Many birdwatchers from Scotland as well as visitors from throughout the world have enjoyed immense pleasure from visiting the Argaty Red Kite Project near Doune. Apart from enjoying tremendous views of these spectacular birds, many youngsters as well as adults, will no doubt have been stimulated and inspired by the enthusiastic presentation from Mike McDonnell and colleagues at the visitor centre. SRSGs website administrator Bob McMillan has visited the centre on several occasions and been fortunate to take a number of photographs. In particular, an image of a tagged bird Black/Red V (see opposite) has appeared on this site several times invariably accompanying news items of Kites which have been poisoned or killed. Black/Red V has unfortunately now become the news, having been found poisoned along with two other Kites on a neighbouring estate. Black/Red V was a male bird which was released in 1999 and had bred successfully on several occasions producing a total of 16 young. It is understood that one of the other dead birds was one of its progeny. Niall Bowser, who farms Argaty as well as running the project said "We set out to show that livestock farming, a pheasant shoot and the Red Kites are not incompatible land uses. We can honestly say that the Red Kites have never caused us a problem. They are mainly carrion eaters and are certainly no threat to our other activities. On the contrary, they have created a new employment opportunity when the countryside is more often being depleted of jobs. Whoever is responsible for this has attacked not just these rare and beautiful birds but also the local community and the opportunity to show children what the countryside is all about." Members of Raptor Study Groups will completely agree with these sentiments in what is yet another unhappy chapter in the reintroduction of Red Kites to Scotland. See also www.argatyredkites.co.uk and http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1875272007

In July 2007 Roy Dennis fitted a GPS transmitter on a Golden Eagle chick at Glen Feshie estate in the Cairngorms National Park as part of a conservation project to try to examine the cultural behaviour of eagles and to research the home-range use of the Cairngorms and surrounding mountains by a young eagle bred in the area. The transmitter is a 70 gram Argos GPS solar transmitter manufactured by Microwave Telemetry in the United States. It has a three season variable programme which collects hourly data from dawn to dusk. The bird has now left its parents and is ranging widely south to Ben Alder, Rannoch, the Drumochter Hills and as far east as Glenshee. For full details see http://www.roydennis.org/golden%20eagle.htm

Scotland's breeding population of sea eagles has risen dramatically to its highest number since the reintroduction programme began more than 30 years ago. Figures from the 2007 survey show there are now 42 territorial breeding pairs, an increase of 6 pairs since last year. From 24 successful nests a total of 34 young birds were fledged. It is now estimated that there are around 200 individual Sea Eagles in Scotland and this has proved an enormous draw in terms of tourism numbers. The core breeding population remains in Skye, Mull and the Western Isles with breeding pairs now established in mainland Lochaber and the Argyll islands. For further information see http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-175496

The wildlife crime pages on the Tayside Police web-site have been updated. New information is provided on the range of the force's responsibilities with superb illustrations provided by Laurie Campbell. A link is provided on this site - see http://www.tayside.police.uk/wildlife/

When Victoria and Albert established the Balmoral sporting estates they set a trend which soon became fashionable amongst the wealthy and privileged. Whilst sporting estates flourished, the fate of many of our birds of prey was sealed as they were ruthlessly shot, trapped and poisoned to enable this elite minority the opportunity to indulge their so-called sporting interests. Raptor workers who have been around royal estates, and also the estates which were regularly shot over by 'royal guests' , are fully aware that in terms of the illegal 'control of raptors', there was no distinction between these estates and many others, and the nefarious work of 'keepers was quietly condoned. It will therefore be of little surprise to many of us that Prince Harry was a suspect when two Hen Harriers were shot on a nature reserve on the Sandringham Estate, an incident witnessed by staff of English Nature. The Crown Prosecution Service has announced that they are taking no further action in the case because the corpses of the birds were not found and there is an absence of forensic and ballistic evidence. Police had originally identified three suspects who were the only people shooting on the Sandringham Estate that day - Prince Harry, a friend William van Cutsem, and David Clarke, a gamekeeper. They were apparently interviewed by Norfolk Constabulary but denied any knowledge! We keep saying that on some sporting estates little has changed since Victorian times so should we honestly expect Royal estates to be any different? Perhaps RSPB ought to be asking that question directly bearing in mind that HM the Queen is their Royal Patron and this is her estate. It is less than a year since one of the Queen's gamekeepers was fined £500 for trapping a Tawny Owl. For further information see http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-174070 and http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1159.

Following the release of the 15 White-tailed Eagles at the east of Scotland release site, the Project Officer Claire Smith has reported that there has been over 250 sightings of the wing-tagged birds from locations as far afield as Fraserburgh and Berwick on Tweed. However, the majority have remained within a 20 mile radius of the release site. Unfortunately two of the birds have already been electrocuted as a result of alighting on electricity sub-stations. For further information see http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-174102