After consulting with my brilliant legal team we have asked Mrs Justice Lang whether we can appeal her judgment against us in our Hen Harrier brood-meddling case. We are still waiting to hear from her. But in any case, we have decided that we will ask the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal if…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
Guest blog – Toad Rage 4 by Paul Sterry
This blog by Dr Paul Sterry follows three earlier ones; Toad Rage, Toad Rage 2 and Toad Rage 3. Paul Sterry has an academic background in freshwater biology and is a passionate conservationist. He has been writing about natural history and photographing wildlife for the last 40 years, with an emphasis on the British scene….
RSPB press release
Golden Oriole Oriolus oriolus, caught in a net, Cyprus. Photo: RSPB images Illegal songbird trapping in Cyprus at ten year low on UK military base Latest report suggests a continued decline in the number of birds being illegally killed on British military base in Cyprus. The continued reduction is due in large part to work…
Paul Leyland – Apollo
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Paul writes: This is a butterfly I wouldn’t mind seeing in the UK, it just scrapes onto the British list as a very rare vagrant. It’s a mountain species that occurs in most of the larger mountain regions in Europe. Isolated populations in several of these areas have led to a lot of different races…
The General Licences
Have you ever read the General Licences? Help yourself, here they are: GL04, GL05 and GL06. So the reasons why you might be able to kill birds under these licences are quite sensible. They include serious damage to crops and livestock. They include the prevention of disease. And they include the conservation of fauna and…
Tim Melling – Lady Amherst’s Pheasant
Tim writes: Unlike released pheasants in the British countryside, wild pheasants are typically elusive and catching a glimpse of one in the open is difficult enough. This was my first truly wild Lady Amherst’s Pheasant (or White-bellied Golden Pheasant as they call it in China), although I did see several in England during the period…
Wild Justice ‘Casual killing’ crowdfunder – first 24 hours
This screenshot was taken (at half time in Wales v Ireland) when the amount of money raised by Wild Justice to challenge the legality of the General Licences reached £14,400. Why was that significant? Because in the first 24 hours of this crowdfunder Wild Justice raised £10/minute every minute through the day and night on…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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Wild Justice launches first case
Wild Justice has launched its first case – a challenge of the legality of the General Licences. Our legal advice is that the way that Natural England/Defra authorise the killing of Carrion Crows, Woodpigeons, Jackdaws and a list of other species is unlawful. Our lawyers wrote to Natural England on 13 February but they only…
We lost – but we’ve already made a difference
A little while ago Mrs Justice Lang handed down her judgment on the legal challenges by myself and the RSPB. We lost. In fact we both lost on all counts so it sounds like a bit of a massacre – but it wasn’t. Our challenge was of the decision by Natural England to issue licences…