird Crimes &  Fight Bird Crimes Facebook Page at  facebook.com/FightBirdCrimes  where you can have your say, post information, or share articles. You can join here  by clicking the 'Like' button below. You can also help spread the word & show your support for the cause on Twitter & Google+ by using the buttons below. Follow @FightBirdCrimes Tweet #TwitterStories Worldwide we have ...

A new report has been published today detailing the recovery prospects for golden eagles in southern Scotland. The SNH-commissioned report has been written by two undisputed experts (Alan Fielding and Paul Haworth), both of whom were involved with the impressive Golden Eagle Conservation Framework report that was published in 2008. The report has only just been made available on SNH’s website so we’ve not had a chance to thoroughly digest its findings – although we intend to come back to it in due course. Having skimmed through it, it looks like a very detailed analysis of the various issues that could affect the recovery of this tiny population (see  here  for a previous blog entry on the perilous state of the golden eagle population in southern Scotland), including, of course, the effect of illegal persecution. This photo below shows the graphic effect of persecution on golden eagles in south Scotland – this one was found shot and critically injured on a driven grouse...

Juvenile Hen Harrier by Jude Lane Hen harrier chicks have been fitted with high-tech satellite tags as part of a new RSPB initiative to help conserve England’s most threatened bird of prey. The chicks, which are approximately four weeks old, are currently being raised in a nest on the United Utilities Bowland Estate. The site is traditionally the stronghold for the English hen harrier and the RSPB has worked with the water company and its shooting tenants to protect the birds there for more than 30 years. The hen harrier nest is the first successful one in England since 2012 and one of only three in the whole of England this year. Chicks produced in the other English nests – one of which is also on the United Utilities Bowland Estate –will also be fitted with satellite tags when they are large enough. The satellite tags were supplied by Natural England and fitted by Stephen Murphy, the Agency’s lead adviser for hen harriers. He said:  “The lightweight satellite tags...

Here is the RSPB's report on bird crime in 2012 which includes accounts of individual offences against bird legislation. The full PDF can be viewed full screen, with larger text or zoomed in  here .

Trophy exhibition on Facebook This Lebanese poacher proudly displays a shot White Stork A freshly-shot, still living Short-toed Eagle is proudly presented as a trophy. Armed men pose with freshly killed cranes and pelicans. Another hunter holding a dead Lesser Spotted Eagle grins into the camera lens. His hunting companion has neatly draped his bag for the day - hundreds of shot song birds - on a bedsheet. Two children, hardly eight years of age - inspect wide-eyed two dead Honey Buzzards that their father has brought back today from the hunt. Another still life shows nine freshly shot White Storks in the foreground with behind them the hunter, completely relaxed with a cigarette in one hand and the beak of one of the storks in the other. Such photos give an idea of the incredible damage that Lebanese poachers inflict on the European bird populations. There are several hundreds, perhaps thousands of such trophy pictures. Most are taken by the poachers themselves to show off to...