Birds of prey

At the time of writing, 19 raptors have been found dead within a two-mile square area on the Black Isle. Over the course of several days, more and more Red Kites and Buzzards turned up. It is likely that more are lying waiting to be discovered.

Government testing confirms that at least some of the birds were poisoned, probably through bait laid out in the open and laced with illegal chemicals. Red Kites in particular are a social species, meaning that the death count was always likely to be high.

Duncan Orr-Ewing, Head of Species and Land Management for RSPB Scotland, was the organisation’s first Red Kite project officer – his first job for the RSPB was introducing Kites to the Black Isle.

“If you put poisoned bait out in an area with Kites then you will kill a lot of them. It was someone who knew there were Red Kites about, who went to a core breeding area and put out poison. I would imagine that it happened in a short period of time. The population there is already fragile because it has suffered so much persecution, numbers have remained static, at around 50-60 breeding pairs for the last ten years. To lose that many birds in one incident is really serious and particularly because it would seem that many of these birds were breeding, that is doubly disappointing. Some of these birds are the young of ones that I remember breeding.”

The discovery – one of the worst in recorded history – has sent shock waves beyond the bird-watching community. The RSPB initially put up a £5,000 reward. Public donations have now brought that figure to over £26,000, and it is still rising.

Orr-Ewing says: “My colleague Brian Etheridge summed it up very neatly, he said ‘your first emotion is really one of real anger, but over time it becomes real sadness, that still there are people in the countryside doing this. I mean, we have now had so many warnings, there has been a lot of publicity around this. Everybody working in the countryside knows that putting out illegal poisons is an offence. It is deeply frustrating and I think there is a real mood in Scotland – people want it stopped. It is up to our elected representatives to help the police and others, to get this stopped.”

The sheer number of deaths – 14 Red Kites and five Buzzards so far – has brought the issue of wildlife crime back into public consciousness.

Since 1989, nearly one hundred Red Kites have been found poisoned illegally, though that is likely to be a fraction of the total number. RSPB research shows that there was almost an eight-fold difference between the population of Kites now breeding on the Black Isle in the north of Scotland and the population in the south of England. Both introductions happened in 1989, with the same number of birds released in both spots. But the Black Isle population is still stuck at around 50-60 breeding pairs, while the population in the south of England is at around 800. The explanation for the difference is illegal poisoning.

The main culprits are thought to be those running driven grouse moors on hunting estates. These are the preferred habitat for hen harriers – the worst affected bird of prey – yet there are only five breeding pairs for hen harriers in the whole of this habitat in Scotland and the north England. By employment, a significant proportion of those prosecuted are game keepers, who – along with the owners of hunting estates – view birds of prey as a unwanted competition for grouse shooting.

These estates had their heyday in the Victorian period, and in fact, the years after the First and Second World Wars – when gamekeepers were sent to fight – saw a recovery in raptor numbers. Driven grouse moors involve a very intensive form of upland management. As well as persecuting raptors, they have also been accused of killing mammals like pine martins, mountain hares and deer.

Orr-Ewing says: “Mountain hares and deer can carry ticks with diseases which can affect grouse, so these moors are getting rid of them, promoting grouse over and above diversity of other species. It is a real worry, how these species are being managed. Grouse are being medicated to prevent worms, through medicated grit, and at night people are catching grouse and dosing them. It is bizarre that you can do that to a wild bird. The illegal persecution of raptors has put us on a collision course with these landowners.

He continues: “What has gone on in recent years on grouse moors, with increased use of technology, intensive management and increased investment, means we are probably back at Victorian levels of management, and persecution at similar levels to the Victorian period, so we are going backwards in some ways. In fact, these estates are actually trying to beat Victorian shooting numbers. But if you can do that, why is there no place for predatory birds? There is more space than there has ever been.”

But despite high levels of persecution, getting convictions is not easy. By their nature, birds of prey live in remote areas, meaning dead birds are unlikely to be found. Even if they are, it is extremely unlikely that there will be witnesses to hand to catch those responsible. Orr-Ewing says that traps are laid by night, even using infra-red or night vision equipment, or early in the morning – so culprits are unlikely to be caught.

Understandably, the police prioritises human crime above those involving poisoned birds and though there is a Wildlife Crime Officer Network, for many of the police officers involved, it is only part of their role, so they are not always available and on call to do wildlife crime-related work. Then, by the time they are available, the evidence could be gone.

But technology can play a role in catching those responsible. In December, the RSPB monitored a Golden Eagle named Fearnan – fitted with a GPS tracking device by Orr-Ewing – as he moved from Loch Awe, Ben Dearg, to North Perthshire and the Monadhliaths. The RSPB team watched as Fearnan arrived in the moors of the Angus glens, where he stopped. His body was found near Glen Lethnot on 3 December 2013, with tests confirming that he had been poisoned by Carbofuran, an illegal, highly poisonous insecticide – designed for treating root vegetables – which is the most common poison used to kill birds of prey.

Orr-Ewing says: “The tags are designed so that when the bird is grounded, or not moving for a while, you will get a constant fix from one area – accurate to five metres – which suggests that the bird is down, and you can go in and retrieve the bird. We now know that the Angus glens are coming up as a real hot spot.”

The charity has an investigations unit, made up of three dedicated staff, who work alongside the police. Used as expert witnesses, they identify dead birds or stolen eggs when the police lack the necessary expertise. And despite the high number of deaths, some areas have seen improvement. To Orr-Ewing, the right laws are in place, the difficulty is in enforcing them properly.

“The Natural Environment Act of 2011 introduced the idea of vicarious liability. It was a measure that aimed to make landowners responsible for the actions of their employees in wildlife crime cases, so it is similar to the idea in a pub – the landlord is the licensee but if one of their employees sells a drink to an underage customer then the licensee is responsible. But no landowner in Scotland has yet been taken to court for vicarious responsibility, we are awaiting the first case.

He adds: “We have made progress in the low land areas, but in driven moors illegal killing is so entrenched that it will really need strong measures to deal with it. Some people are talking about making the licenses for sporting estates conditional on compliance with wildlife legislation, and being able to remove the hunting license if there is a case for it, along with vicarious liability. There is also provision in the legislation for jail sentences, but they haven’t been used. Usually it is a fine, around £1,000.”

Apart from the fact that killing raptors is illegal, there is also an economic argument for protecting them, with wildlife tourism an increasingly important part of the rural economy.

“People involved in sports shooting would argue that they bring money in to the Scottish economy too. But killing Red Kites is impacting on the Black Isle – people go there to see them – but there is one individual who is pursuing a much more narrow objective, and they are undermining other rural development opportunities. We have amongst the most unregulated hunting systems, the highest intensity hunting systems in the northern hemisphere.”