Rory Stewart has moved on from Defra but his legacy of inactivity on wildlife crime lives on and its impacts are manifest in his own constituency. A case of dead birds coming home to roost?
I didn’t have any takers for my 100/1 bet that Rowan died of natural causes. It’s hardly surprising. He couldn’t have died of old age being a mere few months old!
We now know that Rowan was ‘likely’ to have been shot and died in Ravensdale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in the constituency of Penrith and the Border.
We don’t know that much more at this stage. Except it doesn’t take a great biological brain to clock the fact that birds that die before they can possibly breed themselves do not make a contribution to the next generation of Hen Harriers. There appears to be a very high rate of attrition of young birds.
Although Rowan was, for all I know, a fine specimen of a bird, and would perhaps have been one of the finest skydancers of all Hen Harriers, he was, I’m afraid to say, a biological nonentity in terms of contributing to future generations of Hen Harriers. He was still a brown young male, less than six months old, and will never now moult into a grey ghost or provision a nest of his own chicks on a heather moor.
Still, no worry, Mr Stewart’s successor, Therese Coffey, has it all under control:
‘I have heard the concerns of some hon. Members that birds of prey, particularly hen harriers, are deliberately being killed. The Government take the illegal persecution of raptors very seriously. On the missing hen harriers (sic – are there more to come out?) in the last fortnight, the matter has been referred to the police. The local wildlife team has been involved and the national wildlife crime unit is aware. I can assure hon. Members that wildlife crime is a Government priority. We recently confirmed £300,000 of funding per annum for the NWCU for the next four years. Raptor persecution is one of six wildlife crime priorities for the UK. The unit has a dedicated group chaired by a senior police officer, with representatives from Government and NGOs working to deliver progress against this wildlife crime priority. It is building an intelligence picture and is due to advise on further action.‘
‘On the decline in the hen harrier population in England, the Government are committed to securing the future of this bird. That is why we took the lead in developing a hen harrier action plan, which was launched earlier this year. The plan sets out six complementary actions designed to increase hen harrier numbers in England, alongside the continuation of driven grouse shooting and the environmental, social and economic benefits that it brings. The plan is still at an early stage. Many factors can affect the successful nesting of hen harriers—food supply, weather conditions, predation and persecution —but we absolutely believe that the plan remains the best way to safeguard the hen harrier in England.‘
‘I will finish by stating that the Government have no intention of banning driven grouse shooting, but we have every intention of bringing to justice those who break the law.’
Not doing so well then are you minister? Just check out your success here. Rowan adds another line of failure to the government record.
“The unit has a dedicated group chaired by a senior police officer, with representatives from Government and NGOs working to deliver progress against this wildlife crime priority.”
Yeah which NGOs specifically. Has she considered that including some NGOs might be counterproductive to solving wildlife crime. A bit like including the Russian Mafia in a group dedicated to solving organised crime.
Or is this how organised crime works successfully, they work with the police to ensure it goes underneath the radar.
One easy answer to these killings is to check who has a gun license in the area of the killing and ban any future licenses until the killer steps forward!
I think that too. It would lead to self-policing, perhaps even grousing.
If the government and the police were serious about wildlife crime they would have, and could have, named the estate where Rowan was found. There should be no reason not to state the estate given that there can only be a loose connection between the location where the bird was found and the crime, can there? Is there a delicious irony in the fact that Natural England an the Hawk and Owl Trust ringed the bird, in Langholm, Scotland? (Excuse me , Rowan, as I realise it is you who have suffered at the hand of the organised criminals). Perhaps the MPs who attended the debate and were so contemptuous of you and we signatories could have directed these organisations to an English grouse moor where Hen harriers are doing much better than on RSPB land?
Alex – you’re assuming it was found on an estate…
Not really, if it was found on land other than an estate, that would be just as helpful to those answering the police call for information. If they give only the slightest clues as to location, these appeals are less likely to be successful. If they had given a detailed location, someone could have called the police and said: “I saw Jim Bloggs walking that way last Saturday with his gun”, which may possibly have assisted the police. They may as well have said that it was in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, which it was, but the public are much less likely to be able to assist. If the police and government were serious about this, they would give details about exactly what assistance they are looking for, as they do in a murder enquiry, down to street level. From my previous post, you can correctly infer that I believe that the police and the government are not serious about this. I am happy to plead guilty to that.
Judging by his blog, Rory Stewart seems to have a bit of a problem with focusing on anything in particular. Nevertheless, I hope that you will keep badgering him about Rowan – what a beautiful and touching homily you had there for the poor little bird! Mr Stewart, meanwhile, does at least profess an interest in developing tourism on his patch and that surely would not mean bloodsports tourism. Or could it?
‘The unit has a dedicated group chaired by a senior police officer, with representatives from Government and NGOs working to deliver progress against this wildlife crime priority.’
The fossil fuel industry must be taking lessons from the grouse-shooting lobby.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/07/marrakech-climate-talks-giving-the-fossil-fuel-lobby-a-seat-at-the-table
What could possibly go wrong?
Isn’t it a bit rich of her to boast about the funding of the NWCU when the government came perilously close to closing the unit at the start of the year and its survival may well owe much to the volume of protest that such a likelihood provoked? see – https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/18/national-wildlife-unit-to-close-within-weeks
Wouldn’t it be good if Springwatch could adopt and name a Hen Harrier chick in the same way they have done with a Scottish Golden Eagle, surlely what they have done with Freya is with the threat of illegal persecution in mind.
Excellent idea. Like that a lot.
Yes second that…excellent!
Raptor Persecution are reporting the Police statement that Rowan was found at Ravenstonedale, which is a village at the north edge of the Howgills. The Howgills are a range of grassy hills bounded on the south by Sedbergh. I would have thought there is a decent summer population of pipits, waders and a raptor or two. I have been there a lot and never seen any grouse. Nearest grouse moors about 10 miles north, Cross fell, Whin Cup Nick etc. May well be pheasant shoots at Ravenstonedale, I don’t know. But overall seems an odd place to find a shot Hen Harrier. I expect local birders would know more.
Try the satellite image on google maps and two flaps of a Hen Harrier wing north east of Ravenstonedale village, and still within the parish, are the very clear signs of ‘managed’ grouse moor. Well who’d have thought it!
Just looking on Google Earth it looks very much like a Grouse moor about a mile NE of Ravenstonedale. If so then it’s not far, for a bird that has been hit, to fly before coming down. After all, anyone shooting a Harrier would retrieve the body if it fell close by. Even so it must have moved some distance. I must admit that ten miles might be a long way though if that’s the nearest moor.
The images on the Hawk and Owl Trust website http://hawkandowl.org/harriers-sat-tag/track-our-birds/ shows a foraging area for Rowan (also see Making the Most of Moorlands) slightly North of midway between Sedbergh and Hawes. Rowan could easily have reached any Ravenstonedale location from there, and probably did so several times, based on the foraging snapshot kindly provided by HOT on the website.
The Government would be very foolish to cut resources to wildlife crime: the very considerable effort and hard work of the people who are trying to secure convictions is set against a backdrop where everything is loaded against the good guys – its a miracle any (keeper) ever gets caught. Saying ‘we are doing everything we can’ is sadly nothing more than a fig leaf on a naked policy of tacit support for grouse shooting – and persecution.
I wonder if this link is relevant?
http://www.ravenstonedale.org/interviews/pheasant.htm
“The plan sets out six complementary actions designed to increase hen harrier numbers in England, alongside the continuation of driven grouse shooting”.
Spot the oxymoron.