Rare Bird Alert are repeating their poll of earlier in the year and asking whether you agree with the Hawk and Owl Trust’s position on brood management of Hen Harriers (I don’t).
It will be interesting to see what the numbers are this time around (here are last year’s). I hope the H&OT get the message out to their members through social media etc then they won’t be able to be rather bad losers as was Philip Merricks last year.
Click here to go to where you vote.
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I completely disagree with HaOT deciding to use brood meddling in Hen Harriers, it’s a step backwards to placate the driven grouse shooting fraternity, not a sustainable solution.
Under the conditions prevailing on a majority of moorland where red grouse are shot there can be no justification for any kind of brood management until the killing of hen harriers stops completely. Just as import, it would be essential for estates to agree unanimously to accept the hen harrier back onto England’s uplands. If such an agreement could not be reached the killing would continue irrespective of any brood management scheme adopted.
In reality the suggestion by the HOT is misleading and premature, it’s like placing the horse in front of the carriage. There are simply insufficient numbers of hen harriers on England’s uplands to manage, brought about by the current system of meddling called persecution
Brood management will only be a feasible option when everyone accepts we must work together and the killing is brought to an end. If there is no agreement from the majority of shooting estates then almost certainly the British public will in the end rally behind a call to ban Driven Grouse Shooting.
Mark…. Why not invite Ian Newton and or Des Thomson to do a guest blog on the issue? Mr Merricks is obviously incapable of putting up a convincing argument, so why don’t we hear from his academic champions?
The problem i see with a strict academic viewpoint is that they can be blinkered. Merricks is right if you only look at one thing, Hen Harrier numbers. Presumably brood management and the insane idea put forward by Lin Murray (spin doctor for HOT) of introducing continental birds onto the lowlands will increase Hen Harrier numbers, at least slightly. But the implications are far more complicated, the most basic objection being that the numbers will never be optimum and will not be on prime habitat, grouse moors. The ethical objections can’t be ignored either. We are being black-mailed by and it looks like giving in to organized criminals.
Ref: Lin Murray on
https://olliesbirdingblog.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/doing-a-deal-with-the-devil-hawk-owl-trust-return-to-the-hen-harrier-fray/
Shouldn’t we try our best to alleviate some of the ”fear factor” which was created by the original Langholm Study?
I congratulate and support Philip Merricks et al for trying to pave a way forward to hopefully unblock this entrenched stalemate.
I think the phrase stalemate doesn’t fit the situation.
Right now i hate to say it but the raptor criminals are winning and it could be argued, in many ways, are victorious. A near victory isn’t a stalemate. They have virtually eliminated the Hen Harrier from England and are reducing it in Scotland. Basically they can keep on killing and they will get away with it. They are winning the PR war (see the BBC press release today on 2 more Red Kites killed and look at SGA/landowners spin). Basically the general public don’t give a damn about Hen Harriers. There are over one million RSPB members and yet Mark and the previous petition to licence grouse moors had a limited response (I’m not knocking it but looking realistically as a percentage of the whole population and even compared to RSPB members, it is a very small).
The press barely report raptor crime and the publicity machine against the RSPB and pro gamekeepers and landowners is propaganda-wise quite sophisticated and requires some knowledge of the reality to see through.
I think that to present it as a stalemate gives the impression that neither side are happy with the state of affairs, which I think is false. I believe that the criminal gang and those that represent them and gain from their activities are absolutely happy with the present state of affairs. They continue to break the law as they have been doing for 61 years and know that they are extremely unlikely to get caught, if they do they are very unlikely to get prosecuted and if they do are extremely unlikely to get more than a slap on the wrist. This explains why they have not budged one inch in the RSPB’s suggestion of Brood Meddling after c60 pairs of Hen Harriers in England and the grouse industry refuses to use diversionary feeding etc.
There is one caveat to all of the above. It might be changing. Public perception could be growing, Scotland has already shown the start in toughening of raptor protection measures and it could be that they are beginning to get a tad worried at least in Scotland although in England with the present UK government they really must be having a laugh.
All this is grim but makes me want to fight harder for an outright ban. I am now pushing for friends to sign.
I see a clever trap here, intended or not. Why wouldn’t we support HH reintroduction to the lowlands, esp if that is in fact their prime habitat and not grouse moors at all? Actually why aren’t we pushing for it anyway? I’m reminded of Red Kites which were assumed for years to like the habitats of mid wales whereas in fact they were barely hanging on there and needed a new lowland population to recover.
Of course we know that Lowland HH will simply bring a new conflict with illegal persecution from pheasant shoot gamekeepers but the more complicated an issue is the harder it is to unpack in a simple and understandable way for a general audience.
Don’t underestimate your (our) opponents’ PR savvy.
What a pity that in my opinion we have three major camps on this issue of Hen Harriers all with considerable different ideas on steps forward.
Camp one is Mark,Chris and other respected groups.
Camp two is RSPB who in my opinion have different views.
Camp three is HOT who lots of people are unhappy with,here what I find difficult to understand is the facts that it is a respected conservation organisation headed by a proven conservationist and furthermore on reading up on things it seems unless I am mistaken that Proffessors Steve Redpath,Ian Newton and Des Thompson have written a article that appears to back the HOT.
It just seems such a pity that agreement cannot be reached on how to save England’s Hen Harriers with a combined effort from all party’s.