RSPB video shows two buzzards illegally lured to grouse moor and shot by ‘gamekeeper’

A startling video taken by RSPB investigators has caught the moment two buzzards are illegally lured onto a North Yorkshire grouse moor before being shot dead, allegedly by a gamekeeper.

The gunman used a tethered eagle owl to attract the birds to the moor, killing two buzzards in less than 10 minutes.

The RSPB’s investigative team began monitoring the unnamed driven grouse moor estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in 2019 following a tip off about the use of a tethered bird as a lure.

After witnessing an eagle owl being tethered to a post in 2019, the team realised the tip-off was accurate, but it was not until April 2020 they captured footage of the buzzards being shot dead.

The illegal killing of these birds during the UK’s first national lockdown came amid a surge in raptor persecution across the country, as those targeting birds of prey took advantage of the fact fewer people were in the countryside.

Howard Jones, investigations officer at the RSPB, said in a blog post that he and colleague Jack had spotted an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) about five kilometres away as they approached the moor.

He wrote: “We settled down and through a telescope Jack could make out an ‘object’ on a post near a grouse butt with the ATV driver sat nearby. The ‘object’ then flapped, and it seemed the eagle owl was back in use. I set the video camera into record mode, and left Jack to look for a better observation position.

“A few moments later Jack called out that a buzzard had been shot. I rushed back and watched intently through the camcorder screen. Minutes later, a second buzzard was shot. I could just make out the bird dropping out of the sky and landing near the decoy owl.”

He added: “Two buzzards gunned down in the space of 10 minutes tells you just how horrifically effective this eagle owl decoy technique can be. A third buzzard appeared, but narrowly got away.”

Having identified the “distinctive” vehicle, they traced it to a local address where a gamekeeper allegedly lives and gave the evidence to the police.

Police attended the address and were present when a man arrived home with an eagle owl in a box in the back of the vehicle.

But the police said the evidence was not sufficient to prosecute the man due to the individual not being identifiable on the RSPB’s footage.

Inspector Matt Hagen of the North Yorkshire Police told the RSPB: “We conducted a search warrant and interviewed an individual in relation to this incident. Ultimately, however, the identity of the suspect on the film could not be proved, and it was not possible to bring about a prosecution. However this does not mean the event didn’t happen.

“We know that a gamekeeper on a grouse moor has been shooting buzzards, using a live eagle owl decoy to bring those buzzards into a position where they could be shot. We urge the public to report incidents like this to the police, and to come forward if they have information about this or any other incident involving the illegal killing of birds of prey.”

Mr Jones told The Independent: “We are increasingly getting reports of eagle owls being used on grouse moors in order to deliberately draw in wild birds of prey close enough to be shot. Use of a tethered decoy is completely illegal, as is killing a bird of prey. Yet the killing continues, even during lockdown.

“The system is clearly failing to protect our birds of prey. Birds like buzzards continue to be routinely and illegally killed on grouse moors, with North Yorkshire consistently coming under the spotlight. But whilst the killer got away with it on this occasion, the damage done to the driven grouse shooting industry at large is enormous.

“This latest evidence is further proof that the government must act now to implement a system of licensing for driven grouse shooting, to bring more accountability to estate owners and managers. We believe that, had licensing been in place, the events we witnessed on this moor would be more than enough to revoke the estate’s licence to operate. If nothing is done, birds of prey will continue to pay the price.”

The killing of the buzzards on the grouse shooting estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park comes after outrage as Bolton Abbey Estate, a grouse shooting estate in the same area, admitted it legally targeted feral cats with snares after runners found a dead cat and a dead fox surrounded by snares on the land.

Conservationists have previously highlighted the huge toll grouse shooting is taking on the natural world, with “hundreds of thousands of animals” including foxes, weasels and stoats being legally killed by gamekeepers in the UK to protect grouse so paying customers can shoot them.

The RSPB is calling for the introduction of a licensing system for estates which operate driven grouse shooting. The charity says this will set minimum environmental standards which, if breached, would result in losing the right to shoot.