As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday 6 April 2014

Scottish bird of prey colony hit by mass poisonings

RSPB and ornithologists express disgust after 12 red kites are found dead in Black Isle area, targeted with lethal toxins

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent

theguardian.com, Thursday 3 April 2014 15.00 BST

Bird experts believe that one of the UK's most valued bird of prey colonies is being targeted after 16 raptors were found dead from poisoning in a small area of the Highlands.

The bodies of 12 red kites and four buzzards have been recovered over the past two weeks within a two-square-mile area on the Black Isle, north of Inverness, in what ornithologists suspect is the largest mass poisoning of birds recorded.

It is already the largest number of red kites killed in a single cluster in the UK in modern times, and the largest number of raptors suspected of being poisoned in the same area in Scotland, after decades of systematic persecution by gamekeepers and farmers.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) announced it was doubling its reward for a successful prosecution in the case to £10,000.

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