Apologies if you’ve not received a post mortem report yet!

2018 has seen the highest receipt of bird submissions since the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme began in the 1960’s. This means that we have a back-log of birds awaiting post mortem by Elaine Potter.

Elaine carries out the post mortem and egg examinations for the PBMS. During a post mortem, Elaine records a host of measurements (e.g. species, sex, age, size, weight) and harvests tissues, bones, feathers and organs for analysis on site in our state of the art Centralised Analytical Chemistry Facility. Birds submitted that do not contain organs (e.g. birds squashed on the road, infested with maggots, dried out or decomposed) are, therefore, less useful to the PBMS.

Tissue samples are frozen following post mortem to enable Elaine to submit samples for analysis in batches periodically throughout the year. That is why we ask you to keep the bird cold, frozen is best, to preserve the tissues and organs. Our funding allows for analysis of tissues to be carried out in the year following submission and post-mortem.

Information about exposure of birds of prey to contaminants e.g. rodenticides can be found in our Reports.

Thanks for your continued support of the PBMS in reporting and submitting birds - we are really grateful for your patience in the coming months.

Bird numbers received 2013 to 2018* (*2018 to end October only)

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