Submitted by Ms. Jacky Chaplow on
We’d like to thank all those who submitted birds to the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme in 2016 which meant we received a total of 368 birds and tissues for a further 57 birds from our collaborative partners. The more birds that we receive the better we can select the birds to analyse to inform us what factors determine the prevalence and level of contaminants in raptors.
Lee Walker, the PBMS coordinator, tells us “We received over 139 barn owls last year, the majority of which were juvenile birds”
He continues, “While it is sad that the birds are killed on the roads or die due to starvation or disease; we hope to use these samples to identify potential impacts of pollutants on raptor populations. These barn owls will be used to monitor the success of new usage regulations for rodenticides, and so we ask the public to continue to submit owls and other raptors to the scheme”.