Keeper put out poison egg to kill rare raven

THE head gamekeeper on a Highland sporting estate killed one of only four breeding ravens in the North-east of Scotland by lacing a common gull's egg with a toxic pesticide.

Hector McNeil used the illegal poison as a "last resort" to kill the rare bird because legal traps he had set to protect red grouse and pheasant chicks on the estate had been sabotaged, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard yesterday.

McNeil was also caught in illegal possession of more than 100 common gull eggs he had taken from a colony on the North Glenbuchat Estate in Strathdon, owned by a London financier, where he worked as head gamekeeper.

McNeil, 56, of Glenbuchat, appeared before Sheriff Alexander Jessop and pleaded guilty to three charges under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

He admitted killing a raven and common gull on the estate in May of this year by using Aldicarb, a "very harmful pesticide", illegally possessing a total of 118 common gull eggs at his home, and illegally possessing Cymag, a banned substance which contains sodium cyanide.

Jim Craigen, the depute fiscal, told the court that McNeil had been head gamekeeper for 30 years on the sporting estate which was primarily used for shooting red grouse, pheasant and deer.

Mr Craigen revealed that the poisoning of the raven and gull was discovered when two countryside rangers, employed by Aberdeenshire Council, visited the estate to carry out a routine risk assessment.

Sentence was deferred.