Are Scotland's White-tailed Eagles gobbling up lambs? New tagging project could help answer the question

                                                          

This time a fish - next time a lamb? Photo of White-tailed Eagle: NatureScot

 A TOTAL of 35 satellite tags are to be attached to juvenile White-tailed Eagles as part of a forthcoming project to establish the extent to which the birds prey on young farm livestock.

The initiative has been sparked by angry (but possibly exaggerated)  claims from farmers and crofters in Scotland that their lambs, and even foals, are falling victim to beak and claw.

Says NatureScot; "We are providing funding for the satellite tags for this collaborative research project, which will bring together a broad team of experts to assess predation.

"The transmitter tags will improve understanding of the movements and behaviour of adult and juvenile White-tailed and how they interact with their habitat and other creatures within it."

Over the next two years, the eagle chicks will be tagged when they are about eight weeks old. 

By then, they are full-sized and getting ready to fledge from 10 weeks of age on. 

Target ranges for tagging will be within Argyllshire, The Highlands and the Western Isles.

In Scotland, there are reckoned to be about 200 pairs of White-tailed Eagles.

Farm managers who are comfortable hosting trapping work on their land may be encouraged collaborate with this work.

The research project is a partnership between NatureScot, RSPB, Scotland’s Rural College SRUC, Natural Research Ltd, and a collective of independent ornithologists.

The costs are being shared, and there will be policy input from NFU Scotland and the Scottish Crofting Federation. 

It is hoped the project will also help to indicate how White-tailed Eagles interact with windfarms.

The research group will report periodically to the National Sea Eagle Stakeholder Group, while NatureScot has pledged to provide  updates on its website.

Bygone birding: Edmund Selous reflects on the piratical hunting method of the Arctic Skua

                                                            

Ornithologist Edmund Selous was fascinated by the feeding behaviour of  the Arctic Skua. In his book, Bird Watching (1901), he describes it thus:

Suddenly a dusky form, slender and Swallow-like, though as large as a Pigeon, shoots over the rounded bastion of the heather.

Sweeping upwards as it nears the cliffs, it darts upon one of a group of  gulls. 

A second pirate follows. 

With wild cries and long, gliding sweeps, they press and harass the larger bird, who, doubling, twisting, avoiding, dodging, but never resisting, utters again and again a cry of distress. 

Its companions sweep and eddy about them, shooting athwart and between. 

They protest, they cry to heaven, their wild voices mingle in harsh, discordant unison with the rock-dash of the waves, and the everlasting notes of the wind. 

Suddenly something drops from the oppressed gull. 

There is a sinking towards it of one of the dark shadows - swift beyond telling, but so soft that the speed is not realised.

The falling object is lost from view but then, almost with a jerk, the eye - or rather the brain -  realises that it has been caught in the descent. 

Empty, and now unregarded, the robbed bird sweeps on, and the pirates sweep back to the heather.

Who troubles over a robbed gull? What moral nemesis concerns itself with the wrongs of some cheated, done-to-death savage or tribe of savages? 

Over both, there is some shrieking, some eloquence at the time, but both are soon lost in oblivion, the waves close over and the world jogs on.

Retribution, retributive justice - such fine things may exist, perhaps, but, if so, they are reserved  for showier matters. 

Had the Skuas robbed an Albatross, something, perhaps, would have happened.

Their sin might have found them out 

Thus closes one of nature's wild dramas. The gulls are circling again now, and all is as before.

Scarce ground-nesting birds in peril as wildfire sweeps through the Cairngorms for a third day

No smoke without fire - scene in the Cairngorms

                                           

THERE are fears for the fate of rare Capercaillies and other birds as wildfire continue to sweep through an area where they are known to nest in the Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands.

The RSPB has temporarily closed the nature centre at its Loch Garden nature reserve, near Aviemore, as the fire burns for the third day in succession.

The society's rangers are supporting the Scottish Fire & Rescue Services as they continue to respond to the emergency.

The RSPB has also been allowing use of one of its drone to monitor the spread of the flames.

Birders, walkers and others are being urged to stay away from the area until the situation is fully under control.

* Photos: Scottish Fire & Rescue Service. 

                                              

Water being pumped from Loch Morlich

Sad fate of a pair of Capercaillies - stuffed and soon to be sold at forthcoming auction in Yorkshire

                                                           

Given its declining status in the wild, especially in Scotland, there is something disquieting about this pair of stuffed Capercaillies currently to be viewed on the premises of  Tennants auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorkshire ahead of a sale on August 5. The pre-sale estimate is that the hammer will fall at somewhere between £600 and £800. Sad to see but there are many more stuffed birds in the sale including (see below) Hoopoe (guide price: £250-£50), Roller (£120-£180), Bewick's Swan (£350-£400) and Gyr Falcon (£600-£800). 

                                             

                                         

                                           

                                                   

Stand by for autumn publication of another book - yes, another one - about the demise of the Great Auk

                                                  

Projected to be "a pivotal primary source in extinction science", this book is due to be published at £24.99 in  paperback in November. Derbyshire-born John Wolley (1823-1859) was a notable ornithologist who had a special interest in the Great Auk.

On song! Bumper price paid at auction for Charles Darwin letter about Nightingale migration

                                                               

A LETTER in which Charles Darwin inquires about Nightingale migration has this month sold at a London auction for an astonishing £22,860.

The sum is way higher than the pre-sale estimate of auction house Christie's that it would fetch  between £4,000 and £6,000.

Written from Beckenham in Kent, in May 1869, the three-page letter is addressed to ornithologist John Jenner Weir (1822-94) with whom Darwin (1804-81, author  of Origin of Species,  regularly corresponded about his sightings.

It includes a reference to a Darwin associate and collaborator, John Gould, also a notable author as well as being an illustrator 

A section reads: "'Mr Gould told me that male nightingales immigrate before the females; and that he had ascertained this was the case with the snipe and he believed that it was general with migratory birds.

" There is a man in or near Brighton, who sometimes writes in the Ibis, and who I imagine may be a bird-stuffer, and who seems to have paid special attention to migratory birds.

"I fear that the migratory birds are not largely caught by the bird-catchers, and the South coast would be the best place for observation."

According to a note in the Christie's sale catalogue, Darwin was "particularly interested in the role of migratory birds in dispersing plant and animal species over long distances."

The vendor of the framed letter is believed to have been a Japanese collector, but it is not known who bought it and whether it will remain in this country.

Saved from extinction? A brighter future beckons for Switzerland's rare Corncrakes - or does it?

                                                       

Corncrakes need herbaceous vegetation that provides good cover, but allows passage through  the ground, such as this nettle thicket. Photo: Lucas Lombardo, BirdLife Switzerland

 

There is some good news from Switzerland on determined efforts to ensure a future for the country's  small population of  breeding Corncrakes where the species has long suffered from the same challenges as in Britain. Birdlife Suisse (which has 72,000 members) has issued the following press release. 

It is 11 pm somewhere in the mountains of Graubünden. 

Silence.

Then then, suddenly, the characteristic crex-crex call. 

Hearing this in Switzerland has become very rare. However, it was once omnipresent: just a few decades ago, the "song" of the Corncrake was part of the balmy early summer nights on the Swiss Plateau. 

A century ago, people complained that they could not sleep because of the noise of the many Corncrakes. 

Today, in Switzerland his cries hardly resonate at all.

When BirdLife Switzerland launched it in 1996, its starting point was to save the Corncrake from extinction.

The project seems to be paying off. Last year, newly protected sites achieved 17 successful broods.

The field staff of BirdLife Switzerland spend nights searching (and listening) for singing males, certain farms have adjusted their crop-mowing dates and  cantons have provided finance for on-site protection.

"Without this partnership, the protection of Corncrake broods in Switzerland would not be possible," says Lucas Lombardo, project manager at BirdLife Switzerland.

All but gone from the country's plateau meadows, Switzerland's Corncrakes are now all but confined to sites 1000m above sea level

Graubünden has become the main refuge area, with around 50 per cent of all sightings. 

Corncrake nesting requires at least eight weeks of unmowed meadow - a period generally incompatible with current farm practices. Hence the need for protected zones.

Continues Lucas: "We are celebrating 30 years, but we are not celebrating without continuing concern.

"In Switzerland, the promotion of biodiversity occupies far too little place in agricultural policy.

"For the species to survive in the long term in the country, agricultural policy must become very much more orientated in favour of biodiversity. 

"Today, less than 15 per cent of direct payments are made for biodiversity, but  85 per cent is directed to  other areas, sometimes including payments that are harmful to biodiversity.

"If the nature and diversity of species were to be treated as what they are - our lifelines - then we could safeguard our Corncrakes much more effectively. 

"The challenge for the next few years is clear: to move from reactive nest protection actions to a proactive design of the environment.

"New technology - such as thermal imaging drones for detecting  Corncrakes -  are opening up new possibilities for research and protection. 

"But agricultural policy needs to promote and pays for large-scale environmental enhancement."                                  

Corncrakes need species-rich, late-mowed meadows, such as this flower meadow in Zuoz in the Engadine region. Photo: Enea Fadini, BirdLife Switzerland

                                                                   

The image may only be used in the context of this press release and with exact acknowledgement of the source.