Gamekeepers vital in protecting rare birds, report finds

RESEARCH carried out by Durham and Newcastle universities into endangered upland birds has found that populations would plunge if gamekeepers stopped protecting them from predators.

Academics surveyed the numbers of ground nesting wading birds and used statistical models to simulate how bird populations in the upland North Pennines and Yorkshire Dales might be affected if grouse moors were managed differently.

They looked at birds including the curlew which scientists say is the UK’s most important bird conservation priority.

According to the report, if there were no gamekeepers preventing foxes, stoats and crows attacking these ground nesting birds, the number of curlew chicks hatching in upland areas could fall by around 87 per cent.

Although some birds would still fly into the moors from other areas, the sharp reduction in successful breeding could cut the overall number of curlew in the uplands of North Pennines and Yorkshire Dales by as much as 60 per cent.

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Row breaks out over plan to allow gamekeepers to cull hundreds of ravens

Alistair Grant Political Correspondent

A ROW has broken out over controversial plans to push forward with an “experimental” cull of hundreds of ravens.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has granted a group of farmers and gamekeepers a five-year licence to kill 300 birds in Perthshire.

But RSPB Scotland has now claimed the scheme has little to do with protecting wading birds, as claimed – and is instead a thinly veiled attempt to get rid of a perceived pest to benefit grouse shooting estates.

It said it was “outraged” to learn a licence had been given to Strathbraan Community for Waders, which says it represents “some of the local land management…and private interests in the area who value wading birds for their biodiversity, social and economic value to the area and to Scotland more widely.”

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Gamekeepers and RSPB clash over licence to cull buzzards on shooting estate

By WMNPBowern  |  Posted: August 02, 2016

   

The RSPB stands accused of hypocrisy over its opposition to the granting of a licence by Natural England to control buzzards that threaten pheasant poults on a commercial shoot.

The accusation, in a blog written by the gamekeepers’ political advisor, Charles Nodder, is that the RSPB is itself happy to use lethal control in the name of conservation of certain species and it is hypercritical of the organisation and its conservation director, Martin Harper, to complain when someone uses the same rules to protect their own interests.

In his blog on the RSPB website, Mr Harper wrote: “The thorny issue of licenses for buzzard control reappeared when Natural England issued a licence permitting the control of up to 10 buzzards to “prevent serious damage to young pheasants”.

He goes on: “The killing of a recovering British bird of prey to protect an introduced gamebird for the benefit of commercial interest is wrong. The decision sets a worrying precedent. What will be next? Red kites, peregrines, hen harriers?”

But Mr Nodder, political adviser for the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, says buzzards are thriving and asks, if it is okay for the RSPB to be granted licences to kill even rarer birds in the name of conservation, why it is wrong for shooting estates to also apply for licences to control buzzards?

He writes: “I was particularly interested in Martin’s reaction, because there is no risk to buzzard conservation arising from Natural England’s (NE) decision whatsoever.

In law, NE cannot issue a licence if, as a result of its being carried out, the conservation status of the licensed bird would be adversely effected.

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Nature expert: Gameskeepers can help save rare species

Gamekeepers could help with conservation

Jody Harrison, Reporter / 00:12 Tuesday 11 August 2015 / Home News

A PARTNERSHIP between gameskeepers and conservationists could be the best way to protect Scotland's wild places, a wild bird specialist has said.

Experienced bird ringer Neil Morrison said he formed a working relationship with gameskeepers in Perthshire and that the partnership helped produce valuable data on endangered species such as short-eared owls.

At least 18 pairs of the amber-listed birds of prey have bred in the last two years and Kestrels, declining alarmingly across Britain, are thriving, with eleven breeding pairs recorded since 2014.

Now, on the eve of the 2015 grouse season, the raptor study group member believes warring factions should learn to put differences aside, so birdlife can be the winner.

He said: “All my interest is in birds. I have never got involved in countryside politics but, personally, the benefits I have reaped from working with gamekeepers and landowners has been far greater than I initially thought.

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Gamekeepers are spared mandatory licences as petition to Defra fails

By Western Morning News | Posted: April 23, 2014

A call for gamekeepers to be licensed as a means of protecting birds of prey has been rejected, with the “economic and environmental benefits” of sport shooting reason enough not to restrict it.

An adult male hen harrier. The RSPB believes

the intensify management of upland areas for

 grouse shooting has contributed to their decline

The petition to the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which gathered 10,426 signatures, proposed licenses for gamekeeper and shoots, with each forfeiting them for breaches of conditions to include the illegal persecution of raptors.

Though the focus was primarily on upland grouse moors, managers of the Westcountry’s prime pheasant shoots will be relieved at the Governments refusal – and recognition of their contribution to the rural economy.

The RSPB says the persecution of birds of prey – nearly all of which have been protected since 1954, remains “unacceptably high”, though much progress has been made in lowland areas. Upland areas, however, remain a problem, the charity says.

John Squire Armitage, who started the petition, wrote: “Following any proven offence of persecution on the shoot concerned, i.e. illegal trapping, use of poisons, shooting or the interference with or destruction of nests, the licence would be revoked for a period of not less than two years and commercial shooting activity cease.”

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Gamekeepers plan wading bird action

SCOTLAND'S gamekeepers are taking action to try to prevent the country's wading bird populations from suffering the drastic declines seen in Wales.

The move has been welcomed by RSPB Scotland with whom the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) is often at odds.

The SGA says that ground nesting waders such as lapwing, curlew and plover breed up to three times more successfully on grouse moors, due to heather burning and legal predator control by gamekeepers.

The SGA has declared 2014 the Year of the Wader and will invite all grouse moors in Scotland to report counts in an attempt to provide an accurate picture of how waders are faring on keepered land.

The SGA says Scotland has lost 56% of its lapwing and curlew in only 17 years, with conservationists blaming climate change and habitat loss through farming practices.

However the gamekeepers say that unless the Scottish Government listens to practical land managers, waders could pass the point of no return. They cite Wales as an example, where 75% have been lost in the last few decades.

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Trap pine martens to protect capercaillie, say gamekeepers

Pine martens should be trapped and relocated away from capercaillie breeding areas, the Scottish Gamekeeper's Association has said.

The organisation said removing the predator would help to halt a decline in numbers of the rare bird.

The SGA's suggestion of trialling the trapping and transfer of pine martens is not supported by RSPB Scotland or Scottish Natural Heritage.

The mammals are legally protected and the subject of conservation work.

Foxes, crows and birds of prey also hunt capercaillie.

Bad weather, loss of habitat and collisions with deer fences have also been blamed for deaths of the birds.

The SGA said not enough was being done to control pine martens and capercaillie were "doomed" to extinction if measures were not taken.

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Hawks in danger of extinction in illegal hunting campaign

Just one breeding pair of hen harriers is left in England, warns the RSPB, which claims gamekeepers on grouse moors are being ordered by landowners to shoot the rare birds. 

Tracy McVeigh investigates

Only one pair of breeding hen harriers remains in England, according to the RSPB, which blames illegal persecution for what it fears is now the near extinction of the bird of prey in the country.

"It will be a tragedy if this bird disappears. It's a scandal that such a rare and iconic species has been deliberately persecuted to this extent," said Grahame Madge of the bird conservation charity. He said Yorkshire was now a "black spot" for British birds of prey, dozens of which were being targeted by gamekeepers on the area's vast shooting estates, who were under pressure to keep grouse and pheasant numbers high for their clients.

"It's like a return to the days of the Victorians up there; the landowners think they are a law unto themselves and the gamekeepers have to do what they're told or they'll be out of a job," he said. "And it isn't just hen harriers: our team of investigators are constantly uncovering evidence of other birds of prey being illegally shot, poisoned and trapped."

Madge said that the results which emerged a few weeks ago from scientific tests carried out on the carcass of Bowland Betty, a ringed hen harrier found in 2012 on Thorny Grain Moor in the Yorkshire Dales, proved what the charity has been saying for some time. "We found traces of lead in the bird's leg which proved what we have been saying: she was deliberately targeted, illegally shot. It may not have been the shot that killed her; she may have lingered on injured for a time, we can't tell unfortunately. But it is clear evidence, if any was needed, that there is deliberate, illegal persecution of our birds of prey ongoing."

He attacked the shooting estates for overbreeding game birds and called for the introduction of "diversionary feeding" on the estates – where food left out for nesting hen harriers and other raptors diverts the birds from attacking red grouse.

Continued:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/05/hawks-extinction-illegal-hunting