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Callous killing of rare red kite is blasted by protection groups
HOPES that red kites from neighbouring areas will colonise the Borders have taken a blow with the shooting of one of the rare birds of prey.
The injured red kite was discovered last week lying on an upland grouse moor in Berwickshire by a doctor and his children out walking.
The juvenile female was taken to a wildlife vet where x-rays showed she had shotgun wounds to which she eventually succumbed.
Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Superintendent Mike Flynn this week criticised the gunman responsible for the callous killing.
"This is the second iconic bird to be persecuted in the Scottish Borders alone following the poisoning of a female golden eagle last August.
"Red kites are very distinctive and would not be mistaken for a crow or the likes.
"In my 21 years with the SSPCA I have never known the shooting of a red kite and this is a very bad news day for the Borders.
"The vet at the Berwick Swan Trust was treating the wing and it seemed to be responding, but the internal injuries were too great and the kite died. It would have been very distressed and it would have been a slow, painful death.
"It is a pointless and senseless killing. We would ask anyone with information about this to contact us as this has to be stamped out.
"It is very sad that despite the comments from government ministers and leading police figures about tackling wildlife crime that this sort of thing is still happening."
Bob Elliot, head of investigations with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland, says red kite numbers are only just starting to recover after the species was wiped out in Victorian times by human persecution.
"The vast majority of people are proud to see birds like this in Scotland's skies, but it never ceases to shock when the mindless vandal minority seeks to ruin the reintroduction effort," he said.
James Reynolds, also of the RSPB, says it has been hoped by those involved with the reintroduction of red kites to Dumfries and Galloway, central Scotland, Gateshead and north Tyneside, that juvenile birds from these areas might colonise the Borders.
"There has been some concern about possible persecution, but that is not something which has prevented red kites being reintroduced in the Borders.
"The hope has been that the wandering nature of these birds would see them appear in the Borders from surrounding areas.
"Unfortunately, it looks like those concerns about persecution have been valid with the killing of this bird."
Anyone convicted of shooting a red kite faces a jail sentence of up to six months or a 2,000 fine under the Wildife and Countryside Act.
The SSPCA has set up a special hotline 0870 2404832 which will be manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week if anyone has any information about the shooting. Red kites pose little threat to valuable game birds, as they are mainly carrion eaters.
It is one of the rarest bird species in the UK and a programme of reintroducing them in Scotland got underway in 1989.
It is now estimated there are around 120 breeding pairs in Scotland, although there were 12 confirmed persecution incidents involving the species in Scotland last year.
Red Kites are distinctive because of their forked tail and striking colour – predominantly chestnut red with white patches under the wings and a pale grey head.
They have a wingspan of nearly two metres (about five-and-a-half feet), but a relatively small body weight of 2-3 lbs.
This means the bird is incredibly agile and can stay in the air for many hours with hardly a beat of its wings.
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Weather for Galashiels
Thursday 24 May 2012
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