I read on Raptor Persecution UK today that the Scottish Government is going to say something about the Werritty report tomorrow afternoon – good. After all this time of setting up the group, writing the report, publishing it and then reading it, we need to see some action on the subject in Scotland. I’m quite…
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Farming Today, today (2)
I heard two good things on Farming Today, today – this is the second. After hearing Luke Pollard talking fish, I heard another good speaker a bit later in Farming Today, Rosie Woodroffe talking Badgers. Now I do know Rosie a bit, not very well but a bit, and I have a lot of time…
Farming Today, today (1)
I heard two good things on Farming Today, today – this is the first. When I turned on I’d just missed the beginning of the programme and there was some bloke talking about marine fisheries. I didn’t recognise him but he seemed pretty fired up, spoke very well and as he talked I thought ‘I…
Guest blog – Birds on the Brink by Paul Sterry
Paul Sterry is a passionate conservationist and has been writing about natural history and photographing wildlife for the last 40 years. He founded the international competition Bird Photographer of the Year and is a trustee of the charity Birds on the Brink. Formed earlier in the year – by unfortunate timing just on the cusp…
Bird/poultry flu update
There is another poultry farm, in Melton Mowbray, Leics, with avian flu (announced yesterday). DEFRA has updated its ‘wild’ birds register too. Mostly wild birds like Canada Geese… Many poultry farms are under lockdown but it is expected that some turkeys will be allowed to travel just before Christmas.
It’s a hat-trick for the Jay!
Yesterday afternoon Natural Resources Wales answered my questions about Jay culling on NRW land as follows: Our response to your questions is as follows – 1. Does NRW cull Jays under the provisions of the general licences on its land? NRW does not currently cull jay on land it owns or manages. 2. Does NRW…
Just a reminder on Jays
If you go back to May 2019 you will find that I quoted from the BTO’s Andy Clement’s blog at the time as follows; … there may be insufficient scientific evidence to merit the inclusion of Jay on the licence list in order to conserve birds … https://www.bto.org/community/blog/2019/general-licences-and-bto And yet, the Jay is still listed…
Natural England blog makes Wild Justice’s point
In a recent blog, Natural England sets out its approach to issuing specific licences for lethal control. You could be completely forgiven for not quite understanding how the licensing system works in England at the moment but I think it is like this: all wild birds are protected by law you can kill any species…
Rewilding and National Parks
I asked a simple question and in under six days 908 people responded: Now that’s quite clear. We have no way of knowing who these people were – the survey was promoted on social media and was open to any to answer (but that doesn’t mean that the respondents were anything like representative). But the…
Guy Shorrock – Golden Eagle
Guy writes: Golden eagle – it doesn’t really get much better does it! Probably one of the most well-known birds to the man on the street – symbolic of beauty, power, speed & wilderness. I saw my first eagles when I was about 11 years old on a holiday with my father to Scotland. A…