Protected bird of prey found in county river 'may have been shot'

[Donna]

FORENSIC investigators are trying to work out if a bird of prey found in a Lincolnshire river was shot.

Police have been informed after the county's RSPB group was called to fish out a dead peregrine falcon from Lincoln's Brayford Pool.
National veterinary experts are rushing to discover what brought down the bird, which had suffered a broken wing.
Lincolnshire RSPB member Steve Lovell said it was not immediately apparent what had happened to the young female bird, which was less than a year old.
"Quite where it's come from I don't know," he said.
"But I fished it out, dried it off, cleaned it up and took measurements and photos before storing it in my freezer.
"We know it's a juvenile female because of the plumage on the breast – it will have only hatched last year – but we know it's not from Lincoln because the only chick up at the cathedral fell down and before we returned it to the tower we put a ring on it.
"It's going away for tests to see if it's been shot, hit overhead wires or if there's another cause.
"I can't see why anyone would want to wipe it out of the sky with a gun, but I'm still a little bit suspicious."
Peregrine falcons are a protected species and there are only 1,402 breeding pairs in the whole of the United Kingdom.
Professor Richard Shore, of the predatory bird monitoring scheme at the Centre For Ecology And Hydrology in Lancaster, said it would be their priority to perform an autopsy.
"Due to the concerns the bird may have been shot we will do this postmortem far more quickly than normal," he said.
"We'll then feed back to the local RSPB and if in this case it turns out that something illegal has happened then they can involve the police."
Spokesman for Lincolnshire Police James Newall said the peregrine is afforded the highest degree of legal protection under the Wildlife And Countryside Act of 1981 and if someone had harmed it they could face jail.
"It is an offence to intentionally take, injure or kill a peregrine or to take, damage or destroy their nest, eggs or young," he said.
"It is also an offence to intentionally or recklessly disturb the birds close to their nest during the breeding season.
"Breaking this law can lead to fines of up to £5,000 and a prison sentence of up to six months."

Another sad story

Lincolnshire

[Annette]

Poor juvie! 

[Donna]

Dave from the Peregrine of Worcester said this:  Our 2008 male disappeared during the nesting season, we have information this year that he may have been shot over the St Johns area of the City. Brief info has been passed to the police. Urban peregrines face many problems both natural & unfortunately still persecution.