Bad News from Northern Ireland

Had an email from Rob Straughan, RSPB's Red Kite Project Officer in Northern Ireland working with ourselves and the Golden Eagle Trust on the Irish Re-introduction schemes. It seems the weather in Northern Ireland has been as severe, if not worse, than it has here and this is taking its toll on the young kites released during 2009. Rob's email read:

Hi,

The situation goes from bad to worse having found a dead kite (pink 'b') yesterday evening and another this morning (pink 'f') following the one I found on Saturday morning despite trying supplementary feeding. They say bad things come in threes so I really hope this is the last of the run. Again, I don't think they were suspicious, no indication of shooting and both crops seemed empty with breast bones protruding suggesting they weren't in top condition so I didn't report to PSNI, I'll try and get these two post mortemed as well. All the birds were found at known roosts or in trees with dense cover.

I've attached photos, of each.

I haven't posted all of the photos - too depressing but the one above shows a bird in good plumage just hanging in a fir tree.