Raptor Persecution in Lockdown — Birds on the Brink

The lockdown of spring and early summer 2020 provided an opportunity for many people to appreciate the world – and specifically the environment – around them in new ways. For some this was the first time they had heard birds singing without the accompanying background noise of cars. For most, isolation only enhanced the experience, reinforcing the much-used saying, attributed first to Lord Byron, that ‘In solitude, we are least alone’.

An aerobatic Red Kite. ©Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd.

However, while the vast majority of the population was engaging more profoundly with wildlife, in some parts of the UK there were darker forces at work. Sad to say that without monitoring and scrutinising oversight raptor persecution increased and plumbed new depths of contempt for wildlife. During lockdown, the RSPB received a surge in reports of birds of prey being illegally killed and the majority of incidents appear to have been on or close to sporting estates managed for gamebird shooting. Now that more people are able to get out and about, the RSPB asks the public to stay vigilant and report crimes against birds of prey.

The Common Buzzard came top of the revolting league table of shot raptors, and a variety of other methods of killing were also employed, poisoning and trapping among them. Further down the league table came Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Goshawk and Peregrine, and the roster even included owls. It seems that some people simply enjoy killing things for the sake of it and this behaviour should be called out for what it is – unacceptable in a supposedly civilised society.

Paul Sterry.