Investigations

New homes for orphaned peregrines

James Leonard — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:48:00 GMT

It was bright and sunny on 22 May and I found myself heading down the M6 to meet my colleague, Guy, and some concerned locals near Dudley to check out a peregrine falcon's nest site.

Previously, we had received numerous phone calls from locals, who believed that several metal spring traps had been put on a peregrine nesting ledge. Spring traps can legally be used under cover to kill rats and other small mammals, but their use in the open is totally illegal.

While we sorted our climbing gear, it was nice to see a pair of adult peregrines flying nearby.

I put the ropes in place and Guy ascended from below. Guy's shocked voice came over the radio: 'James, you have to come and see this!'

We were astounded to see two metal spring traps pegged onto the nest ledge - clearly a deliberate and malicious attempt to trap and kill the adult peregrines. Fortunately, both traps had been sprung, but two unhatched eggs lay on the nest ledge.

We set about documenting the scene, photographing and videoing the evidence before, collecting the spring traps and eggs. This was then immediately reported to the Police.

Trapped

The following day while in Northumberland, Guy and I received a phone call telling us that a local raptor worker, near Cannock, had found a male peregrine caught in a spring trap at its nest, which contained two young chicks.

They also found four other spring traps, including one with feathers and blood. The female had disappeared and we suspected she had also been trapped and killed.

I later saw the photograph of the male peregrine with the spring trap on its leg, which was horrific. This bird had to be euthanized because of its injuries.

The two chicks were taken into care and Raptor Rescue, a registered charity, took on the task of rearing the young without imprinting them - avoiding making the birds think they are humans!

I wondered how anybody could deliberately plan and carry out such cruel and barbaric acts on one of our most enigmatic birds of prey. A number of local people indicated they had heard stories that a number of disgruntled pigeon fanciers were involved. Peregrines and other birds of prey do take racing pigeons, though losses are small compared to the number of birds which don't return due to other factors.

Research has shown that only 3.5% of racing pigeons are taken by peregrines each year. In contrast, 36% of pigeon losses are the result of birds straying and becoming exhausted.

The West Midlands and Staffordshire Police, supported by the RSPB, put out a press release asking for more information and with a potential reward of £1,000 for information leading to the conviction of any of those responsible.

What now for the chicks?

In the meantime we faced a problem. Peregrine chicks belong in the wild, but with no parents, how could this happen?

The best method was to get these young birds back in the wild by fostering them into wild peregrine nests. Fortunately, it appears adult peregrines cannot count!

This method has been used before in Scotland, but as far as we were aware, this was the first time in England. We had to consider the ages of the chicks, and the extra demands that this would place on the foster family, and decided that we would have to split up the chicks and place them into separate nests.

We contacted some licensed volunteers who monitor the breeding birds of prey in a particular area. As luck would have it, they knew of two nest sites, both with two young in, that were of the correct age. Peregrines usually have three to four chicks and so would be capable of rearing one extra.

Liaising with Raptor Rescue, the local volunteers and landowners, we arranged a date for the operation - 5 June, a day I will remember for the rest of my life.

The moments of truth

An early start saw Guy and I visit Raptor Rescue and the two orphaned peregrines. The birds were in brilliant health and very vocal - always hungry and crying out for more! We collected the birds and met up with a local volunteer, who was going to take us to the two foster nest sites.

Ropes were needed to access the nest site, so we geared up, and I descended to the peregrine nest ledge, where I found two well-fed and happy young chicks. I was delighted to see that they were the perfect age for the orphaned chick I had carried down with me.

The decisive moment was upon me; I gently removed the young chick from its carrying bag and carefully placed it onto the nest ledge, next to its step-sisters. Without a glance at each other, the three young peregrines all fixed their attention to me, and occasionally the food remains in the nest.

The young bird was back in the wild where it belonged; for me those seconds will last forever.

I then descended to the bottom of the cliff and, knowing the parents were watching from afar, we left them to acquaint themselves with the new addition to the family.

Time was pressing. We drove to the second site. I assisted Guy as he secured the last chick in its carrying bag, and descended towards the nest ledge where its future lay. I had the pleasure of being able to watch Guy as he placed the second orphan into the nest; again, the age of the chicks was perfect.

As I watched Guy prepare to ascend, I noticed the chicks moving, and saw the foster chick huddled in between the others. It had been accepted immediately!

With huge grins on our faces, we headed home. The following day we had great news from the local volunteers that the adult peregrines had been seen feeding all the chicks, apparently oblivious of the new arrivals in their family.

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Pledges, The Archers and airports!

Mark Thomas — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:22:00 GMT

Hopefully by now you will have realised that the RSPB is in the process of embarking on a three year Bird of Prey campaign. We, like the raptors, need your support, particularly if you are a land manager who welcomes birds of prey and wishes to share your good practice. At the very least, please sign a pledge calling for an end to the mindless slaughter. We would also like to hear from you so we can use your stories and experience in our liaison work with other farmers and landowners.

Talking of birds of prey, the burning question for the past three weeks has been ‘who did it?’ Sworn to secrecy, my lips were sealed. Keen listeners to the Radio 4 programme The Archers will know exactly what I am on about.

A few weeks ago, a dead red kite was found illegally poisoned in Ambridge and all the fingers started pointing at Will, the young gamekeeper. The story took on various twists including Will finding a poisoned buzzard and burying it in panic.

Late last week, listeners finally found out who the real culprit was when Will discovered a poisoning kit in the estate vehicle used by Malcolm – the estate underkeeper.

Of course, this incident is just fictional but sadly it’s all too real for the Police, RSPB and Government conservation agencies who collectively deal with scores of illegally poisoned raptors, and other wildlife each year. Only last year, 58 birds of prey were confirmed as having been illegally poisoned – this equates to one per week and the true figure is thought to be much higher. Appalled? Please sign our pledge.

It’s not all bad news. Only yesterday I was helping BAA at a major UK airport with an exceptionally rare visitor that had flown in and landed in a rather inappropriate location.

The bird in question was a young female Montagu’s harrier which had chosen to hunt the verges of the main runway. The runway security team spotted the bird and thinking it was a hen harrier contacted the RSPB with some photographs.

I attended shortly after and was amazed to find the bird to be the UK’s rarest breeding raptor, the Montagu’s harrier. I obtained excellent views and hopefully passed on helpful advice to the airport in managing the stay of this long-haul visitor, which has just migrated from East Africa. Impressed? – Please sign our pledge.

Quality of life indicator

Mark Thomas — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:37:00 GMT

When Lincolnshire Police Wildlife Crime Officer PC Nigel Lound invited the RSPB on a police egg collecting operation back in November 2006, little did anyone realise what it would lead to.

The suspect, 41-year-old Richard Pearson, was not on the wildlife crime 'radar' and had not been in trouble with the Police before.

However, the intelligence received was precise and detailed.

We arrived at the address, in a quiet Cleethorpes road, and within a few minutes had hit the jackpot - a back bedroom full of polystyrene fish boxes, each housing hundreds of wild bird eggs.

The scale of the collection was not immediately apparent but I knew it was in the thousands, with some boxes having multiple layers of eggs cradled between cotton wool levels.

Amongst the eggs, I recognised immediately ones belonging to peregrine, golden eagle, osprey, avocet and black-throated diver.

Continued searching by the dedicated Police wildlife team revealed even more significant items, including numerous diaries crammed full of the details of Richard Pearson's egg collecting activities over the previous 15 years - robberies of black-necked grebes, choughs, peregrines and barn owls, to name but a few.

Pearson was arrested and interviewed. He claimed the eggs had been given to him by the late Colin Watson - a notorious egg collector who had been convicted seven times prior to his death, when he fell from a tree containing a sparrowhawk nest in May 2006.

Counting and cross-referencing

For the next few months, my quality of life indicator was set too low - let me explain... In order to successfully get this case to court, it was essential that each and every egg was identified, photographed and catalogued.

This was a mammoth task, which could only be completed by my self-imposed exile from society in a small room, full to the ceiling with eggs, for days on end.

Eventually, the job was completed and Richard Pearson's illegal haul was found to contain 7,130 wild birds' eggs, representing the single largest seizure of its kind in the last 20 years.

The collection contained eggs of many rare species including honey buzzard, Montagu's harrier, red-necked phalarope, black-tailed godwit, dotterel, greenshank and 15 clutches of red-backed shrike.

Next came the equally arduous task of cross-referencing codes in his diaries with those written on the eggs in the collection. It was important to be able to show to the court the exact eggs taken from particular egg collecting forays mentioned in his diaries.

Prolific collecting

It became apparent that although he made regular trips to northern England, Scotland and north Wales, his most prolific collecting took place within his home county of Lincolnshire.

His diaries documented the taking of seven sets of black-necked grebe eggs from one site in Lincolnshire alone, causing the birds to fail to produce any youngsters and ultimately to desert their breeding site.

Pearson was not only content with the rare; other eggs in his haul included 25 clutches of little ringed plover eggs, 23 clutches of ringed plover eggs, 37 clutches of raven, 28 clutches of lapwing and 96 clutches of reed warblers.

Pearson was charged with possession of the egg collection and three specimen charges for taking of eggs in 2005 relating to peregrine, chough and barn owl.

A day in court

At Skegness Magistrates Court yesterday, Pearson pleaded guilty to five offences and was jailed for five-and-a-half months by District Judge Richard Blake. The judge commented that Pearson represented the top end of people who commit these sorts of crimes, that he had carefully organised an evil campaign against wildlife and that his perverted activities threatened the fragile heritage of this island for future generations - hear, hear.

The case has attracted a huge amount of timely media interest with the breeding season underway in earnest. One thing is for sure, nesting birds should have a quieter breeding season this year, providing us all with a high quality of life indicator - except of course for the man locked in a small room for the next few months.

The RSPB wishes to thank Clova Townhill for her assistance with the case, Lincolnshire Police, particularly PC Lound, PC Whilley, PC Carmichael and barrister David Outterside who represented the case for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Covert surveillance pays off with successful prosecutions

James Leonard — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:30:00 GMT

31 May 2007. Headkeeper James Shuttlewood (front) with a North Yorkshire Police officer at one of the cage traps containing a live pigeon on the Snilesworth Estate (there was no conviction in respect of this trap)

Bird of prey persecution remains a serious problem on upland sporting estates across much of Britain with birds being shot, trapped and poisoned to try to reduce predation on grouse and other game birds. The absence or low numbers of birds of prey across large parts of the uplands is testament to the problem.

Despite over 50 years of legal protection, there is little sign of these Victorian attitudes changing in many places. In North Yorkshire, rare and charismatic species such as hen harriers and peregrines continue to be persecuted.

In May 2007, a local farmer reported finding three cage traps baited with live pigeons in secluded woodland areas in the Scugdale Valley, on the Snilesworth Estate on the North York Moors.

A cage trap is typically a wooden frame covered with wire mesh with an access point on the top to allow the target birds to enter. Cage traps can be used legally to control magpies and crows, however, the use of live pigeons as baits, clearly indicated they were being set to catch birds of prey.

Sparrowhawks, or the much rarer goshawks, are the typical victims of such traps. Having entered to kill the pigeon, they find that they are unable to escape and they in turn can be killed by the trap user. The North Yorkshire Police had been contacted about this and we decided it would be worth making further enquiries on the rest of the estate.

On Saturday 26 May, in company with my colleague Guy Shorrock, we spent eight hours walking around the estate looking for cage traps and checking secluded woodland areas. Incredibly, we came across three further cage traps baited with live pigeons, and a further cage trap with a dead pigeon, which appeared to have been plucked by a bird of prey.

Only 20 metres from this trap, I found the body of a sparrowhawk pushed down a rabbit hole and it seemed this was a likely victim of the trap. It was abundantly clear that there was a campaign of illegal trapping taking place on the estate. However, from previous experience we knew we had to link any culprits with the traps to obtain sufficient evidence for a prosecution.

Covert surveillance

This was to be my first covert surveillance operation with the RSPB and on the Sunday we spent our time preparing our equipment. We awoke at an uncomfortable 2.20 am on the Monday morning, left our accommodation and drove to a location on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors.

We walked several miles across the moors in the dark and went to one of the cage traps in the Coal Rigg plantation. The same pigeon was still present and we installed a small automatic camera system to monitor the trap.

We continued to another cage trap at Skelbeast Wood, again the same pigeon was still present. Here we concealed ourselves nearby overlooking the cage trap. Despite being May, the weather was atrocious with a biting wind and long periods of rain. In the late afternoon, nobody had arrived, so we decided to leave.

That evening, we met up with two of our Scottish colleagues, who agreed to travel down and help us. After a late evening briefing and equipment check, we snatched a few hours sleep before another 2.20 am start.

It was raining heavily as we left our colleagues to walk to the Coal Rigg plantation. We also made our way through the pouring rain back to Skelbeast Wood. We were both drenched to the skin and so cold we wondered if we could undertake the surveillance. Not wanting to lose face in front of our Scottish colleagues, we decided to stick it out.

29 May 2007. Junior underkeeper David Cook caught on camera feeding the captive pigeon in one of the illegal cage traps on the Snilesworth Estate

At 9.45 am, I was half-comatose trying to keep the video camera dry, when I was aware somebody was throwing pine cones at me. I looked round to Guy a few metres away, who was watching the approach track, and from his gestures it was clear people were arriving. I then got ready with the video camera and within a minute, the young underkeeper, David Cook, arrived and spent a few minutes feeding and watering the pigeon in the trap.

My heart was pounding as I tried to keep the video camera steady. Barely daring to breathe, I stayed as still as possible whilst he left the wood, wandering through the trees a short distance away.

A few minutes later, we heard him and his colleague leaving the area on a quad bike. We let our colleagues know what had happened, and within 10 minutes they had also successfully filmed Cook visiting the cage trap in Coal Rigg plantation, again feeding and watering the pigeon.

We all left the area, and our colleagues returned to Scotland for some much-needed rest. We contacted PC Mark Rasbeary, an experienced Wildlife Crime Officer (WCO) with the North Yorkshire Police, and outlined our evidence.

31 May 2007. PC Jeremy Walmsley quizzes gamekeeper Charles Woof (left) about the presence of a live pigeon in a cage trap on the Snilesworth Estate.

On 31 May, a number of police officers, an RSPCA officer and ourselves returned to the estate. With some five gamekeepers working on the estate we suspected it would be difficult to visit all the traps without the pigeons being released before we got there. Sure enough, only two of the six cage traps still contained live pigeons.

The hidden camera at Coal Rigg plantation later told a revealing story - a young man could be seen clearly releasing the pigeon from the cage trap just a few minutes before the police arrived at that location.

The RSPB supplied a comprehensive file of evidence to WCO PC Jeremy Walmsley, the officer in charge of the investigation, complete with photographs and our surveillance footage. A number of gamekeepers from the estate were subsequently interviewed by the Police and reported for offences.

A day in court

On 8 February 2008 at Scarborough Magistrates Court, three of the Snilesworth Estate gamekeepers pleaded guilty to a number of offences.

The head gamekeeper, James Shuttlewood (40), an experienced gamekeeper of over 20 years, pleaded guilty to five offences of permitting the use of five of the illegal traps by his staff. He was fined £1,250.

Charles Woof (22), the gamekeeper covering the Scugdale valley, pleaded guilty to using one of the traps and was fined £100.

David Cook (18), a trainee underkeeper, pleaded guilty to using the two traps where he had been filmed. In view of his age and inexperience, he received a 12 month conditional discharge.

It was clear the court took a particularly serious view of Mr Shuttlewood’s involvement, outlining that his staff were carrying out his instructions and that his reputation had been tarnished.

The illegal killing goes on

Unfortunately, the war being waged against birds of prey in our uplands will continue, and already this year we have had reports of persecution. Whilst gamekeepers, like those on the Snilesworth Estate, may be on the front line of this conflict, it is the shooting industry, the managers and employers who need to get their house in order. There needs to be a serious change in attitude if we are to see an improvement for the fortunes of many of our birds of prey.

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Egg thief collects a six-month prison sentence

Mark Thomas — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:21:00 GMT

He stood in the dock and told the court he was sorry, that the bird breeding season was a stressful time for him and that his problem was that he associated with other collectors, who fuel his obsession for taking eggs.

In life, people have choices and ultimately these choices decide a person’s fate. In Gregory Wheal’s case, his choices have lead to him to become THE most convicted egg collector in the UK.

His previous eight court appearances, dating back to 1987, simply served as no deterrent. Even being sent to jail for four months in January 2006 wasn’t enough. So when the Police and RSPB knocked at his door in the summer of 2007, it was no surprised that the eggs of peregrine falcons and ravens were found hidden in padded containers in his bedroom.

Wheal’s exploits have seen him appear in an A to Z of Police Stations and courthouses throughout the UK: Shetland for whimbrel eggs, Mull when he was luckily intercepted with equipment used by egg collectors at a time when eagles were nesting, and, of course, back home in Coventry - the egg collecting capital of the UK.

Well, Mr Wheal, the Magistrates have decided your time is up. Whilst we do not wish anyone to spend time in jail, we hope you spend the next six months contemplating your actions and decide to stop collecting eggs and hand over any eggs you may still have to the Police.

At a time when birds are increasingly pressured by habitat loss, climate change and migration-related threats, isn’t the idea of a grown man scaling a tree or abseiling from a crag to take eggs just simply wrong?

Thankfully, recently amended laws - the laws that you as our supporters and members helped us persuade the government to implement - have curtailed the activities of all but the obsessed collectors, who are prepared to risk all.

The idea of jailed collectors being ordered to serve their time to correspond with the bird breeding season would be one way to relieve the self- confessed stress faced by men like Gregory Wheal.

Sadly, this is not practical in legal terms, but yesterday the Crown Prosecution Service appealed to the magistrates to try a new innovative technique – the much-documented ASBO. The passing of this order would have restricted Wheal’s movements by banning him from National Parks, nature reserves and conservation areas during the breeding season and preventing him from associating with other known egg collectors.

The court ruled that egg collecting was anti-social but failed to implement the order on this specific occasion.

Looking on the bright side, at least this year the ravens should have hatched their chicks by the time he is released, hopefully a changed man…