FIRECREST TOURS : Guided Birdwatching & Wildlife Days

Thames Valley Police are appealing for information after the discovery of two injured red kites, both suffering from shotgun wounds. Both kites were discovered in Oakley Wood, near Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire. One was found on 29th March 2016 and the second was found on 5th April. Both are now in the expert care of  Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital . The Police have revealed that a third red kite had been found in the same wood on 22nd March 2016, although the cause of death is not known. Anyone with information is asked to call  Thames Valley Police on 101, quoting reference #URN 372 06/04/16. Well done to Thames Valley Police for issuing an appeal for information ( here ). Photographs of the two injured kites and their x-rays provided by Tiggywinkles. From https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/red-kites-shot-in-the-thames-valley/

Evidence is emerging of what looks to be a pretty comprehensive police cover-up of the mass poisoning of birds of prey in the Powys region of Wales. According to the RSPB’s annual  Birdcrime  report (2012), the following incidents are listed: Oct 2012: 1 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys. Oct 2012: 1 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys. Oct 2012: 2 x pheasant bait (Bendiocarb), location: Powys. Oct 2012: 1 x poisoned red kite (Bendiocarb), location: Powys. This little cluster is of interest, but becomes of even greater interest when you look at the RSPB’s annual  Birdcrime  report (2013), where the following incidents are listed:

by raptorpersecutionscotland Raptor Persecution Scotland's readerhip year-on-year. Where does the time go? It’s been another good year for our little blog as we edge towards 1.8 million blog views. That’s amazing, and it’s thanks to you all for reading, commenting, sharing, re-tweeting etc. Our readership is a diverse bunch, mostly from within the UK but with growing audiences in mainland Europe, North... [Read more...]

Poisoned Red Kite Back to the Rural Affairs, Climate Change & Environment (RACCE) committee meeting in January…. The topic of the Ross-shire Massacre was raised again. For new readers, the  Ross-shire Massacre  refers to the discovery of 22 dead raptors in a small area of Conon Bridge in the Highlands in March 2014. Sixteen red kites and six buzzards were found dead: 12 red kites and 4 buzzards have since been confirmed to have been poisoned by a ‘banned substance’. There have been no arrests to date. Our last update was on the 18 month anniversary ( here ) and we’ll be writing more when the two-year anniversary rolls around in March. In the meantime, here’s the discussion from the RACCE committee meeting in January. In a nutshell, 22 months on from one of the biggest mass raptor poisonings uncovered in Scotland, the police have no progress to report:

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...