FIRECREST TOURS : Guided Birdwatching & Wildlife Days

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...

The dead bird was found on the south-east edge of Stang Forest ( Image:  The RSPB ) Durham Constabulary and the RSPB are appealing for information about an illegally shot peregrine falcon found in County Durham.   The dead bird was found on the south-east edge of Stang Forest, near the North Yorkshire border, on 23 August 2015 by a member of the public, who reported the discovery to Durham Constabulary and the RSPB. 

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 ...

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...