I attended a falconry conference up in Kildare over a week ago organised by the Irish Hawking Club called "The Stewardship of Biodiversity and sustainable Use Conference" i.e. the taking of wild born raptors in Ireland and else where. I've attached a few shots of some of the falconers birds below. You don't see a Crowned Eagle perched on the front lawn of a county Kildare hotel every day!
Licenses are given out each year to Irish falconers to go into wild Peregrine nests and remove chicks, mostly Peregrine Falcons (max. five chicks per annum) and to a lesser extent Sparrowhawks, Kestrel and even a Merlin on at least one occasion. Peregrines are an Appendix 1 species on the Bird Directive and a listed animal with CITES. There is a derogation under the Birds Directive to issue such licences "if there is no other satisfactory solution". However Peregrines have now been widely bred in captivity for at least three decades so there very clearly is another satisfactory solution if a falconer wishes to obtain a Peregrine. Wild-take licenses haven't been issued in the UK now since the late 1970's primarily due to the large captive population of Peregrines. Like most matters concerned with conservation, Ireland is still in the Bronze Age compared to the UK. There's absolutely no charge for getting a license to take a bird of prey from the wild in Ireland. Captive birds could cost well over a thousand euro with wild born birds making far more than that once taken and are much valued for breeding proposes.
Over the two days of the conference we were told of the huge amount of conservation that falconers are responsible for. No Irish examples were pointed out during this time apart from the occasional and useful rehabilitation of injured wild raptors. I didn't hear any mention of what must be Ireland's most threatened bird of prey - the Hen Harrier.
We were told repeatedly that wild take is sustainable. An example of this was given from the Middle East where traditionally, wintering Sakers and Peregrines would be caught as they arrived in the autumn. They would be used to hunt over the winter and then released to migrate back to their breeding grounds at the end of the winter. The same doesn't apply anymore in the Middle East and it never has in Ireland. Once a Peregrine is taken here it is never intentionally released back into the wild, far too valuable for that! The argument that wild Peregrines have better hunting instincts compared to captive born birds is also nonsensical as the chicks are taken when they are only half grown and have zero hunting skills. I would also have to argue point on the whole sustainable issue as well. Yes the national population has seen a remarkable increase however this isn't seen everywhere. I monitored ten occupied Peregrine territories this summer here in West Galway as per usual. Of those ten pairs just three pairs managed to successfully raise chicks. This isn't an unusual poor success rate here for that matter either.
Birds of prey were regularly referred to as a "wild resource", there for taking as long as it was done sustainably. The saying "if it pays it stays" was also used. Basically humans have domain over the natural world and we can take and use it as we see fit. Those that mean then if a species is of no monetary value or use to anyone, does it really have a right to exist at all as a species?
I must admit the case for "wild-take" in Ireland seems to be on increasingly shaky ground to me.
Licenses are given out each year to Irish falconers to go into wild Peregrine nests and remove chicks, mostly Peregrine Falcons (max. five chicks per annum) and to a lesser extent Sparrowhawks, Kestrel and even a Merlin on at least one occasion. Peregrines are an Appendix 1 species on the Bird Directive and a listed animal with CITES. There is a derogation under the Birds Directive to issue such licences "if there is no other satisfactory solution". However Peregrines have now been widely bred in captivity for at least three decades so there very clearly is another satisfactory solution if a falconer wishes to obtain a Peregrine. Wild-take licenses haven't been issued in the UK now since the late 1970's primarily due to the large captive population of Peregrines. Like most matters concerned with conservation, Ireland is still in the Bronze Age compared to the UK. There's absolutely no charge for getting a license to take a bird of prey from the wild in Ireland. Captive birds could cost well over a thousand euro with wild born birds making far more than that once taken and are much valued for breeding proposes.
Over the two days of the conference we were told of the huge amount of conservation that falconers are responsible for. No Irish examples were pointed out during this time apart from the occasional and useful rehabilitation of injured wild raptors. I didn't hear any mention of what must be Ireland's most threatened bird of prey - the Hen Harrier.
We were told repeatedly that wild take is sustainable. An example of this was given from the Middle East where traditionally, wintering Sakers and Peregrines would be caught as they arrived in the autumn. They would be used to hunt over the winter and then released to migrate back to their breeding grounds at the end of the winter. The same doesn't apply anymore in the Middle East and it never has in Ireland. Once a Peregrine is taken here it is never intentionally released back into the wild, far too valuable for that! The argument that wild Peregrines have better hunting instincts compared to captive born birds is also nonsensical as the chicks are taken when they are only half grown and have zero hunting skills. I would also have to argue point on the whole sustainable issue as well. Yes the national population has seen a remarkable increase however this isn't seen everywhere. I monitored ten occupied Peregrine territories this summer here in West Galway as per usual. Of those ten pairs just three pairs managed to successfully raise chicks. This isn't an unusual poor success rate here for that matter either.
Birds of prey were regularly referred to as a "wild resource", there for taking as long as it was done sustainably. The saying "if it pays it stays" was also used. Basically humans have domain over the natural world and we can take and use it as we see fit. Those that mean then if a species is of no monetary value or use to anyone, does it really have a right to exist at all as a species?
I must admit the case for "wild-take" in Ireland seems to be on increasingly shaky ground to me.
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| First calendar Goshawk |
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| Adult male Goshawk |
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| Adult female Goshawk |
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| Adult male Sparrowhawk |
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| Crowned Eagle |
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| Adult Peregrine |
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| First calendar Peregrine. |
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| Grey Gyr (hybrid-type?). |
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| White morph Gyr |
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| Barbary Falcon |
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| Barbary Falcon |
Well put Dermot, typical justification for this and language that belongs back with the Victorians.
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