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Scottish Raptor The Newsletter of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme Welcome to the latest edition of Scottish Raptor . We hope you enjoy the variety of articles that it contains, and please do submit interesting short articles and any other topics and observations to me for subsequent issues. Brian Etheridge, RMO Highlights in this issue Scottish Raptor SRMG & Scheme Update ... 2 White-tailed Eagle Update ... 5 Satellite tracking of Hobby … 9 The Golden Eagle – Jeff Watson … 10 Fox Predation of Hen Harriers … 13 In Search of Harriers – Donald Watson … 18 Eyes to the Skies … 19 Deliberate Human Disturbance … 21 Issue 9 Autumn 2010 Sparrowhawk Photo: Dick Jeeves Scottish Raptor The Newsletter of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme Scottish Raptor Monitoring Group & Scheme Update I am sure it will not have escaped your notice that unfortunately funding will become scarce over the next 2-3 years within the public sector, which could affect SNH’s ability to fund the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme and SRSGs expenses. Rest assured both myself and Des Thompson will be doing our utmost to secure future funding over this difficult period. One factor in our favour is the high political profile raptors and raptor related issues have at a Scottish Government level, and the fact that the SRMS is seen as an excellent approach to ensuring collection, collation, analysis and dissemination of sensitive data. However, there are aspects of work the Scheme would like to progress that may well have to be ‘parked’ to some extent in the short term, although we still hope to catch up with the annual reporting and get out more detailed analysis on the thousands of records now held by the Scheme (see below). Information collected by SRSGs is key for development casework and Special Protection Area designation, and I would like to record my thanks to all those within RSGs who helped supply data to SNH for the assessment and selection of the 6 new Golden eagle SPAs, which were classified by the Minister on 28 October. I’m especially grateful because as I write this I’m involved with a PLI hearing into a proposed wind farm within the new Glen Etive & Glen Fyne SPA! I’m also sure that many of you are following the progress of the Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill (WANE) through Scottish Government and have noted with interest the proposal of a new ‘vicarious liability offence’ (see http://www.scotland.gov.uk/ News/Releases/2010/11/03110045 ) for estates with regard to persecution incidents. Again the Scheme data is useful here: if surveyors are recording carefully causes of Scottish Raptor failure on the spreadsheet returns, this gives the Scheme hard data to show the levels of persecution in different parts of the country, which can be shown to Government and the National Wildlife Crime Unit. Finally, I would like to note here the need to get a better handle on some of our common raptors, which can be ideal starter species for potential new RSG members. Many of you will be aware of the recent large declines in kestrel noted in the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) results for Scotland. It would be extremely useful if we could get a better idea of any change in numbers and breeding success across Scotland for this and other widespread species. SRMS data reviewing, trends and reporting work BTO Scotland (Staffan, Chris and Anne Cotton), Brian Etheridge and Helen Riley have been working on a project to clean the SRMS data for 2003-2008 and scope the production of trends (with a focus on SNH Natural Heritage Zones (NHZs) and national trends). Chris and Staffan updated the SRMG on this work at the SRMG meeting on 26 August and a draft report on the work will be circulated to the SRMG for comment in November. The report will include: ■ A summary of the trends that it should be possible to produce fr om the SRMS Issue 9 data available currently (with a fully worked example of trends for Peregrine). ■ Suggestions for enhancing the data held by the SRMS (e.g. acquisition of Autumn additional grid references and data that is currently only held in summary form). ■ Suggestions for enhancing the collection of information on breeding raptors (e.g. 2010 to improve coverage of widespread species and achieve the monitoring required to support the new SNH Biodiversity Surveillance Strategy). 2 Scottish Raptor The Newsletter of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme Some of the work for Peregrine was included in the 2007 Scheme report and I hope that, like me, you will be pleased to see some major progress being made on outputs from the scheme. Annual Reporting The limited resources available for SRMS data work, the need to move towards reporting of trends, and the difficulty in securing resources for hard copy publication have meant that annual reporting has fallen well behind schedule, and we are all concerned about the negative impacts this is having, particularly on those who collect the data on which the Scheme is based (i.e. many of you!). Now that the information is largely in a cleaned form that can be analysed automatically, we aim to rapidly produce tables for the 2008 and 2009 annual reports (based on the tables in the 2007 and previous annual reports) and look to produce these two reports by the end of 2010. We are in discussion with SOC over the possibility of publishing these reports as a supplement to the journal Scottish Birds. Once the automation for this work is set up (taking into account the changed data formats with the introduction of the revised Excel spreadsheet in 2009), it will be a quick, easy and cost-effective task to produce the standard tables in a timely manner in future years, which will ensure publication of the annual reports straight after each breeding season. Funding You will recall that when the SRSGs had to accept a lower grant from SNH than was requested for the period 2010/11-2012/13, the previously agreed £16,000 per annum for Scottish Raptor analysis of scheme data by BTO to produce trends was reduced to a token £2,000 (which will be used as a contribution towards producing the basic reporting for 2008 and 2009 mentioned above). In order to produce a full set of trends from Scheme data for the first time (and a first trends report to showcase the SRMS and make our information widely available), further funding was required. SNH has been able to secure some resources from the Trends and Indicators budget to take this work forward, and has asked BTO to lead on developing a proposal for this continuation of SRMS data work, in liaison with those who have expertise in the some of the datasets not Photo: www.grayimages.co.uk currently held in full by the SRMS that should form part of the trends analysis (notably RSPB and Haworth Conservation). It is our hope that this work to produce Scheme trends, and scope Osprey Issue 9 the potential to produce a raptor indicator or indicators, will proceed this financial year, and Autumn that reliminary results will be available to present and discuss at the SRSG Conference at the end 2010 of February. 3 Scottish Raptor The Newsletter of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme Raven Photo: John Harding Data Issues Whilst its good to see some forward momentum on getting the Scheme data analysed and out to a wider audience, I am aware of a couple of apparent difficulties over data sharing with regard to two current projects. Scottish Raptor Firstly, the SPA Review Scientific Working Group’s review of peregrine data which is being managed by Andy Musgrove of BTO, for which an initial request to use Peregrine data from the Conservation Framework has gone out. I understand that not all groups have signed up for this. This request will not involve any additional work by RSG Members (it is just a request to use existing assembled data) and is of high conservation importance (in ensuring the SPA network remains fit for purpose). Secondly, there is an SNH contract to Haworth Conservation relating assessment of Merlin distribution and numbers to try to identify key concentrations, much in the same way as was done to identify important golden eagle areas. To allow analysis to be done, grid references are needed and having discussed the situation with the contractors they are willing to abide by what ever agreement is necessary to allow them access to the grid references. I do appreciate there are concerns about who handles sensitive data and what use is made of it but projects like those above are important in terms of Peregrine and Merlin conservation. I would be happy to discuss any issues over these reviews with Issue 9 any RSG member who has concerns, to reassure them about these projects and I would urge groups and individuals to please assist with these important projects. Autumn Andrew Stevenson 2010 Scottish Raptor Monitoring Group Chair November 2010 4 Scottish Raptor The Newsletter of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme WHITE-TAILED EAGLE UPDATE East Scotland Sea Eagles is five-year project returning white-tailed eagles to East Scotland. In a partnership project between RSPB Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland, the first 15 birds were released in Fife in August 2007. For the third phase of the white-tailed eagle re-introduction in Scotland, chicks aged 5-8 weeks old are collected by members of the Norwegian Ornithological Society (a BirdLife partner) from an area stretching 200km from Bergen to Alesund, over 500km south of Bødo where the west coast population originates from.