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MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAVE A FANTASTIC NEW YEAR, THANKS FOR FOLLOWING THE BLOG!

Raptor persecution in the UK past and PRESENT! Sign the e-petition!

As the year draws to an end including another breeding season for British birds of prey we can look back and reflect on not just breeding successes and failures but also the persecution that birds of prey have had to face.

527 crimes relating to birds of prey were reported relating to birds of prey in 2010 which is actually down on previous years but the sad fact still stares us in the face that it is still taking place! I'm sure you will also be aware more will have gone undetected or not reported, but what are the main causes of persecution.

The RSPB bird crime report 2010 shows a variety of case studies and areas of persecution reported to them but the two main areas of persecutin from the 527 reported were Shooting and destruction of birds of prey 227 reported cases and poisoning and use of poisoned bait 128 cases reported. Details of such activities can be found in the report but even if the arguement that these cases are not proven surely something is going on if so many have been reported. They can't all be mistakes can they?

The gamekeeper and shoot managers get the brunt of these cases and most of you who follow this topic will have read various articles between the two interested parties, those for birds of prey and those for the shooting fraternity usually always of the same substance but sadly breeding figures aswell as persecution evidence shows birds of prey just don't thrive on shooting estates. The sensitive subject lies with who takes the blame when such crimes are brought against the shooting estates where the majority of raptor persecution seems to be taking place in the UK. My opinion and various other's is that it should fall not just with the person(s) in question but the landowner in the form of vicarious liability. This is soon to be introduced in Scotland and surely it will make landowners take an interest in whats happening on their land.

A petition has been started to bring the subject of vicarious liability to the House of Common's for England, surely for the sake of British birds of prey it is something that should be at least discussed if we are to try and change the victorian image some people have of birds of prey in the UK. Who are we to say what can and can't live and survive on this island?

To make a stand against bird of prey persecution take five minutes to sign the petition below

  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/23089

To read the full RSPB Birdcrime 2010 click here http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/birdcrime2010_tcm9-293799.pdf

Birds of prey in the news!

There have been plenty of birds of prey stories popping up in the UK news you can check some of them out below by following the links.

A Honey Buzzard who caught a plane home - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-15533903

RSPB's crackdown on pesticides - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15561184

Red Kite and Raven poisoned - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-15620687

Poisoned bait found on Scottish estate - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-15707838

RSPB launches its Skydancers project - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-15735247

Red Kites increase in Scotland - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15763282

Further Raptor Persecution in UK - http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/poisoning-raptors.html#cr

Another dead Peregrine - http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/peregrine-poisoning.html#cr

Peregrines vanish from grouse moors - http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/peregrine-grouse.html#cr

 Eagle rescue - http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/eagle-rescue.html#cr

All of the above is to be read and digested as you please I obviously have my own personal opinions, but one article I have come across which I do think is a load of tripe is below!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/country-diary/8866765/Time-to-prey-on-predators.html

Where has November gone?

I have kept meaning to write a new post then I have been dragged off to another job or work. Well I have plenty for you to read about and a VERY important e-petition coming up straight after this entry PLEASE take the time to read and sign. But before then I have got plenty for you to have a look at below!

I have a few papers and a new interview which have dropped into my inbox over the last month all of which you can find links to below.

Firstly a new interview on the African Raptors website by Andrew Jenkins one of SA leading raptor biologists explaining his extensive work on the Taita Falcon in Africa.
http://www.africanraptors.org/interview-with-andrew-jenkins-about-the-taita-falcon/

Staying with falcons I also received a copy of a publication based on Eleonoras Falcon wintering in Madagascar, this study was carried out by satellitte tagging a few falcons. The publicaton is below
http://www.wildphoto.it/Mellone-winteringEleonorasFalcons-BirdStudy.pdf

Satellitte tagging birds of prey for research purposes is something that has become more and more popular opening up a whole new means of understanding things like migration but how many people have asked what effects this might have on the birds. Below is an article based on the effects have on Red Kites in England.
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/13983865/524603314/name/311.full.pdf

If vultures are your thing there has been a recent publication on Two species of Iberian Vultures by studying Integrating effects of supplementary feeding, poisoning, pollutant ingestion and wind farms of two vulture species in Spain using a population viability analysis

http://www.springerlink.com/content/561w73484546x726/

One of the more unusual papers I have posted on here is the one below regarding a Crested Eagle feeding a Post fledged Harpy Eagle in Panama, if anyone else has ever come across this in other species why not get in touch http://whitehawkbirding.com/blog/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/vargas_mosquera_watson-crested_eagle_feeding_harpy_eagle_2006.pdf

The IUCN has recently released new figures for the Red List of threatened species, I am currently in the process of developing several world maps highlighting raptor species but before then take a look at ARKives press release http://www.arkive.org/newsletter/?u=722a3ad7755a24108f2cd402e&id=1c6c319a71&e=

If like me you think it is vitally important we connect kids with the natural world then check out this fantastic game ARKive have developed to educate children about some of the worlds most endangered animals
http://www.arkive.org/apps/survival I will also be adding this to my links page in the kids section!

Dont forget to keep an eye on the monthly raptor profile page on the right hand tool bar as I will be adding a new species for November, supported by ARKive!

If there are any budding raptor biologists out there or even some current field biologists reading this why not take a look below at whats going on.
If you fancy a far flung trip away adding to your field work CV why not take a trip to the Baikal Reserve and volunteer on the reserve as an ornithologist for the resurrection of one of their trapping/ringing sites http://www.pr-naturetours.de/Nalychevo_ornis/nalychevo.html

GREFA is a NGO from Spain and they are currently looking for a biologist or veterinarian willing to develop a research project in their facilities, mainly involving captive breeding techniques (incubation, captive brehavior, etc.). No contact details were supplied.

Do you know of a field biologist who is carrying out fantastic work in the field then maybe they are worth some recognition?
Natural Research is pleased to announce that it is opening the application process for the 2012 Mike Madders Field Research Award.  The Award aims to support high quality field based ecological work, and was established in memory of Dr Mike Madders, a founding Director of Natural Research. 

 For more information on the Award and details of how to apply, please visit our web page

 http://www.natural-research.org/latest-news-research-updates/mike-madders-award-2012/

The BTO annual conference is coming up next month in the UK on Dec 2nd/4th more information can be found at http://www.bto.org/news-events/events

Closer to home in the UK raptor persecution is still the hot topic and there have been several articles and comments posted on the subject through various websites including http://www.raptorpolitics.org.uk/ but I will be covering some of this in more detail in my next post.

I have recently tiddied up my bird of prey links page hopefully making it easier to use and find the website of your interest, two websites I will be adding tonight are below. As always if you have a website that is of interest please don't hesitate to let me know!
http://www.vulturedeclines.org/
http://www.aviary.org/index.php

I'm going to follow this entry up with one covering birds of prey in the news and then another on persecution as there is just too much to fit into one blogging page!

Hope you enjoy!

Plenty to read!

I went for a walk the other day and saw three species of bird of prey in one field, a Peregrine appeared over me only to be chased off by one of the resident Kestrels which was closely followed by some sky dancing Buzzards. Well worth the walk out! I have also seen plenty of Sparrowhawks recently in built up areas, each week I travel to the outskirts of Manchester and each week I manage to catch a glimpse of a Spar soaring above one of the many large gardens. They are obviously adapting to population expansion better than other species.

I have come across some new tracking sites for birds of prey, I say new they are to me and sadly one of them is now no longer running but I thought someone may find it interesting for reference and research they include four species and I will be putting them on the website links page.

 http://stellerseaeagle.blogspot.com/
http://goldeneagletracking.blogspot.com/
http://pallidharriertracking.blogspot.com/
http://sootyfalconoman.blogspot.com/

I will also be adding some websites to the links page that I have recently come across one of which I thought was already there as I regularly follow its news page.

http://www.eagleconservationalliance.org/
 http://www.mefrg.org/

There is a new piece on the European Raptor website about the scientific study for the Hen Harrier Framework here in the UK.

http://europeanraptors.org/

If you manage to read the Hen Harrier framework and the 90 pages aren't enough for you why not take a look at this scientific paper based on the whereabouts of non-breeding populations of Short Toed Eagles.

http://www.africanraptors.org/spanish-research-shows-that-ghost-short-toed-snake-eagles-spend-the-summer-in-northern-africa/#more-505

Also in the UK the BBC Autumnwatch series is well underway and if you caught the first episode you will have seen Roy Dennis an Osprey expert following the progress of three Welsh Osprey chicks. The chicks were fitted with GPS tracking devices and the show is now following there progress each week, catch the other episodes below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=autumnwatch

Also in the UK the RSPB have recently advertised 3 job vacancies relating to the safeguarding of certain species of birds of prey on managed land. The species in question is the Hen Harrier which as you might know is now one of the rarest breeding birds in the UK.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/vacancies/details/293059-assistant-warden
http://www.rspb.org.uk/vacancies/details/293062-species-protection-assistant
http://www.rspb.org.uk/vacancies/details/293071-species-protection-coordinator

Or if you love Ospreys try

http://www.rspb.org.uk/vacancies/details/291057-osprey-information-assistant
http://www.rspb.org.uk/vacancies/details/292620-osprey-information-officer

On a sadder note you may remember the story on this blog about Hagpa the young Philippine Eagle who was caught by a farmer but rescued by the Philippine Eagle Foundation. The bird was eventually released and thought to be observed interacting with the parent birds which was fantastic news. Sadly this story hasn't ended this well and a Philippine Eagle was found dead thought to be shot and also thought to be Hagpa.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/eagle-philippines.html#cr

Also in the news relating to raptor persecution, the raptor persecution Scotland blog brings more stories ranging from further raptor deaths in the South West of England, shooting estate activities and policing matters, you can also find out more on the Raptor Politics site.

http://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/
http://raptorpolitics.org.uk/

On a lighter note to end the latest blog why not take a look at this website created by artists trying to put there artwork to good use by raising awareness about conservation issues. One current project is based on the Philippine Eagle and the art work is truly stunning!

http://jeepneyprojects.org/about-us/

Many thanks for your time and don't forget to have a good look through all the pages, I plan on tidying and updating the book page next.

Great News!

I have to admit as much as I enjoy compiling the blog and researching for it its hard work fitting it in with everything else I have going on in life. That means a couple of weeks might go past without a post and also things I would like to start take a bit longer. One of those things I started and didn't finish is the bird of prey profile page on the right hand side of the blog main page, the aim was to create a page that is changed every month with a new species of bird of prey and a fact file. This would have taken a lot of time and effort, then I had a fantastic idea and sent an e-mail.

Some of you may have come across ARKive.org on the internet and the fantastic resource of facts, images and videos covering a whole host of wildlife, this includes a variety of birds of prey. I decided to contact the team at ARKive to find out if I could create a link between this blog and the ARKive site to help with the blogs BOP profile page, they got back in touch saying they would love to join forces and spread the word about birds of prey.

They also informed me that the top viewed video on the site is one of an Osprey which went global and has had over 700,000 hits. I have no doubt that some of you may have seen the video but I thought what a great species to start with so why  not visit the page via the link below.

http://raptorawareness.blogspot.com/p/ive-never-heard-of-that-raptor.html

Cooling Off!

Well the days are really geting shorter and the cool air is starting to arrive, this is when people start telling me I should swap my shorts for trousers! I am in the process of building boxes for a few different species of birds of prey in my local area, I need to get them up sooner rather than later so that the birds can get used to them and hopefully use them for the winter ready for spring. One species I am focusing on is the Little Owl, in Cheshire the grazed farm land with old Oak trees has proved to be perfect habitat for these owls but in recent years myself and friends have noticed a drop in pairs. I knew I had at least one pair on my local patch and the great thing is Little Owls are sedentary and hold territory all year round so myself and a friend decided to see if we could locate the territory(s) so we could put some boxes up for the birds.

So on Friday night we went out armed with our Little Owl MP3 call to locate the pairs, now I say night but Little Owls start becoming active at dusk but you will also see them out during the day. The first pair I knew about responded immediatly but then we heard another owl from the other side of the field, now it is fairly common that if the land is good for Little Owls you will get territorys very close to each other and we put this down to being a second pair based on the distance apart. We drove to the back of the farm where a pair of Kestrels had nested this year and played the call, we didnt have to wait long for a response from an Oak tree and also a large pile of rubble out in the field. SO were putting it down as potentially three pairs of Little Owl on the area of farm we found and in the next couple of weeks we will be back out in the fields choosing suitable locations for the boxes.

Want to see a bit of Little Owl action then have a look below
http://www.arkive.org/little-owl/athene-noctua/

Other news from the bird of prey world at the moment Red Kites are doing extremely well in Ireland after an extensive release project http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/red-kite-ireland2011.html#cr

Did anyone catch the opening Autumnwatch 2011 on Friday, if you didn't then click on the BBC iPlayer link as there is a great piece by Roy Dennis one of the worlds leading Osprey experts and his role is radio tagging the three Osprey chicks born in Monmouthshire, Wales.
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b015pskp/Autumnwatch_2011_Episode_1/

Back onto the topic of Red Kites I have come across another website based on these birds back in the UK and also asking people to take part in a survey of feeding Red Kites in the UK, sadly I am not lucky enough to have Red Kites in the area never mind feeding the birds in my back garden. Have a look below
http://www.redkites.net/

I have also had a message informing me of a society created for Turkey Vultures Society, I have only had a brief glance at the website but it seems to have all the information you might need on these highly adaptable birds. http://vulturesociety.homestead.com/

I am currently in the process of tidying up the Books page as I have added several new titles to my book case and I am also trying to set up something exciting for the I've never heard of that bird of prey page on the right hand tool bar.

Hope you enjoy and keep coming back!