A project aimed at protecting internationally important seabird populations on two of the Isles of Scilly by killing more than 3,000 brown rats, is under way. The islands, which are located off Cornwall, are home to breeding populations of 14 seabird species and approximately 20,000 birds. Eradication experts from New Zealand and the UK have […]
Tag: rspb
Spoon-billed sandpiper numbers boosted by conservationists
Critically endangered spoon-billed sandpipers fledglings have increased in number by a quarter in 2013, after conservationists from WWT intervened to hand rear chicks. As few as 100 breeding pairs remain in the wild, rearing just 60 young between them each year on average. The 16 additional hand-reared young are a significant boost for the species, […]
M&S grouse meat could come from illegal source
Conservationists say grouse meat on sale in Marks and Spencer stores could come from estates where birds of prey are illegally shot in order to maximise the food supply. There are also concerns over the risks to human health from meat shot with lead ammunition. Two M&S stores in London began stocking red grouse on […]
Controversial herring gull cull gets green light
Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, has given the green light to a controversial cull of endangered sea birds on the Ribble Estuary in Lancashire, the Guardian has learned. The RSPB said it is “extremely concerned” that the cull of up to 475 breeding pairs of herring gulls and 552 breeding pairs of lesser black-backed gulls […]
Specieswatch: European eagle owl
The European eagle owl Bubo bubo is not a popular bird. It is very large and ferocious, and although it lives and successfully nests in Britain it is officially regarded as an alien and a danger to our own birds of prey because it does not like to share its hunting territory. Foxhunts have further […]
RSPB accused of hypocrisy for killing hundreds of birds on its reserves
The RSPB has admitted killing hundreds of birds on its reserves, prompting an accusation of “extraordinary hypocrisy” from the Countryside Alliance. The RSPB recently criticised the licenced destruction of buzzard eggs and nests to protect a pheasant shoot and said a cull of lesser black-backed gulls should be halted. But on Thursday the charity revealed […]
Government approved cull of endangered birds on Duke of Westminster’s Estate
Tens of thousands of endangered birds have been shot, trapped and poisoned on one of England’s largest shooting estates with the approval of the government agency responsible for protecting the species, a Guardian investigation has found. The government has licensed an annual cull of lesser black-backed gulls on the Abbeystead estate on the Bowland Fells […]
Stone curlews died underweight because of ‘cold spring’
One of the UK’s rarest birds is being put at further risk by the cold spring, the RSPB has said. The bodies of eight underweight stone curlews have been discovered in fields in Norfolk, Suffolk and Wiltshire over the past few days. The birds are thought to have come from Africa and Spain but struggled […]
