Chief Executive Beccy Speight opens with a no-nonsense attack on the grouse and gamebird (what an awful word) shooting industries and the destruction they cause, especially of birds oḟ prey. Heather Mathieson, Investigations Liaison Officer, writes on the same subject in more detail in an article “Stop the Killing”. ‘Birdcrime’ is specifically used to refer to the illegal killing of raptors. Shooting is the most common method but of course deaths are often far from instant. And then there is trapping, using spring traps and crow cage traps followed in many cases by bludgeoning. Poisons, which are of course indiscriminate, result in swifter but excruciating deaths, often utilising illegal pesticides. A new Birdcrime report reveals over 1,500 confirmed cases of persecution (targeting, disturbance, injury or killing) of birds of prey between 2009 and 2023. Victims include:
Buzzard: 589
Red Kite: 270
Peregrine: 154
Goshawk: 54
Golden Eagle: 24
Short-eared Owl: 17
White-tailed Eagle: 9
These are just the ones we know about – there will be many more. Of the ones we do know about, 75% were connected to the shooting industry, 68% of the culprits were gamekeepers (the clue’s in the name), but only 57 incidents were prosecuted. How many jail sentences? Just one. The RSPB team works hard in difficult and demoralising circumstances but it’s clear that the law needs to change: shoots at least need to be licensed so that licences can be revoked if the law is broken. Or, in my perhaps less realistic view, ban bird shooting altogether. We can hope.
We have only just managed to save Hen Harriers from extinction, partly from the use of satellite tags. Even the successful reintroduction of White-tailed or Sea Eagles was strongly opposed in some quarters, as I wrote in Animal Wild:
“In England however, they seem hell-bent on obliterating hope. A successful programme of reintroduction of the endangered White-tailed Eagle on the Isle of Wight warmed many hearts. The birds had become extinct in the early twentieth century thanks to poisoning and shooting by gamekeepers. The word ‘gamekeeper’, come to think of it, is in itself a complete giveaway. They are not conservers of nature, they are keepers of ‘game’ (a word which really shouldn’t be used to describe any animal in this day and age), bred to be shot or otherwise murdered for sport by the elite. One of the eagles was found dead and the police became involved. Local conservative MP Chris Loder said that eagles were not welcome in his constituency and that the police shouldn’t waste their time on it. “I don’t want eagles in Dorset, killing our lambs and plaguing our farmers.” Attached to his post were two photographs of an eagle eating a lamb, but the photographer revealed that they were staged: the lamb was dead and the eagle a captive. His election campaign was partly funded by a shooting estate. It is apparently not just predation to which the shoots object, sometimes raptors fly (which is what raptors can do) over causing the birds to scatter, disappointing those who have paid to kill them. Ah well, we can’t have that now, can we?
The result of the investigation was this: “A detailed examination and tests have been carried out on the bird, which were inconclusive, and it has therefore not been possible to confirm that any criminal offence has been committed. While high levels of brodifacoum were detected, it has not been possible to establish whether this was as a result of a deliberate act or due to secondary rodenticide poisoning. As a result, no further police action will be taken in relation to this report.”
Loder is not alone. SNP MP Angus McNeil called for a cull of the eagles in 2022. It is possible but not certain that they do very occasionally predate live, healthy lambs, but for the most part it is carrion they take. Dave Sexton contributes a history of the fifty-year long reintroduction programme. Revered and buried alongside us in Neolithic times, Victorian hunters and collectors and misguided land managers, believing exaggerated reports of their impact on livestock, did for them in the UK. Our very last bird was shot in 1918. The first eaglets to be reintroduced were imported from Norway. Now, volunteers help to protect them by watching nests (including discouraging irresponsible photographers) and data from ringing and tagging has been hugely helpful. Satellite data has shown zero livestock predation events. In one case, an injured chick with a broken wing was seen being fed by his or her parents a year later, with that year’s breeding attempt postponed. He or she was recovering and learning to fly. There are now 200 pairs in Scotland.
I recently asked myself whether birds enjoy singing (Gallimaufry: Badgers, birds and birdsong, royal hands, Coyotes, an Oak Tree, a Colossal Squid, a Slow Worm & aliens – Animal Wild). In a piece on the dawn chorus, Dominic Couzens confirms what I have learnt about the purposes of birdsong, but I notice that he cannot help but describe the outpouring as morning breaks as “almost ecstatic”.
Photographer Ben Andrew shares his favourite species (and places): Jay, Turtle Dove, Mountain Hare and Dipper, and Nicola Chester, prolific nature writer and, as it happens, librarian at my children’s old school, thinks about how to inspire the next generation with a love of her subject.
Stephen Moss (passim) has produced The Starling: a Biography, Square Peg, 2024. That will be hard to resist but I have already indulged my eagerness for such books rather too often of late. That lasted all of two minutes. A copy is on its way.
A comparison of four warblers to help with identification, Garden, Wood and Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs may prove useful, but they do look terribly similar. I doubt I will ever be able to pick them out in the field, but perhaps from photographs if I am lucky enough to take them.
Simon Barnes lucidly explains why the carefully managed grazing of cows in certain areas is so important for many species of wildlife – without them wetland would become full of brambles and soon there would be trees, drying out the land. Aurochsen would have performed the role in pre-human times.
There are numerous reports of the RSPB’s tireless work, restorations and other achievements. And for now, they have paused the sale of flat surface bird feeders as potential sources of disease.
Sarah Hardy writes of a visit to Rathlin Island, County Antrim, home to Northern Ireland’s largest seabird colony and a wealth of other wildlife, with some of the farmers there working alongside the RSPB to protect habitats.
There’s also news of an ambitious scheme to create a huge connected wetland for England’s east coast. A friend who works for the RSPB confirms that the amount and variety of work they do is truly extraordinary. David Lindo, the Urban Birder (see Garden trees, shrubs & flowers, Magpies, Taxonomy, The Urban Birder, Ruddy Ducks and Temple Elephants – Animal Wild) hopes for a reversal of the long-running trend for lack of places for birds to nest in our buildings and reminds us that no effort, however small, is not worth making.
And as usual there are wildlife friendly gardening tips galore, including of course no mow May. I have three fairly small (two with diameters of 60cm, the other perhaps twice that) water-filled containers, one of which I had inadvertently allowed to have almost no light for a year – the water was of course lifeless and stagnant – and which needed restocking. I recommend Waterside Nurseries (Buy Pond Plants in UK, waterlilies & British Natives for sale) very highly. You can choose individual plants or, more easily, one of their selections which have a good balance and include at least one essential oxygenating plant. They are quickly sent by post, protected by wet newspaper and are a maintenance-free joy. I plumped for Miniature Water Lily, Iris Versicolor, Myosotis Scorpioides Alba, Mentha Cervina and Ceratophyllum Demersum (Hornwort), which does the oxygenation. With the other two containers I have had to do absolutely nothing at all for several years, but the flowers keep appearing and I have noticed some very strange (and some not so strange) little creatures wriggling around in, on and above the water, as you can see in this time-lapse video of the opening of a Water Lily from a few years ago.
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