Buzzard? I thought I’d just blasted a pheasant
Man fined for shooting bird of prey in error
AN oil executive shot a protected bird of prey which he mistook for a pheasant after it flew out of the woods, a court heard yesterday.
Keith Riddoch was on a shoot at the Ralia Estate, near Newtonmore, Inverness-shire, with seven other guns when he made the error.
Even after he fired the first shot of the day, the 65-year-old self-employed consultant was convinced he had bagged a pheasant. A number of his fellow shooters knew it was a raptor and he was only informed of the error at the end of the corporate event.
The buzzard was so badly injured that it had to be destroyed.
At Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, Riddoch denied injuring the bird of prey by recklessly shooting it on November 26 last year.
However, after hearing evidence from the people who had accompanied him – including gamekeeper Alistair Lyon – Sheriff Margaret Neilson convicted the businessman of a contravention of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, and fined him £500.
Defence solicitor David McKie said the guilty verdict could have wider consequences for his client, who travels frequently to the US and fears the conviction could cause him problems when entering the country.
Riddoch, who has been shooting for 20 years, could also lose his shotgun licence.
The businessman told the court: ‘I made a genuine mistake. I didn’t mis-assess the situation.’
He denied that he was ‘impulsive’ and that he had fired an ‘instinctive shot’.
In summing up, Mr McKie accepted his client had made a mistake. ‘It was negligent or perhaps careless, but not reckless,’ he said.
It was agreed between prosecutor Tom Dysart and Riddoch’s defence that those taking part in the shoot had been warned not to target other species, including birds of prey.
It was also accepted that buzzards are similar in size and colour to female pheasants.
Mr Lyon, 52, was in charge of the shoot, during which beaters scared birds out of woodland into the line of fire.
He told the court: ‘It was the first shot of the day and I glanced round. I saw the bird falling. It was a brief glimpse but it didn’t look right.
‘Buzzards fly differently to pheasants. But if it just came out of the trees it would look similar.’
Asked if he had ever known a case in which a buzzard had been shot in such circumstances, the gamekeeper, who has more than 30 years’ experience replied: ‘It was a first for me.’
He added: ‘He [Riddoch] was in the trees and had less time to shoot.’
Ambulance technician Terry Head, 57, was at the shoot as a ‘picker-up’. He said he was standing behind Riddoch when the businessman fired. ‘I knew it wasn’t a pheasant and thought it was a buzzard,’ he added.
The court also heard from Peter Simkins, a retired businessman who had been one of the ‘guns’. The 68-year-old said: ‘We had a long wait for the pheasants to appear.
‘When the buzzard came out, it was unusual in the way it dipped and swooped.
‘Mr Riddoch was in a pocket of trees and would only have had a small circle of view to shoot. His movement was very quick and I didn’t have time to get a warning out to him.’
Company director, Christopher Chate, 66, told the trial: ‘I have not seen a buzzard behave like that on a shoot in 40 years of shooting.
‘When the guns arrive, they normally fly away.’
Company managing director Hamish Peterson, 64, who had also been at the shoot, told the court that he was 80-90 metres (87-98 yards) away from Riddoch’s shooting area or ‘peg’ when the incident happened.
‘I saw three buzzards, two of them were above us soaring and one flew along the tree line then dropped into the trees,’ he said.
Sub-sea manager Richard Taylor was the only witness to admit that he did not recognise the bird as a buzzard.
‘I saw a bird come out of the trees,’ the 57-year-old said.
‘I could not tell if it was a buzzard but it was not a pheasant.’
Mr Dysart urged the Sheriff to return a guilty verdict.
He told her: ‘The risk of buzzards in the area was well known and the guns were warned not to shoot. The other witnesses had never encountered a buzzard being shot before.
‘Riddoch’s actions fell well below the standard of a competent and careful shooter.’
‘It was negligent or perhaps careless’ ‘He had less time to shoot’