by Molly Kirk
On March 31, Virginia Conservation Police Master Officer Brian Bratton concluded an investigation that had begun during the 2023-24 waterfowl season when he received information about an individual trapping and poisoning hawks and eagles on the Eastern Shore.
After Master CPO Bratton contacted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to assist in the investigation, a USFWS agent and Bratton located traps and multiple eagle and hawk carcasses to confirm the original information.
“[The defendant had] built a small waterfowl impoundment on his property,” Bratton said. “He’s a big duck hunter, and he was in the process of trying to really get it going [and attracting ducks].”
When Bratton and the USFWS agent interviewed the suspect and inspected his property, they found a pole trap, which was used to attract birds of prey to land and then snared them, and a juvenile bald eagle carcass on….
