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 […]
Tag: rspb
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 […]
UK nature reserves attract new bird species
The UK’s nature reserves act as ‘ecological welcome mats’ to new species, according to scientists. Since the 1960s, there has been a natural influx of wetland bird species from continental Europe. Species such as whooper swans, Cetti’s warblers and little egrets have used the nature reserves to colonise new areas of the UK, found the […]
Snowy owl spotted in Cairngorms
A rare sighting of a snowy owl has been made in the Cairngorms. The birds of prey are native to Arctic regions, including parts of Norway and North America. The snowy owl in the Cairngorms was seen on 18 February and reported on the nature website iSpot earlier on Tuesday. RSPB Scotland said that to […]
RSPB Troup Head
In June 2012 I visited RSPB Troup Head, in order to produce a short promotional film for the RSPB. A week was spent filming on the high sea cliffs of the reserve, where I was privileged to be in the presence of the beautiful and prehistoric Northern Gannet, Morus bassanus. The close proximity allowed me […]
Isle of Mull – Eagle Country
It was the first week of March on the wintry island of Mull and I was out in the field to focus on a local pair of Golden Eagles to monitor their early season behaviour. The usual persistence was required to see these elusive birds and once the snow eased off, in classic Mull fashion, […]