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/

By Guy Shorrock The illegal taking of this Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis and related offences in Scotland led to the first jailing of a gamekeeper. RSPB-images.com In recent years it appears that there has been an increasing public interest and involvement in environmental matters, including wildlife crime, and that social media has played a pivotal role in this trend. As a plethora of internet-based sharing sites have continued to develop, websites and bloggers have taken full advantage of this communication network. The power of social media was graphically illustrated by the recent campaign to challenge the European Commission's 'Fitness Check' of the Birds and Habitats Directives, legislation that has underpinned EU environmental protection. In May 2015, around 100 UK organisations published a position statement warning that this was the single biggest threat to biodiversity in a generation. That view was shared across Europe with collaboration...

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 .

PC Helen Felton and RSPB's Head of Investigations Bob Elliot with illegally killed buzzards (RSPB) Colin Burne, of Winters Park, Penrith, has today pleaded guilty to the intentional killing of buzzards on land managed by a private shooting syndicate in Whinfell Forest, near Penrith, Cumbria. The 64-year old gamekeeper attended Carlisle Magistrates Court today where he pleaded guilty to three charges. These related to the killing of two buzzards on the 11 February 2013, killing five buzzards prior to this date and possession of a wooden stick as an item capable of being used to kill the birds. He received a 70-day jail sentence, concurrent on each charge, suspended for 12 months.  In sentencing, the Judge stated that had it not been for his ill health he would have considered jailing him. On Monday 11 February, this year, a cage trap containing live buzzards was found by members of the public on land managed by the shoot. Cage traps can lawfully be used to control certa...

World premiere of the film about CABS in England Bonn/Sheffield.  The activist operations by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter for better protection of migrant birds are the theme of a new documentary film that has its world premiere at the Sheffield Docs Film Festival this weekend. Under the title  Emptying The Skies  the New York bestselling author Jonathan Franzen and director Roger Kass expose how millions of European songbirds land in the cooking pot every year, under the pretext of retaining ‘old traditions’ and ‘sustainable use’. Bestselling author and bird lover Jonathan Franzen (CABS) The screenplay is written around a group of international activists from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter, who travel every year in spring and autumn to the poaching hotspots - mainly in Southern Europe - to combat illegal bird hunting and trapping. Jonathan Franzen and the film crew shadowed the operations - now well known internationally as  CABS bird protection c...