In memoriam

It doesn't take much for things that I don't care for to get up my nose,which is a very unpleasant place to be, and I think that you will agree that I have more than a little cause to be downright annoyed with the following.

In memoriam - Bearded Vulture (two of 'em!)
This last spring a young Bearded Vulture, an female released in 2007 from the expensive hacking and release programme in the Cazorla and Segura area was found dead on an estate in the Sierra de Castril, Granada province. This bird was found as her GPS tracking transmitter showed that she hadn't moved and the sad body was found.

Now a second bird, one of 4 released this last May, has also been found dead on 28 October, apparently by poisoning! And in the same area and even on the same estate! Seprona, the wildlife protection people of the Guardia Civil, apparently found traces of carrion which had been poison baited. Investigations are, as they say, being carried out and further proceedings are expected, and in many cases, hoped for.

Legally, if there is a judge with the will and conscience, all hunting on the the estate could be banned by suspending their licence -it is one of those which makes a lot of money out of shooting parties - and the culprit(s) fined anywhere between 60.000€ and 300.000€!

Let us hope that the punishments are exemplary.

In memoriam - a Corncrake
On 26 October, near Alhaurín de la Torre, hunters shot a Corncrake thinking that it was a quail. Now, you know and I know that there is quite a size difference and their flight is also. There is also supposed to be a sort of test to ensure that hunters can identify birds before blasting 'em out of the sky. According to my good friend and excellent birder Antonio Tamayo in avesforum, Eduardo Alba has informed of another Corncrake which suffered terminal lead poisoning (I must stop reading Dashiel Hammett) in exactly the same area back in September 2005.

These happy chappies had obviously not had any sort of identification test as at first they claimed that they thought they had shot at a quail (legal at least), then decided that it was an Andalusian Hemipode (a.k.a. Small Buttonquail) which is at least the size of a quail and which is very, very rare indeed and there is a small relict population in the Doñana area (very illegal).

When will the administration which hands out licences willy-nilly do something about ensuring that the hunters have some idea what they are shooting, or will hell freeze over first?

I believe that execution in the town square for the offenders would be adequate punishment in both these cases, and I would be quite happy to do the job myself given the chance, always provided that I was sufficiently rapid to be first in the queue and not trampled in the rush!