An ideal place to hold one captive

Dick Warner flies flag for Burren Birds of Prey Centre

I WAS over at the Aillwee Caves near Ballyvaughan, Co Clare, recently for the opening of the new Burren Birds of Prey Centre. It’s an impressive set up with an atrium of aviaries holding hawks, falcons, eagles and owls from all over the world and an outdoor arena where flying displays are held.

Of course all this is geared mainly for the entertainment of visitors from home and abroad but there is a strong emphasis on education and conservation. And behind the scenes, where the visitors don’t get to go, there is a state-of-the-art facility for breeding birds of prey in captivity that has already notched up a number of successes.

There is no doubt, for a lover of wildlife, there are certain problems posed by seeing beautiful birds in cages. But every bird in the place is captive bred in the same way as a budgie or a canary and I am sure in the long term this centre will contribute to the welfare of wild birds of prey in Ireland.

The main way it will do this is by changing attitudes. Over time many thousands of children will pass through this place and not only will they see the birds, the more adventurous will interact with them, because in the flying displays children from the audience are provided with protective gauntlets to enable hawks, falcons and owls land on their wrists. All this will eventually result in a generation with a much more positive attitude to the birds than their predecessors.

We need a more positive approach because this country has an unenviable history of persecution, with the result that we probably have fewer species of birds of prey in smaller numbers than any other country in Europe.

The first wave of persecution took place between 1750 and 1800 when the osprey, goshawk and red kite became extinct.

Several factors were involved, including, in the case of the goshawk, a loss of its forest habitat. But the main factor was shooting, trapping and poisoning. I believe a decline in the popularity of the sport of falconry played a role. Previously birds of prey had been very valuable but with the development of sporting guns and the decline of falconry they became competitors rather than assistants to the hunt.

A hundred years later there was another wave of persecution. The last white-tailed or sea eagle probably nested in this country in 1898, the last golden eagle in 1912 and the last marsh harrier in 1917.

In the space of less than 20 years we lost enormous birds of prey (the marsh harrier is much bigger than other harriers and almost eagle sized). Around the same time buzzards may have become extinct, though there is some evidence that a couple of pairs hung on in north Antrim.

The remaining species went through another decline in the 1960s and ’70s because of the effect of persistent pesticides, which are now banned.

Today there is some better news. Buzzards have re-colonised rapidly without human help and, rather more slowly and tentatively, goshawks seem to be doing the same thing. There has also been an increase in the number of osprey sightings. Official re-introduction programmes are underway for red kites, in Wicklow, golden eagles, in Donegal, and white-tailed eagles, in Kerry.

But the problems are not over. A kite has been shot in Wicklow, no less than four white-tailed eagles have been poisoned in Kerry and the golden eagles in Donegal have had their problems too. It seems likely most, if not all, of the killings were deliberate.

That’s why we need a change of attitude to birds of prey in this country.

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