Given that the Convenor of the Cairngorms National Park, Peter Argyle, attended the Boat of Garten Hen Harrier Day event, and spoke at it, and would have heard the strength of feeling in that room about continued raptor persecution within the Cairngorms NP, it will be interesting to see what the National Park has to say this time about another raptor disappearance on a driven grouse moor.
I was very close to the area where Calluna disappeared on the day before she ‘disappeared’ – I spent some time in Scotland after the Hen Harrier Day event at Boat of Garten. And the day before that I had a stroll at Glen Muick where I was amused to see that the local land owner was bigging up grouse shooting.
The Royal Family is rather uncomfortably embedded into a couple of areas of high raptor persecution – Sandringham and Balmoral – and yet we never hear a peep out of them condemning the wildlife crime on their doorsteps. Funny that.
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Mark please allow me rephrase that: Sandringham and Balmoral are at the centre of two areas of high raptor persecution.
It seems to me that the message about how wonderful grouse moors are is being spread on notices and information boards a lot more than previously.
An old French phrase springs to mind………..qui s’excuse s’accuse.
To set an example the Queen should turn her estates into nature reserves, but I cannot see this happening in the near future.
The Queen is patron of the RSPB. I have argued that the very highly respected body should become the PSPB – it would hardly require a change to its logo!