Further to the news earlier this week that a young satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagle (known as G834) had ‘disappeared’ on 1st May in what the police describe as suspicious circumstances, on a grouse-shooting estate in the North York Moors National Park (see here), one of five satellite-tagged White-tailed Eagles to have vanished in recent months (here), it has now been revealed that his last known location was on the Snilesworth Estate.
This news didn’t come from the appeal for information issued by North Yorkshire Police last Monday – that vague appeal just gave the location as, ‘the western side of the North York Moors‘. Instead, the information has come from a lengthy feature article in this morning’s Guardian newspaper, written by Chief Reporter Daniel Boffey.
Daniel Boffey visited the estate this week and was given short shrift by gamekeeper Charles Woof, who, when asked about the missing eagle, reportedly said:
“I don’t know anything about it” and “It’s private property, I am going to have to ask you to leave“.
The article refers to Woof’s 2008 conviction, where he admitted to using a baited trap to catch birds of prey. That’s interesting. I thought the shooting industry claimed to have a zero tolerance policy to raptor persecution and that anyone convicted would be kicked out of the profession? Apparently not.
Mark Thomas, Head of the RSPB’s Investigations Team is also quoted in the article, having been asked for his opinion about what might have happened to White-tailed Eagle G834:
“I think something has happened in the middle of the night whilst this eagle was at roost. Now, these things don’t fly around in the dark. They will wait till first light.
“If you’re asking me to look at the probability … it’s most likely the bird has been shot. And if the bird is shot whilst it’s roosting, then it’s being shot at night, potentially with thermal imaging gear“.
The article also reports that ‘Snilesworth estate management declined to comment‘. I don’t know who manages the estate these days but for many years it was managed by ‘grouse guru’ Mark Osborne’s company, starting in 2000, according to an earlier version of the company’s website:
One of Osborne’s other companies, William Powell Sporting, currently sells shooting days (Grouse, Pheasant & Red-legged Partridge) at Snilesworth:
Here is a review from one happy Snilesworth customer, featured on a William Powell Sporting publicity brochure:
The Guardian article is careful to emphasise that there is nothing to suggest that gamekeeper Mr Woof or his team may have been involved in the eagle’s disappearance. Boffey writes:
‘The range of possible suspects is huge, including local farmers and others connected to nearby grouse lands, of which there are many‘.
The article also mentions that on the day the Guardian reporter visited, Mr Woof was ‘busy preparing for a charity clay pigeon shoot‘.
That’ll be this one, happening today, organised by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).
Hopefully the charity shoot guests won’t be causing any disturbance to the local wildlife as they shoot their way around the six clay pigeon stands across the estate and they can keep an eye out for the missing eagle…
Raptor Persecution UK 
If we can’t ban game shooting, then why can’t we ban guns – rifles and shotguns? Apart from an actual shooting day, why does anyone working on these estates need guns?
I find the practice of wining, dining and pampering as a prelude to the killing of defenceless birds utterly reprehensible.
£2,000 for lunch/dinner and a bed followed by inglorious wildlife genocide.
I said it was elitist.While rest of us are on RSPB sites excitedly looking thru our binoculars, welly boots on, looking for sight of our beloved birds……a,white tailed eagle would be nice….but alas none to be seen.
Ban hunting with guns for people with more cash than brains…
Could we set up some dummy raptors in trees with webcams and recorders that transmit real time to our’Catch a Wally’ website…..so we can see who is doing this.
Just to be clear, today’s event is a clay pigeon shoot (i.e. not live animals).
They hold them frequently usually on the edge of the moor and in the middle of the breeding season.
There was one a couple of weeks ago at Chatsworth, which could be heard up on Baslow Edge.
As you say, close to moorland, not to mention woodland, and in breeding season in a national park.
Good idea
“Could we set up some dummy raptors in trees with webcams and recorders that transmit real time to our’Catch a Wally’ website…..so we can see who is doing this”
Not really practical, and wouldn’t fool any experienced keeper, I’m afraid, who attack roost sites at night with specialist equipment after observing flight patterns, not by randomly crashing about in daylight:-(
Almost all attacks, I suggest these days, are carefully planned, prepared and coordinated – not spur of the moment actions by individuals.
But that is not to say that known communal roost sites could not be protected to a limited degree with camera traps, but a criminal with a thermal scope, a rifle and a suitable vantage point could just pick them off from a ‘safe’ distance:-(
It is big business, and a lot of money is involved:-(
Ah, the old “get off my (bosses) land” response from Charlie Woof. Nice. Classy. Very disappointing for the Guardian journalist. If Daniel Boffey was a follower of the NYMMO Regional Moorland Group on Facebook he might well have expected something better. Woof is one of their photogenic regulars often featured grinning widely on this PR organisations social media pages. He’s one of their many do-goodery superheroes in tweed capes. Smart and upright men who are the salvation of the rural community and saviours of all the “good” wildlife. That said, he’s far from being the only one on their or on other Regional Moorland Groups pages to have a wildlife crime conviction. But still, these guys are apparently of the sort that is the backbone of all that remains good on the island of Great Britain. It’s just that Charlie for one doesn’t seem to like the other types of do-gooders (such as the Guardian) bothering him about a subject he knows nothing about. He knows nothing about it? Nothing at all. Odd considering that the received wisdom (that the industry promotes) is that keeper knows every inch of their ground and all of the wildlife that exists upon it or above it, even if it only flies over and farts once. I remember when another of the keepering fraternity, at Goathland not too far away, was asked about a goshawk trapping & killing incident by Alex Thompson of Channel 4. Coincidentally he knew “nowt about it” and invoked ye olde “get off my land” type line too.