Black Isle community leaders and landowners yesterday condemned the spate of poisonings that has left 16 protected raptors dead, saying the incidents do not make sense.
Paul Foster, vice-chairman of Conon Bridge Community Council, hit out after the deaths of 12 red kites and four buzzards, saying that the “appalling” deaths have shaken the small community that does not like the thought of a bird poisoner in its midst.
Local farmers and landowners have also hit out after the poisonings, with one farmer bemoaning the setback of 25 years of work with the red kite colony.
Police confirmed that all the birds had been found within a two-square-mile area taking in Conon Brae, Balvail, Leanaig and Alcaig, south-east of Conon Bridge.
Mr Foster said: “This is a real tragedy for the area, a totally appalling thing to have happened.
“I hope that whoever is responsible owns up or is caught because it is not doing the area any favours keeping quiet.
“The kites are a wonderful sight and they bring tourists into the area, which is good for the hotels and so on.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me because the kites are scavengers and just go for carrion.
“I don’t understand it at all.”
Red kites were reintroduced into the Black Isle in 1989 after having previously been persecuted to extinction.
However, the colony has failed to develop as well as in other parts of the country, with the RSPB claiming that illegal killing of the birds is partly to blame.
Farmers in the Conon Bridge area have helped to establish the birds and one said yesterday they did not see them as a threat.
Shaun Macdonald, of Conon Brae Farms, said: “For us it is 25 years of hard work gone down the drain.
“The farms in the area have worked very hard to help develop a wild colony of red kites and it is devastating to hear of these deaths.
“It will be a very strange lambing this year without so many of our red kites watching over us.”