Pair of rescued baby owls were ‘left for dead’

By Michael MacLeod and Oliver Farrimond

A PAIR of fluffy owl siblings were almost crushed to death when jackdaws built a nest on top of them.

The tiny Tawny chicks had their nest engulfed when the larger birds decided they made for perfect soft bedding.

But the plucky birds were rescued by animal experts from the Scottish SPCA, who said they found them “left for dead”.

They have been fondly named Fiona and Greig, after the senior animal rescuer who saved them, Fiona Greig.

They are said to be recovering well after being buried under almost a foot of new bedding at a falconry centre in Cumbernauld.

The birds had to be hand-reared at the Scottish SPCA’s Middlebank wildlife rescue centre until they became more confident.

New meaning to ‘Pigeon Post’

By Alexander Lawrie

CALLOUS thugs have come up with a new meaning for the term ‘pigeon post’.

A poor pigeon has been nicknamed Tombraider after being found posted through a letterbox of a shop that sells headstones.

The injured bird was found by an assistant as she opened up the Stirling-based shop on Wednesday morning.

The Scottish SPCA has slammed the culprits claiming the stress could have killed the defenceless animal.

Shop assistant Carol-Anne Laidlaw, 36, was first to arrive at the small Quality Masonry Services shop on Wednesday.

The shocked worker pulled open the large metal shutters to find the battered and bruised bird cowering in a corner.

Unable to fly and suffering from a large gash to his head, the pigeon was finally captured and taken away by the Scottish SPCA.

And staff at the charity’s Wildlife Rescue Centre in Dunfermline have now dubbed the recuperating pigeon Tombraider.

Colin Seddon, the centre’s manager, said: “We can only assume that someone put him through the letter box because he was discovered between the main door and the internal shutters and it’s very unlikely that he could have flown in there.”

“He has a gash to his head, probably caused by being shoved through a very small space.

“It may have been done as a prank, but the stress alone could have killed him.

“He’ll stay with us for a day or two and then we’ll release him.”

Meanwhile, the Fife centre has been inundated with around 25 baby pigeons this week.

The young squabs are being hand-reared by the animal welfare charity after being found in various precarious situations across the east of Scotland. 

One survived a cat attack, others were abandoned by their parents weak and hungry and some were simply found lying on the pavement, likely to have fallen from nests on buildings.

Colin Seddon added: “It’s quite unusual to get so many at the one time, but hopefully most will make a full recovery and be released in around a month’s time.

“They are initially fed a special liquid diet and then they progress on to being hand fed tiny balls of an egg food mixture until they begin to feed themselves.

“Hopefully most will make a full recovery and be released in around a month’s time.

“Some people view pigeons as pests and would argue that we shouldn’t treat them.

“However, they are a wild bird like all the others we treat here so we don’t turn them away when they are brought to us.”

Anyone with information about the cruel prank in Stirling is being urged to contact their local Scottish SPCA office.

Capercaillie on brink of extinction, says expert

By Alexander Lawrie

ONE of Scotland’s most famous birds is on the brink of extinction, a leading expert on the species has warned.

The number of Capercaillie has fallen by more than half and the amount of birds left could be as low as 700.

Dr Robert Moss, the UK’s leading authority on Capercaillie, blames the potentially catastrophic decline on human encroachment onto the large grouse’s natural habitat combined with Scotland’s changing weather patterns.

He claims the country’s mild winters and cold springs have led Capercaillie hens to produce weaker chicks, which are more susceptible to disease and predation.

But, the RSPB have hit back saying Dr Moss is “premature” in talking of a local extinction of this species.

Moss, formerly of the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, is also concerned that a stronghold of the birds in Speyside is under threat from a tourism drive in the Cairngorms National Park.

Nature walks and mountain biking have eroded the bird’s habitat and chicks are killed by dogs who are allowed to run free.

The estimates will embarrass conservation bodies such as the RSPB which have received more than 5 million Euros of public money over the past decade to save the bird.

Dr Moss said: “Conservation money has given Capercaillie a better chance, but if the weather continues they could be extinct within 10 years.”

James Reynolds, spokesman for the RSPB, said: “There is little doubt that the conservation of Capercaillie presents a very major challenge, but the way to respond to that is certainly not to give in to it.

“Resources are in place to deliver real benefits to this species over the next few years, with many positive projects under way presently.
 
“Capercaillie’s most favoured habitat is pristine Caledonian pine forest – a habitat that, until the latter part of the last century, had been continually declining and fragmenting for some 4,000 years.

“Now, with real on-the-ground habitat conservation being delivered for this magnificent grouse species, for the first time in several millennia this precious forest is spreading, benefiting a vast array of native wildlife.

“As such it is premature to start to talk about local extinction of this species.”

And Colin Seddon, Manager of the Scottish SPCA Wildlife Rescue Centre in Fife, said: “Changes in weather patterns, such as the damper winters and warmer summers, are adversely affecting the abundance of blueberries, an important food source for the Capercaillie.
 
“But there are many other threats facing Scotland’s rare native bird. Their nesting and mating grounds are affected by disturbances by members of the public and dog walkers.
 
“And the construction of deer fencing is another factor. When disturbed the birds will often fly into the fences in fright resulting in injury or death.”