We recently learned that Ravens had bred for the first time in Glasgow and tracked down Jim Coyle who had found the birds. Jim takes up the story - "in early 2007, my wife and I started to see ravens in our local patch in Glasgow on a fairly regular basis. On Saturday 24 February 2007 I found them building a nest and thereafter we kept an eye on their progress; this after all was possibly the first record of breeding ravens in the City in living memory. Unfortunately they did not raise any young and from mid April to the end of July there were no signs of them in the area. Thereafter, they were seen on a regular basis and in February 2008 they were both seen at the previous year's nest. This time they were successful, raising 2 young. On Saturday 21 February 2009, almost exactly 2 years since I first saw them nest building, I can report that both ravens were present with one bringing material to 'refurbish' their home. Following on from the succesful return of breeding common buzzard to the city, it is good to see ravens follow suit. What, I wonder, will be next?" In Derek Ratcliffe's monograph on the Raven there are wide-ranging reports of birds nesting on old buildings and other artificial structures. Birds have also nested in cities such as Chester. However there are no reports from cities in Scotland which goes to show that Glasgow is 'miles better'. The location of the nest site is being kept confidential.

A full house from a wide range of interests attended the annual conference at the Scottish Police College, Tulliallan Castle. It was one of the first public engagements of the new Minister for the Environment Roseanna Cunningham. One of the Minister's duties was to present the 2009 Scottish PAW event co-ordinator of the year award to Constable Finlay Christine, of Strathclyde Police, for his work protecting both Golden and White-tailed Eagles on the island of Mull. Finlay has been actively involved in all the Mull projects from the outset, working with the RSPB and local communities. The award reflects years of commitment to the cause of protecting birds of prey on the island and SRSGs congratulate Finlay on the award and wish him well in his future retirement. It is early days for the Minister but there was little to indicate that there would be any change in the Scottish Government's commitment to address wildlife crime problems and this is welcomed. Presentations on the day included updates on snaring advice, japanese knotweed and the Scottish Fossil code - which apparently has nothing to do with some of the elderly attendees!

The annual newsletter which charts the progress of the Sea Eagle re-introduction project has been produced by the RSPB on behalf of the Sea Eagle Project Team. The total number of occupied territories was 44 pairs which included new pairs located in the Western Isles and Wester Ross. As in 2007, 35 pairs laid eggs but only 21 broods hatched. A total of 28 young were fledged from 20 successful pairs. A large proportion of the failures occurred in the Western Isles where only two of 11 pairs bred successfully and this was the main reason for the drop in the number of chicks fledging from the two previous years. Immature birds from the East coast release project were seen on Mull and Skye and wild bred immatures from the west coast were seen in the east, which is encouraging in terms of the future mixing of the populations. A decision has been made by the Project Team that wing tags will no longer be fitted to the wild bred birds but coloured rings will be fitted. Some 26 young were fitted with a colour ring (red & silver) which denotes the year and letters/numbers which denotes the individual. Mouth swabs were also taken from the young and this, along with the collection of moulted feathers should enable a less intrusive form of monitoring. All sightings should be reported to the RSPB. Image by David Whitaker.

In the lead up to our conference and the annual Derek Ratcliffe Memorial Lecture, it is important to remind members that a biography of Derek has been written by Des Thompson and is included in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. It is fitting that Derek is included in this online archive as it is dedicated to the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond. Our Members Conference is on 28th February and this year's memorial lecture is by Roy Dennis on a Life with Ospreys. Members are reminded that final bookings are now being taken. Image by Des Thompson. For the full biography see http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/dnb/95824-article.html

The Sunday Herald has carried a further news story on the current Sparrowhawk translocation project. It follows a series of questions raised by Peter Peacock MSP with the Environment Minister Michael Russell. Expert legal opinion obtained by SNH has been released to the Sunday Herald. This suggests that a homing pigeon is not a wild bird, is private property, and catching a bird of prey to protect private property 'would be vulnerable to judicial challenge'. SNH and the Government's own adviser Dr Ian Bainbridge, are opposed to the project. The Government had difficulty finding a contractor to take on the trial and according to Peter Peacock, this was probably due to the widespread concerns about its suitability. He went on to suggest " if someone complained to the European Union about this project, I suspect the Government would be in serious trouble. I am deeply sceptical about the whole experiment." Sparrowhawk image by John Anderson and for more on this story see http://tinyurl.com/czcbye