An increase in Golden Eagle records provides some positive news - Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust

Results are in for the 4th year of the Raptor Transect Survey Project, administered by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) for Scotland’s Regional Moorland Groups. Carried out from April to July each year, independent surveyors record the presence of raptors along 10km routes in different areas of moorland across Scotland. These moorland areas are predominantly comprising of managed heather habitat, but also incorporate some rewilding or forestry initiatives.

This year, a total of 15 transects have been monitored across four moorland areas in Southern Scotland, Tayside, Angus Glens and the Grampians, with surveys taking place once a month. The aim of this work is to build a simple index of conservation status over time for key raptor species, with the goal of enabling the GWCT’s biometrics team to detect long-term trends and raptor conservation status indices in these areas. The work has been strongly supported by Scotland’s Regional Moorland Groups and Scottish Land & Estates.

Background

The duration of each transect survey is recorded so that alongside individual species sightings, a measure of effort is logged. The monthly transect surveys are recorded using a mobile app, which enables analysts to see the time-stamp, location, species and additional notes for each record entered by the surveyor in a consistent format as soon as the monthly survey is complete and the information is uploaded. This close to ‘real-time’ update provides a wealth of prompt and valuable data.

Initial results from the 2024 survey

The project is in its early stages but we can compare this year’s numbers to those that were collected previously. Preliminary review shows that there were 523 individual raptor records submitted by the surveyors from 15 transects, compared to 484 records on 16 transects in 2023.

This year there was an increase in Golden Eagle records, from 26 to 59 - more than double the number recorded in 2023. This was most obvious on the Grampian and Angus Glens transects, accounting for just over half of the total Golden Eagle records this year. Red Kite records also increased from 63 to 86, particularly in the Angus Glens and Tayside areas. Hen Harrier records increased from 4 to 12, similar to those for Peregrines. Marsh Harriers were recorded for the 4th year in succession on one transect.