SRSG annual conference February 2012

The Scottish Raptor Study Groups held their 2012 annual conference in Perthshire on Saturday 25th February. Over 100 RSG members packed into the Battleby conference centre to listen to a suite of presentations by an excellent line-up of speakers. These included Chris Rollie on peregrines in SW Scotland, Gordon Riddle on sparrowhawks (on behalf of Ian Todd) and kestrels in Ayrshire, Andrew Stevenson on the raptors of Uists and Barra, David Jardine on recent trends in Colonsay’s raptors, Bob McMillan on hen harriers on Skye, Mark Wilson on hen harriers and land use changes in Ireland, Tim Hipkiss on GPS tracking of golden eagles in northern Sweden, and Patrick Stirling Aird, Brian Etheridge and Duncan Orr-Ewing on various SRSG/SRMS/RSPB updates. John Love gave the prestigious Derek Ratcliffe Memorial Lecture, discussing the white-tailed sea eagle reintroduction project in Scotland. The Donald and Jeff Watson 2012 Raptor Award was presented to George Smith (Lothian & Borders Raptor Study Group) for his outstanding long-term monitoring of peregrines in southern Scotland. Congratulations to the South Strathclyde Raptor Study Group for hosting a terrific conference, and particular thanks to Gordon Riddle and Ricky Gladwell for all their hard work.