Laws Protecting Wildlife

Here in the UK, and to a slightly lesser extent in Europe, we do have some quite effective laws to protect wildlife. Even so, there are still far to many occasions when people fail to respect these laws, disturbing and damaging rare and endangered wildlife. My own experiences show how much vigilance is still required.

Further, an Egg thief has just been sent to prison for stealing birds eggs from nests. This individual had over seven thousand birds eggs in his possession, and six hundred and fifty three of these were from the most endangered birds. This included eggs from the Black necked Grebe, the most endangered of all the birds in the UK and this individual probably is the person responsible for the Black necked Grebe no longer breading in the UK at all. While the shear volume of the eggs in his possession was astounding the other evidence also gathered when he was arrested back in 2006 was remarkable. He had kept detailed notes of his illegal acts, that told the Police and the RSPB that after stealing one clutch of eggs from a rare birds nest he would return to steal the latter clutch of eggs. While for more common birds this would not have a noticeable impact, for many of the rarest birds this man has reduced populations by fifty and sixty percent.

Only this week the RSPB launched a campaign highlighting the fact that while good habitat exists for many of our rare raptors, in the moorland areas where there are shooting estates, these birds are absent. What is happening is that Gamekeepers are shooting or poisoning these hawks. All illegally and in the mistaken belief that these birds of pray are taking large numbers of grouse. While some hawks do take a few chicks, they in fact do more to help by feeding on rodents and other birds that compete with the grouse. But even science cant overcome years of prejudice towards hook bills and talons.

Even my Badger watching gets disrupted by people that have nothing but ill will towards the Old Brock. Fortunately, here at least, I have developed contacts with the right people involved in wildlife protection to disrupt some of these illegal activities. However the RSPCA have reported the discovery of four dead Badgers in Wales, believed to have been illegally killed by farmers.

However, these laws have also meant that I have be careful that I don not do anything that inadvertently breaks the law. This also includes me requiring a licence to film and or take photographs at or near the nest site of highly protected species. In the past I have applied for and been refused licences. Not because anything I was planing to do was damaging, but it was more that I was unknown to the organisations that issue the licences. However, because of some of the work that I have been involved in, the penny has finally dropped that I do genuinely have the best interests of the natural history at heart.

Therefore, I had a meeting with someone who was there to assess if I was a responsible person to be issued a licence. One of the barriers I had to overcome was that I share my name with someone that has convictions for animal cruelty. Fortunately, that was easy to disprove as I have already undergone Criminal Records checks, something I have had to do as part of child protection laws. I have no convictions, something else that helped was that, not for the first time, I have been asked if I would become JP (Justice of the Peace).

However, the main thing I needed to show, was that I was able to show that I understood the needs of the wildlife. So following a brief interview (Interrogation) in my home, my inquisitor and I headed off to the nest site I wanted to film and photograph. While near the site I held back, but I was surprised that the licence provider was willing to approach closer than I would ever have done. But as a licensed bird ringer, she had another role, to get a GPS location for the nest so that any chicks could have rings fitted latter. It was a real treat to be six feet from a Goshawk Nest.

It looks as though I will get the licence, further now I have been able to prove that I am responsible, ROFLOL, it should now also be possible to get the permissions to film and photograph other rare and endangered wildlife. It was to the possible location of another of these, that we headed to next.

I have found signs of the rare Harvest Mouse, and I want to set up a camera to film at a likely nest site. While trekking to the site, I spotted what at first I thought was a Sparrow hawk, but it didn't look right. So I asked if it could be a Merlin. And gosh it was, the narrow wing and the flight were the give away. This is only the second time I have seen one, and the first time that I was positive of the identification.

The Article on the Badger killings

The Article on the Egg Thief

The RSPB on the Bird destroyer