The Times reports that RSPB has intervened to brief its BirdLife International partners in France and Spain to warn them of the unpopularity and indeed perhaps the folly of reintroducing Hen Harriers to southern England. The Times is reporting old news, the emails are over a year old and were obtained by the Countryside Alliance through FoI requests.
Martin Harper, RSPB director of conservation, is reported as saying, ‘It would be wrong for us to support the reintroduction scheme until the main reason for harrier declines — illegal killing — stops.’. and he is right.
The Countryside Alliance and their mates in Natural England and DEFRA should be aware that RSPB staff are not the only people to be contacted by friends and fellow conservationists in continental Europe and quizzed about this crazy scheme which is a distraction from the main task of ridding the grouse moors of northern England of wildlife crime against protected species.
On a related subject, another daft project by Natural England, I’m told by my lawyers that our appeal against the decision in our judicial review challenge against Hen Harrier brood meddling is being listed, will be treated as a new case (even though the appeal started back in March but was halted when one of the three Appeal Court judges was taken ill), but we do not yet have a date. Much of the legal profession seem to stop work for the whole of August and September but it is just possible that in this time of coronavirus there may be a little more activity. The RSPB is also appealing the decision in a separate challenge.
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I think it says a great deal about the proposed reintroduction Of Hen Harriers in southern England that the majority of conservationists are opposed, yet the shooting cabal, NE and DEFRA are not.
I see wildlife crime has been rife in the Peak District as well as North Yorkshire during lockdown with less likelihood of as robust a police response. Perhaps the wildlife crime intolerant shooting groups and members will shop the culprits, then again——–.
I just don’t get this. Harriers would already be present in southern England were it not for decisions taken by humans to wipe them out. They should already be there by rights.
Levels of persecution in the south would not be high enough to stop a reintroduction from being successful, especially if birds are released in (and imprint on) lowland habitats. Yes a few would wander to the uplands and become vulnerable but this would not, in my view, hinder a well organised reintroduction.
RSPB have clearly changed their tune since the kite project when ongoing illegal persecution was deemed to be holding back Welsh kites and stopping them from spreading back into England. That was one of the reasons given to justify the reintroduction. Then there is the release project involving Golden Eagles in southern Scotland – an area with more than it’s fair share of illegal persecution. Double (if not triple) standards here.
I’m left thinking that people are objecting because it would take the heat off issues in the uplands. I don’t think that would happen – not very much anyway. But if that IS the reason then those objecting to this proposal to improve the conservation status of HHs should say so, rather than contriving objections that simply don’t stack up!
Ian – I can explain some of that to you, I think. But we may have done this before…
Hen Harriers quite regularly nest in the lowlands (every few years), often successfully, but those apparent colonisation attempts never come to anything. That’s one warning sign – suggesting that you may not be right about the success of a reintroductuion.
Hen Harriers are good at colonising new areas at a distance from where they are reared. Their natal philopatry is much lower than a Buzzard or a Red Kite – therefore they are much less in need of a lift in a van than Red Kites were.
I think the satellite-tagging of a few Montagu’s Harriers in England also shows that levels of persecution of harriers in lowland England is higher than we would have thought, doens’t it? That surely would apply to Hen Harriers too.
And they are likely to move to the uplands where the NE satellite tracking data show that they have a very high risk of death. And that is clearly the priority for action and NE isn’t really acting.
And, I think it is a distraction from the real problem. And I think that it was conceived as a home for brood-meddled hen harriers by the shooting industry and the danger is that would happen again.
Why is it different from Golden Eagles in southern Scotland? I don’t think it is – I wouldn’t do that one personally. Does RSPB support it?
Why are they different from Red Kites? Because of the biological reasons above and because there did seem to be a barrier to recolonisation which if leapt over would allow success. It’s all pretty normal IUCN guidelines stuff.
I’m quite a purist when it comes to reintroductions – I would say. And so are you – I would say. I think we agree on most issues to do with reintroductions but we differ on this one.
Yes, we’ve done it before. I’ll leave it. Other than to say that while RSPB are partners in the Golden Eagle project in an area with known high levels of illegal persecution, they have apparently scuppered the HH project in a region where persecution is at far lower levels. I’ll take that point up with them!
I think Mark has made the point pretty clearly, its a distraction from the real problem for Hen Harriers in our uplands. I also believe the Golden Eagles into Southern Scotland is of dubious merit because of persecution, much as I would like to see Eagles there and colonising bits of northern England. Brood meddling continues to make both DEFRA and NE very unpopular with raptor enthusiasts ( and RSPB)because it stinks of appeasement and pandering to the prejudices of the grouse cabal, the very people responsible for the problem in the first place. As a long term widespread practical solution it is simply a non starter. How many broods can they meddle at once? I would suggest nowhere near enough if the harrier population rises just a little more ( and it is still way way too low). Even the density trigger being used is laughably low if it weren’t such a tragedy. You and I have agreed on many things but not on this one.
5 released so far – all missing presumed dead.
As for persecution of HHs in the lowlands is concerned we know that they were/are regularly shot at winter roosts – Norfolk spring to mind!
Well done RSPB. The more that DEFRA and NE can be shown up supporting utterly outrageous practices such as relocating Hen harriers in preference to tackling the crimes so closely associated with grouse shooting, the better.
It is difficult to image how much lower DEFRA and NE can sink in trying to satisfy shooting organisations and Tory Party vested interests. What an awful lot they are.
The only reason shooting interests are in favour of southern reintroductions is so that, when the gamekeepers down here start killing them, it will distract from the criminals in the north and Scotland.
This is basically smokescreen stuff, and of course up to a point it works. Which doesn’t mean we should simply ignore it, and I did my stint on the comment columns today trying to respond. There’s a lot of confirmation bias around of course, but overall I’d say that if the CA were actually trying to score a point as distinct from dropping chaff, they failed.
The quote that struck me as self-inflicted harm from the Kwai Bridge team at NE was this: “SEO stated they were acting on behalf of their friends, the RSPB [and] concerns over persecution levels in the UK and birds flying north to be shot. Clear lines from RSPB and not something SEO has a clue about.”
If you were the SEO, would you work with a partner that held you to be clueless about the very matter on which they are trying to work with you? The sooner this expensive folly by Natural England is wound up the better.