New Petitions

Yes, I will.

Thank you for allowing the Scottish Gamekeepers Association to address the committee on our petition.By the 1960s, worldwide raptor populations had reached critically low figures, so raptors were worthy of special protection. However, since the banning of organochlorines such as DDT, UK raptor numbers have increased to record levels. For example, peregrine numbers are at the highest level ever recorded. In towns and cities across Scotland, sparrow-hawks wreak havoc at bird-tables and cause great distress to those who witness the smaller birds being eaten alive in their gardens.Buzzards now occupy almost every area in Scotland. They attack not only private stock, such as grouse and pheasants, but young ground-nesting birds, such as plover, partridges, grouse and waders. Many of those young birds are themselves endangered species. Few people question why the numbers of crow are controlled, as crow do a lot of damage. Buzzards and sparrow-hawks also do damage, yet there is great resistance from the bird lobby to allow even licensed control of such birds. Why should the title "raptor" provide buzzards and sparrow-hawks with a status that makes them more favoured than the crow, when they do the same damage?The Langholm report is the most notable of the various studies that have been conducted on raptor predation but, unfortunately, the involvement of pro-raptor groups in that study resulted in its arriving at no clear conclusions. Bird-protectionist groups deny that predatory birds have a detrimental effect on some prey species, but professional wildlife managers, gamekeepers and other conservation agencies and organisations know fine the damage that such birds do.We feel that the time has come for the Scottish Parliament's Rural Development Committee to commission an independent investigation that will deliver a balanced result.

I think that you are talking about the raptor working group report, which, we feel, was not a proper report. It was biased towards the other side and had no involvement from people such as gamekeepers. The report leaned heavily towards the pro-raptors. Although I cannot speak for the pigeon guys, I understand that even they were not happy with the result. It was very one-sided and did not give a true picture.

Obviously, peregrines live only in certain areas because they nest in favoured areas. They are thicker on the ground in some areas, which is where they cause damage to winter stock. The damage is not done in the summer but in the winter. After winter is finished, the number of game birds is depleted because of the bad weather. If the area is overpopulated with peregrines, the peregrines start to eat into the stock.As you can imagine, if there are 10 pair of game birds and the peregrines eat five birds, the peregrines are eating either the cock or the hen of a pair. The peregrines do not take the birds in pairs; they break up the pairs, which means that the birds might not get together with other ones in time to breed. In that way, the stock is being depleted a' the time.On top of that, when the waders arrive in the spring, they are tired and, having gone through winter, not in good condition. The peregrines will then attack the waders on the hill. We are seeing big declines in species such as golden plover and dunlin on the hills. There have been declines in the numbers of ptarmigan as well.

Sparrow-hawks are more a lowland bird. They are not found quite so much in moorland areas, although they will go into moorland if there are little patches of trees for them to nest in. Sparrow-hawks are widespread across Scotland.Until 1954, I think, sparrow-hawks could be controlled no problem. After organochlorines kicked in, those birds were put on the protected list. Since that time, those birds—

Until organochlorines and DDT were introduced, the birds were in no danger whatever. Gamekeepers and everybody else who had any bother with the birds were controlling them, and their number remained the same. It is noted in literature that sparrow-hawks are very resilient. Even when gamekeepers worked all across the land, nobody was able to wipe out the birds. People did their damnedest, but they could not wipe them out. Today, when there are fewer gamekeepers, sparrow-hawks are in no danger of being wiped out.

That covers only moorland; we have other problems on the low ground. The population of goshawks is burgeoning. I do not know whether members are acquainted with the size of goshawks, but their wingspan is similar to that of a buzzard: a couple of feet, or two and a half feet. The goshawk is a more proficient killer, and they are coming up as well. They are eating squirrels, and red squirrels are in danger. There is a whole low-ground problem that will not be addressed through the moorland working group.

I assume so.

We feel that Scottish Natural Heritage is heavily influenced, and infiltrated, by sympathisers of the pro-raptor groups. We get listened to, but that is all. Anything we say seems to be discarded. We are so frustrated that we cannot get anybody in the SNH groups to listen to us. RSPB Scotland has a very heavy influence in such groups, although it is said that it does not.

We do not have any chemical analyses; we have no idea about that kind of stuff. I have no reason to disbelieve that certain kinds of chemicals affect bird populations in certain places. What one has to think about is that if those chemicals are having a detrimental effect on the birds, and if the number of birds is dropping, the increasing population of raptors will have even less of a population to work on. The raptors will therefore do more damage.

From what I understand—although I was not old enough to be there at the time—when DDT was introduced, the small birds ate the DDT; the raptors then ate the small birds and ended up dying, or their eggs were thin-shelled because of the DDT. One would have to assume that the small birds that ate the DDT wurnae feelin too bright themselves. There must have been a drop in the number of small birds, although that does not seem to be documented anywhere.

Yes.

Could you remind me of the first bit of your question?

Let me make it plain that I am not here to decry any other organisation. The RSPB has 1 million members, who have been told that birds must be protected at all costs. In that context, for the RSPB to turn round and say, "We must do something about the raptors" would be detrimental to its income. Its members have been brainwashed—for want of a better word—about the way that things should be. When it has suited the RSPB, it has actually killed birds to save ither birds. It is making a double standard: we are not allowed to do that, but the RSPB is.The RSPB is of course a huge organisation and, because of the financial pressure involved, it has, in one way or another, infiltrated the various groups concerned. I do not know how things work in such organisations, but there is definitely infiltration, which is working against us.

When the raptor working group was set up, we were never consulted. Even the gamekeepers in England were never really consulted. The pigeon people in Scotland were not approached, although some in England were contacted, despite the fact that there is not really a problem there, because the biggest population of raptors—especially peregrines, if we take the example of pigeons—is from the Borders north.We had never been involved in the working group, but we made such a noise that we were asked to come to a meeting. We went down to ask a few questions—we travelled 700 miles—and, when we got there, we were told that the meeting would have to be cut short because somebody wanted to go home early. No consideration was given to the fact that we had travelled 700 bloody mile. We were quite angry—and we have been angrier since.

I am sorry for swearing, ladies and gentlemen.

Submit a petition. Laughter.

That is why we have come to you today. We are being outfinanced and out-spoken. We have no place to turn except the Parliament to try and have the matter considered without the interference of the bird lobby. I do not know how we will do that. We are up for suggestions. We might have a few suggestions at a later date oorsels.You only have to go out into the country and look up in the air to see buzzards. As I have said to folk, it is like being in a western: you look up, see the vultures and you wonder where the burnin wagon is ower the hill.The buzzards do not catch adult lapwings or dunlin, but they come doon and eat the chicks. The chicks run aboot on the ground for three weeks of their life before they even start to flutter and those things juist come doon and steal them. We kill crows because they eat eggs but we do not—or cannot—kill the buzzards, and they eat the chicks. Surely that must be addressed somehow.