Photo: At a meeting of trade unions (1996) by Ion Chibzii from Chisinau, Moldova. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
You Forgot the Birds is back with a new website with new errors and they have sponsored (does that simply mean bought?) a ‘story’ on the Guido Fawkes website.
There is nothing new here – even the newspaper clippings on the revamped website are from 2015 and 2016 – although strangely Ian Gregory fails to cite this 2016 article which explained who he is, who YFTB is, what AbZed does, who funds him and what his motivation is.
It appears that Ian Botham has been dumped by YFTB – that’s a shame, he was a great asset to the campaign to ban driven grouse shooting, and that to ban lead ammunition.
It’s clear that Ian Gregory has sprung into life ahead of Saturday’s RSPB AGM – maybe he will turn up to ask a question. I do hope so. For more information about the RSPB’s finances see this, read my article in the current Birdwatch magazine or even attend the RSPB AGM on Saturday.
The website has some information from the secret study that YFTB, Ian Botham and the academics involved feel free to talk about even though the study is not publicly available, not refereed (the last I was told) and not published (see here and here to catch up). So, we can safely ignore that stuff for a while.
But Ian Gregory knows so little about birds that he has a stunning image of a male Montagu’s harrier on his Hen Harrier page and I’m not at all convinced by that brown harrier either. What do you think? That’s the trouble with getting your images off Shutterstock when you don’t know what you are looking at (click here). There are quite a few species of raptor on these pages but at least Ian IKNAB Gregory didn’t choose the cock Pheasant!
Stunningly beautiful adult male Montagu’s Harrier. Photo: mislabelled on Shutterstock and not noticed by Ian Gregory of Abzed and YFTB.
The website is truly awful, isn’t it?
It certainly may have contacts with grouse moors, media, politicians as it claims but it does not seem to have any connection to the truth.
I hate the phrase, but in this case “Fake News” is truly appropriate.
It’s some years since I looked at the Guido Fawkes website – truly repulsive. And the sponsored article is vile.
Reading the crap on YFTB and GF makes one realise how important it is for RSPB (and the whole conservation movement) to be honest and stick to the facts – something I applaud RSPB for doing.
I will be at the AGM for the day on Saturday but hope to nip out after lunch to join the march even if only for a few minutes. Reading the stuff on GF makes me realise why I care so much about what is currently being done to this country. As a friend of mine remarked, we may be on course to hit the jackpot: lose Scotland and keep Northern Ireland!
I’ll miss that gaffe prone egotist Botham. I never saw my free pheasant curry/grouse casserole (“err, no not free, I mean 2 for 1”: Botham) that he was trying to flog either, despite being ‘poor’.
Maybe he’s gone off on another one of his long walks to help the needy instead.
Dreadful Guff and yes I think the brown harrier is a 2nd summer female Montagu’s. unfortunately there will be those who believe it and those in the grouse fraternity (or is that cabal/coven) for whom this justifies and reinforces their views despite the fact that sensible conservationists will know its tripe.
Paul – thanks!
You’re right to be suspicious of that brown harrier, Mark. It’s too slight to be a Hen Harrier and it has four visible ‘fingers’, not five. It looks to me to be a first summer Pallid Harrier male, seperated primarily from the similar Montagu’s Harrier by its neck collar. Its plumage is similar to a juvenile but paler and worn, showing a pale belly and a few thin rufous streaks on the breast.
Ed – thanks!
I have to admit never having deeply delved into their last website. Once you got the gist of what this astroturfing operation was about, you hardly needed to look further. In other words once you got a flavour of their backers, Ian Gregory’s MO, then you didn’t really need to look at the rest because you could predict what is said with boring consistency.
The only thing of minor interest is Ian Botham’s departure. Was it because Botham decided they were making him look silly, or vica versa?
The whole premise of YFTB is based on an outright lie. The premise is that the RSPB should not get into campaigning, and focus on managing nature reserves, as if that is it’s primary role. Which is just a complete distortion of history if you look at the history of the RSPB. The RSPB started out as a campaigning organization, and it didn’t have any reserves or take part in active conservation until many decades later. In fact it won it’s royal charter as a campaigning organization only. Therefore the whole premise that the RSPB should keep it’s nose out of things causing the decline of threatened birds and concentrate of managing it’s reserves is an outright falsehood, because that has never been it’s sole or primary role.
The only question is will YFTB manage to get it’s cheap propaganda into the Mail, now Dacre has gone and it no longer has a recognizable celeb to front it.
Well having just dipped my toes to read a wee bit… he is just having a conversation with….himself. Poor Lonely soul…..