Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has restricted the use of licences to control birds in two separate cases this week. The decision was made on the basis of evidence provided by Police Scotland of wildlife crime against birds. These are the third and fourth such restrictions imposed by SNH. Edradynate Estate in Perthshire and an unamed individual in Aberdeenshire will have their licences restricted. They may still apply for individual licences, but these will be closely monitored. General licences allow landowners or land managers to carry out actions which would otherwise be illegal. This includes controlling common species of wild birds,…

RSPB Scotland has issued an appeal for information after a young hen harrier, fitted with a satellite tag as part of the charity’s EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE project, disappeared on an Aberdeenshire grouse moor. “Calluna”, a female harrier, was tagged this summer at a nest on the National Trust for Scotland’s Mar Lodge estate, near Braemar. Her transmitter’s data was being monitored by RSPB Scotland and showed that the bird fledged from the nest in July. She left the area in early August, with the data showing her gradually heading east over the Deeside moors. However, while the tag data…

Mountaineering Scotland and the John Muir Trust are both calling for full protection for wild land in planning policy – mirroring the protection given to National Parks and National Scenic Areas – following the outcome of a judicial review which upheld Ministerial approval for a wind farm on a wild land area in one of Scotland’s most valued landscapes. In October last year Scottish Ministers gave permission for the development to go ahead, but Danish businessman and landowner Anders Povlsen, whose Wildland Ltd owns the neighbouring Ben Loyal, Kinloch and Hope & Melness estates, raised a judicial review to examine…