The Craven Herald is based in Skipton, grouse-shooting country. Here are two recent stories, both by their Senior Reporter, Clive White.
Family terror as dog is snatched by bird of prey – you have to read quite a way into the article before you realise that this is a falconer’s bird, and nowhere are you told that the Harris Hawk is a native of North America, more at home in the erstwhile home of the Apache in the Saguaro deserts of Arizona (that’s where I saw the only one I’ve ever seen in the wild) than in the soggy environs of Grassington. But a bit of raptor demonisation never goes amiss in grouseland.
Actually, the last Harris Hawk I saw, in fact probably my last five sightings, were of birds (maybe the same bird) in St Pancras and Kings Cross stations where they/he/she are/is used to scare off the pigeons. Lots of people were taking photos of the bird, marvelling at its beauty and admiring its flight. No dogs were hurt in the process.
Improving Hen Harrier population – Clive must have been having a senior moment here if he believes that the brood meddling scheme is going to ‘improve the population and range of the hen harrier in upland northern England’. For a different take on brood meddling see here.
Craven – contemptibly lacking in courage; cowardly
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I have watched the Harris Hawk in operation at King’s Cross Station. The surprising thing was that the vast majority of people appeared to be totally unaware of the large raptor flying back and forth across the concourse not far above their heads! Just imagine the wave of terror-stricken panic that could have been induced if they had just looked up!
I saw a harris hawk flying free as we were driving home one winter afternoon a few years ago. It’s white rump immediately distinguished it from the local buzzards and red kites and asking around I came up with the ID. I don’t know of local falconers so don’t know if it was an escapee or being flown.
I have stirred myself and written a comment piece for the illustrious organ – the only comment so far!
The average weight of a harris hawk is approximately 1kg, the average weight of a jack russel is approximately 7 times that. I doubt a harris hawk would be capable of dragging the dog 15 metres.
Most harris hawks do anything they can to stay away from dogs as they’re a natural predator of the hawk. If this bird was a harris hawk it would almost certainly have been a hawk that had been trained to work with dogs from a very early age.
Power, privilege ,money and the media are all united against us , they can print any old tosh without any comeback or even a thought of a retraction. Once it is out there it has influenced , even subliminally ,huge swathes of the populace. This of course is part of a concentrated and united effort by the media who prop up the establishment.
This is a seemingly harmless example but make no mistake we are up against some dark forces.
The last price I got was £100,000 a year for pigeon control at St Pancreas and that was several years ago when I wrote Horus the Peregrine. Add the number of railway stations in London, protected buildings, football stadiums etc where pigeons need to be removed and you have a £multi million expense for feral pigeons alone. Need more Peregrine Falcon nest sites erected to reduce all that wasted money! And what about a few Berlin urban Goshawks added as well. Collared Doves fell from 100.000 pairs to 10,000 in Berlin.
Oh no lets just pay the pest control companies to do their dirty! 2017 saw a 40% rise in call outs as folk hate wildlife around their homes! No wonder they want to get rid of urban Foxes as it is estimated that these Foxes remove 1 million Brown Rats a year! More jobs for the boys.
Mark
Before John James Audubon and his friend Edward Harris start turning in their graves, it’s called a Harris’s hawk!