Comedian Bill Bailey plays host to a rough and tough 6-part outdoor reality show, Continue reading
Tag Archives: sea eagles
24th November: Blue Peter on Mull’s sea eagles
On BBC 1 tomorrow (24th November) at 4.35pm, Continue reading
Mull’s PC Finlay Christine wins top RSPB award
A man who has played a signal role in the Mull Eagle Watch project, Continue reading
Scotland’s – and Argyll’s – sea eagles break records
This year has seen two landmark records for Scotland’s sea eagles: Continue reading
Improve your score – Mull Golf Course guarantees an Eagle
Cries of ‘birdie’ and ‘eagle’ took on Continue reading
PAW held out for Finlay Christine, honoured today for protecting Mull’s Sea Eagles from wildlife crime
New Environment Minister, Raseanna Cunningham has, at a conference today at Tulliallan Police College, presented Mull’s Wildlife Crime Officer, Finlay Christine, with the Wildlife Crime Co-ordinator of the Year Award.
The award is made by PAW Scotland – Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime. In presenting it, Ms Cunningham said: ‘Wildlife crime continues to threaten Scotland’s rare species and it is dedicated people like Mr Christine who are at the forefront of efforts to tackle it.
‘Partnership working is incredibly important and Mr Christine has worked tirelessly with other agencies to protect one of our most precious native species.
‘The Scottish Government will continue to provide the political leadership to tackle wildlife crime, and it is an issue I am particularly passionate about, but we look to those on the ground to lead the fight against this stain on our natural environment’.
Finlay Christine has been with Strathclyde Police for almost 30 years, working on the Isle of Mull since 1991. He was responsible for setting up the Mull Eagle Watch project to raise awareness of and to protect sea eagles on the island. it is a partnership bringing together Forestry Commission Scotland, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Scottish Natural Heritage, Mull & Iona Community Trust and Strathclyde Police.
As this very successful initiative of Finlay Christine’s makes clear, much of the work of Wildlife Crime Officers (WCOs), both in prevention and detection of wildlife crimes, involves working in partnership with other agencies. The existence and the duties of Police WCOs are an integral part of the fight against wildlife crime. Scotland now has around 80 WCOs and their impact is widely recognised – and measureable.
PAW Scotland itself brings together a wide range of bodies with an interest in tackling wildlife crime. Its remit covers issues like conservation, land management, shooting and law enforcement.
Today’s conference at Tulliallan Police College, where WCO Christine was deservedly honoured, was attended by police officers and other key groups including the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals (Scottish SPCA), Scottish Raptor Study Groups, RSPB Scotland, British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), SRPBA, Advocates for Animals and Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA).
The Sea Eagle reintroduction programme on Mull has been markedly successful for the species and for the island. It is contributing strongly to the island’s rich wildlife tourism sector. The worthy winner of the Best Wildlife Website Award in the ForArgyll Awards 2008 was RSPB Mara & Breagha, a blog that also offers visitors the opportunity to watch the satellite-tracked flight paths of two young sea eagles hatched on the island.
Sea Eagle seen off by 40 Red Kites at Scotland’s first feeding station
Yesterday, at Scotland’s first Red Kite feeding station at Argaty near Stirling, forty of the kites took collective action against an even more magnificent invader – a white-tailed Sea Eagle. The kites are described as ‘mobbing’ it with repeated dive-bombing raids.
The eagle is a 9 month old female released in Fife in August 2008 after capture in Norway and carrying tracking equipment to enable its movements to be monitored. Continue reading
Crofters and SNH agree project to investigate causes of lamb mortality
The issue of lamb mortality in crofting areas flown by the Sea Eagles re-introduced to Scotland has been a contentious one.
Now a meeting between Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), crofters in Skye and Gairloch, the Scottish Crofting Foundation, the Scottish Government and RSPB Scotland has agreed a project to start in the Spring of 2009. This will work to establish the causes of lamb mortality.
The meeting was at SNH’s Beinn Eighe national nature reserve was presented with summaries of lamb losses for the Gairloch and Skye areas.
Willie Fraser, of the Crofting Foundation at Gairloch and Poolewe, says: ‘Four holdings on the Gairloch Peninsula have lost more than 200 lambs between May and September and they are adamant that the majority are victims of the sea eagle’.
One problem is the lack of confidence than can be placed in anecdotal evidence. In order to gather more objective evidence, what it may indicate, Willie Fraser and Donald MacDonald of the Skye Crofting Foundation will now discuss the issue with local contacts. This is designed to provide information on numbers and times of losses, predator activity and historical evidence which will be passed to SNH to coordinate.
SNH have agreed to fund the independent research study and the crofters say that they are pleased to be directly involved with this.
Head of Policy and Advice at SNH, Ron Macdonald, says: ‘The fundamental issue here is lamb losses and our aim is to refine and conclude a scientific specification shortly. It is hoped, following that, a scientific monitoring project into sea eagle movements and predation habits could start next spring.
‘The project should include data on sheep as well as lambs and the clear feeling at the meeting was that a pilot project should concentrate on the Gairloch peninsula, plus another area from Skye.
‘What remains clear is our determination and commitment to investigate the underlying causes of high lamb mortality and I am pleased to confirm that the first meeting went well and we look forward to working even more closely with everyone in the future’.
Environment Minister, MIchael Russell says: ‘What we have here is two areas of conflicting interest. On one hand there are our crofters who have been an important part of Scotland’s rural history for centuries and to whom livestock is highly valuable.
‘One the other, is Scotland’s natural heritage, to which the sea eagle has recently been returned after a long absence as one of this country’s most beautiful birds.
‘I hope that this project will get to bottom of the issue and find a solution that can balance both interests’.
Highlands MSP, Jamie McGrigor, who was present at an earlier meeting at Poolewe where, he, says: ‘The anger caused by these losses was plain to see. I do not believe that the anecdotal evidence which was given by local people concerning lamb losses and sea eagles was in any way untrue.
‘There is a vital lesson to be learned which is that with the introduction of any predator species it should be first ascertained what nourishment is available for that species. Many years ago the hills of the northwest Highlands were populated by mountain hares which were certainly a mainstay food source for eagles and other hawks. Perhaps SNH should think of reintroducing a food source of this kind before introducing predators which are likely to prey on the livestock and therefore livelihood of crofters.
‘In Mull in Argyll a compensation has been paid to crofters and farmers for lamb losses it is accepted that the island benefits from bird watching tourists who come to see the sea eagle. The Gairloch crofters do not benefit from any compensation of this kind and with regard to bird watchers many have concerns for the impact of sea eagles on sea birds such as fulmars. I hope that the RSPB is taking seriously the reported decline of the fulmar colonies’.
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Norfolk to take a wing-tip from Mull and introduce sea eagles
The sea eagle breeding programme on Argyll’s Isle of Mull has been hugely successful – apart from the poisonings that continue to be a feature of some of Scotland’s estates. A young sea eagle which had hatched on Mull was found dead in May on the Glenquiech Estate in Angus, deliberately poisoned.
There are now more than 40 breeding pairs in the west of Scotland, with 34 chicks produced last year. The reintroduction of the birds to Mull from 1975 is estimated to bring an additional £1.5 million annually into the island’s economy. Now Norfolk has ambitions to follow suit.
Norfolk has been identified as the best habitat in England for a similar reintroduction. It has large areas of wetland and the sea eagle is the top rank predator in such a habitat. The presence of these magnificent birds in the skies above Norfolk is exciting conservationists and is seen as inspirational and a strong potential contributor to local economic development.
Sea eagles could be introduced as early as next year if local consultations with landowners and residents are successful. And here is the rub.
The landowning lobby has always been against raptors, seeing them as a threat to the grouse population they breed as an earner. There are regular poisonings and shootings on sporting estates, with Prince Harry and friends said to have been ‘present’ when a rare red kite was shot on the Queen’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk a year ago.
The only leverage against such activities has been EU legislation linking compliance with wildlife laws to the payment of subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). A hit on the pocket is the only hit that talks in such company. Now the EU has dropped the link – known as cross-compliance – despite lobbying by Scottish Ministers for its retention.
As For Argyll reports in an article above, the removal of this penalty which can be applied to estates where wildlife crimes occur, greatly weakens the possibility of successful reintroduction of the sea eagle in Norfolk. It returns a latitude to landowners which some have shown a tendency to abuse.
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Crofting tales – lambs taken by sea eagles, new powers, new crofts, fewer holiday homes, a retreat from the hills and a bit of bull
The White-tailed sea eagle has been successfully re-introduced into Scotland after being driven to extinction by illegal killing in the early part of the 19th century. Argyll’s Isle of Mull has scored major breeding successes with these magnificent birds, seeing a growth in its wildlife tourism as a result.
However, it’s not been an unequivocally welcomed conservation success story. Over 200 crofters met conservationists at Poolewe in Wester Ross on Monday night (29th September) to express concerns over loss of stock to the raptors. They claim that the sea eagles have been preying on lambs, thus threatening crofting livelihoods.
After Monday night’s meeting, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and RSPB Scotland said another meeting would be arranged to examine the issue in more detail. The crofters are not hopeful that the sea eagles will be removed from their land areas – their preferred option – but hope that something can be done to help them.
Changes proposed today by the Scottish Government’s Environment Minister, Michael Russell, may give the crofters more of a voice in this and other matters in the future. Rather than abolish the Crofters’ Commission – as the Government commissioned Shucksmith Report recommended, Mr Russell is changing its constitution to make it more democratic and accountable, with up to six area committees. These will have crofter members elected by their peers. Mr Russell says: ‘I believe that empowering crofters to take decisions about crofting is central to securing the future of the sector’. Highlands and Islands Enterprise will assume the Commissions;s previous development role and a separate body will maintain a register of crofts.
A further initiative will be a series of actions to reduce the number of second homes and to prevent crofts being sold into second home ownership. People seeking to buy a croft house or build a dwelling on land taken out of crofting will be required to live in it, rather than use it as a second home. Michael Russell makes the point that state support for crofting has always been about strengthening local populations. He says: ‘We will be talking to local authorities about a condition on houses when they are decrofted’.
In the Holyrood debate on the Committee of Enquiry into Crofting, Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Jamie McGrigor asked the Environment Minister about the discontinuation of the Bull Hire scheme for crofters. Mr Russell responded that only about 430 crofters had used the scheme in the past year. He noted that the cost was to rise from £500 this year to around £1,200 which would obviously involve issues of state aid. He indicated that the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) could enable communities with the capacity to acquire one of the bulls from the state stud to do just that. The state-owned stud farm near Inverness is to sell off its bulls to deserving crofting communities.
All of this this is happening alongside a noted decrease in sheep or hill farming. The Scottish Agricultural College’s Rural Policy Centre has recently published a report on this: Farming’s retreat from the hills.
Yet crofting itself, in its modern forms, remains central to the vitality of remote communities. It has contributed to both a realty and a mood of regeneration in the Isle of Jura, with three new successful crofts adding to the population and the school roll – and six more now licensed for the island’s Ardfin Estate by the Commission.