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Message: <blockquote data-quote="string boozel" data-source="post: 3255535" data-attributes="member: 124353">I think birders are more than ready to recognise and acknowledge those keepers that work within the confines of the law. Sadly the number of cases brought against employees of the shooting industry in regard to illegal raptor persecution demonstrates that not everyone plays ball.If you consider the fate of all those species which can be legally controlled then it's not too much off a stretch of the imagination to believe that illegal methods of control are employed to reduce completion from raptors As others have said there is a worrying correlation between reduced raptor numbers and large shooting estates. Adult harriers do not have many predators in the UK though the Eagle Owls which also disappeared would have posed a threat had they remained. Nor do they or any other bird abandon a viable nest, it's completely against there instincts. If anyone truly believes that four adult harriers abandoned their nest to flit away on some flight of fancy then I have an Eiffel Tower they may want to buy.There's little danger of me having a heart attack simply because the news is anything but a shock, it happens every year with depressing regularity. When I think of all the effort expended by organisations and individuals in their efforts to protect raptors that can be undone in a few seconds by a thoughtless individual I seethe. Until we can come up with an effective way of preventing such illegal practices then the debate will rage on, perhaps those staunch protectors of the countryside in the shooting industry will help us in our struggle.James.</blockquote>

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