Something in the air at North Glenbuchat?

Mark 8 Comments

A tagged Golden Eagle has ‘disappeared’ near Strathdon and its status has attracted comment from Scottish Land and Estate and from the estate itself (the North Glenbuchat Estate).

Whilst the estate acknowledges a previous incident six years ago when a poisoned eagle was found on its land the RSPB press release lists four other cases of disappearing eagles in this small area.

Here is the list from the RSPB press release:

‘A Golden Eagle, fitted with Satellite tag no. 57319, was confirmed as having died as a result of being poisoned (with Carbofuran) on the North Glenbuchat Estate in February 2011. The body was later located and recovered by the police. A follow-up search warrant carried out by the police on the estate in May 2011 recovered the remains of a short-eared owl that was subsequently confirmed by post-mortem of having been shot, a rabbit bait confirmed as being laced with Carbofuran and a Buzzard confirmed as having been poisoned with Carbofuran.

A Golden Eagle, named “Strathy”, fitted with Satellite tag number 95065 disappeared in September 2011 with its last recorded position on the North Glenbuchat Estate. The tag was performing normally, with good battery voltage, when transmissions inexplicably stopped. A ground search of the bird’s last known location found no sign of the bird, no further transmissions have been received and the bird has never been seen.

A Golden Eagle, fitted with Satellite tag no. 57111, disappeared in February 2012 with its last recorded position on the North Glenbuchat Estate. The tag was performing normally, with good battery voltage, when transmissions inexplicably stopped. A ground search of the bird’s last known location found no sign of the bird, no further transmissions have been received and the bird has never been seen.

A Golden Eagle, fitted with Satellite tag no. 84133, disappeared in May 2013 with its last recorded position on the North Glenbuchat Estate. The tag was performing normally, with good battery voltage, when transmissions inexplicably stopped. A ground search of the bird’s last known location found no sign of the bird, no further transmissions have been received and the bird has never been seen.

A White-tailed Eagle, known as “White 1”, disappeared in April 2014 with its last recorded position on the North Glenbuchat Estate. The tag was performing normally, with good battery voltage, when transmissions inexplicably stopped. A subsequent police search warrant including a ground search of the bird’s last known location found no sign of the bird, no further transmissions have been received and the bird has never been seen. Link to BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27142843′

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8 Replies to “Something in the air at North Glenbuchat?”

  1. I cannot access the video the estate refers to. Have tried various permutations and searches on youtube to no avail. Is this an April Fool?

  2. Thanks Mark, Your link (above) worked fine.

    Nice Eagle, shame about the state of the moorland in the background.

    If this is the Eagle in question and the recording was in the last couple of days then there probably has been a transmitter failure. Of course this may possibly be a different bird altogether. No-one would deliberately want to use old footage to imply the RSPB have got it wrong.

  4. If I had never been to Scotland before, never seen an eagle before, I might look at the map and decide that the green place labeled ‘Cairngorms National Park’ would be a good starting point. However, with stories like this, I might decide to spend my tourist money elsewhere.
    Birding tour companies rely on being given access to some of these estates to see Capacallie, Black grouse etc, but surely the time has come when those making money out of wildlife should lend their support and voices to stop this needless persecution.
    I have written to the owners of several of these companies in the past but have never even had an acknowledgement of my letters.
    Questions on the lack of support, asked at the Birdfair, are just met with a shrug.

    Many people going on these holidays will not know of the persecution that goes on in the places they are being taken to. It’s about time the owners told the truth.

  5. Hi Paul

    We have both been to Scotland and have pondered the same problem. We also wrote to a holiday company and got a very bland reply. We agree, they could and should do more to stand up to these people who persecute raptors. We have not been with any tour companies since and we have no intention of doing so.

    Sue & Chris Green

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