RSPB targets tougher penalties for bird crime on farms

Farmers, landowners and gamekeepers could face tougher penalties for killing wild birds after an RSPB report found nearly 200 birds were illegally killed in just one year.

 

The charity published its Birdcrime 2015 report on Friday (3 February) which showed 196 birds of prey were illegally shot, poisoned or trapped in the countryside in 2015 – up from 187 in 2014 and 178 in 2013.

The shootings included 16 buzzards, 11 peregrines, three red kites, one red-footed falcon and one hen harrier.

Fifty reports were of wildlife poisoning and pesticide-related offences, including the poisoning of 15 buzzards, four red kites and three peregrine falcons.

In November 2015, the Stody Estate in Norfolk lost 75% of its single farm payment after its former gamekeeper was found guilty of killing 11 birds of prey (see ‘Estate sees subsidy slashed’, below).

In January 2015, an Aberdeenshire gamekeeper, George Mutch, received a four-month prison sentence for the killing of a goshawk, the illegal use of two cage traps, and the taking of a buzzard and a second goshawk.

Martin Harper, RSPB director of conservation, said: “Our uplands are deprived of some amazing wildlife because of ongoing illegal persecution and it has to stop.

“Public anger is growing stronger over the ongoing persecution of our birds of prey and the state of the uplands, and more voices are beginning to call for change.

“The status quo is not an option and we continue to call, throughout the UK, for the introduction of a robust licensing system for driven grouse shooting and an offence of vicarious liability for employers whose staff commit wildlife crime.”

In England and Wales, anyone found guilty of shooting a bird of prey without a licence licence could face up to six months in prison and/or a fine of up to £5,000 if found guilty under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

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Bird-friendly Farms Catching On in California

Migratory birds find refuge on farms as part of conservation plan.

Ker Than in Staten Island, California

for National Geographic News

Published February 20, 2013

On a recent bright afternoon in late January, scattered flocks of geese, sandhill cranes, and other birds foraged for food in cornfields on Staten Island (map) in California's Central Valley.

"Some farmers, if they had this concentration of geese, will put out the shotguns and use the sound to distract them," said Brent Tadman, who manages the 9,200-acre (3,700-hectare) Conservation Farms and Ranches on the island.

A pair of sandhill cranes forage on a farm in Staten Island, California.

Photograph courtesy Cynthia Tapley, The Nature Conservancy

But birds on Staten Island are allowed to forage in peace, because this is no ordinary farm. Located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Staten Island was purchased by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2002 in order to create a place where agriculture and conservation can coexist. (Related: "'Walking Wetlands' Help Declining Birds, Boost Crops.")

TNC hopes bird-friendly practices developed and tested on Staten Island will set an example for other farmers for how they can keep their land productive and profitable—while creating habitat for birds traveling along the Pacific Flyway, one of four primary migratory routes in North America.

All About the Cranes

Staten Island is a major stopover and wintering ground for a broad suite of migratory bird species—including waterbirds such as ducks, snow geese, herons, and tundra swans—and shorebirds such as plovers and sandpipers. (See National Geographic's backyard bird identifier.)

It's also one of the most important sanctuaries in the state for sandhill cranes, one of the oldest species of living birds.

"There's a very similar species, if not the ancestral version, of these guys that was around in the dinosaur era," said TNC ecologist Greg Golet.

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