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.

Friday 3 October 2014

Gamekeeper found guilty of poisoning eleven birds of prey

A Norfolk gamekeeper was found guilty on 1st October 2014 for the poisoning of at least eleven birds, including 10 buzzards and one sparrowhawk. 

A sparrowhawk was among the birds
 found to have been poisoned
Allen Lambert, 65, previously a gamekeeper on Stody Estate near Holt, was also found guilty of the possession of pesticides and other items capable of being used to prepare poison baits. Earlier in the trial at Norwich Magistrates Court he had pleaded guilty to five other charges, including three offences of illegal storage and use of pesticides, and the unlawful possession of nine dead buzzards. 

Suspicion of the poisoning was raised when, on 4th April 2013, the remains of five buzzards, a sparrowhawk, and a tawny owl were found apparently dumped in a wood on Stody Estate. Analysis of the birds confirmed that cause of death in at least one buzzard and the sparrowhawk had been due to poisoning from the pesticide mevinphos, which is a former agricultural pesticide banned from use in 1993. 

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