A rare, protected bird of prey has been illegally poisoned near Drumconrath in County Meath, Ireland. Mary hatched in the summer of 2019 from a nest on the Isle of Man. Before she left her nest, she was fitted with a lightweight satellite tracking device as part of the EU Hen Harrier LIFE project, allowing…
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Joke response to new gull licensing regime from Moorland Association
Following their joke response to the Committee on Climate Change’s report on land use the Moorland Association has issued another joke response today – this time to the new licensing regime of lethal control of gulls from Natural England. Even the thickest of journalists surely won’t quote the Moorland Association’s contention that their members, notably…
NE roll out new gull cull regime
Today Natural England has announced a new licensing system for the culling of Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls – and it’s pretty good. These two species were removed from the general licences last year, and rightly so given that they are both declining in numbers. Natural England reveal that their analysis suggests that the…
Countryside Alliance pokes at environmental protections post-Brexit
The charming Tim Bonner was interviewed in an incredibly friendly manner on Farming Today this morning. He said he didn’t like wildlife crime, but there were reasons why people killed raptors, and that’s because raptors conflicted with people’s interests. The example he came up with was that Hen Harriers can cause declines in the numbers…
Guest blog – Planting Trees (3) by Ian Parsons
Ian Parsons spent twenty years working as a Ranger with the Forestry Commission, where he not only worked with birds of prey and dormice, but where he developed his passion for trees. Now a freelance writer, Ian runs his own specialist bird tour company leading tours to Extremadura. For more details see www.griffonholidays.com This is…
RSPB position on Environment Bill
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Martin Harper, the RSPB’s director for conservation said: The importance of this landmark legislation cannot be overstated – it should underpin our efforts to restore nature in a generation. It must set the right ambition, establish the right legal protections backed up by the right enforcement powers and introduce new tools to drive nature’s recovery….
Wild Justice puts DEFRA on notice
Yesterday, Wild Justice’s lawyers sent this letter to DEFRA. Paragraphs 16, 17 and 18 sum it all up pretty well. The choice is DEFRA’s – and with the choice comes the responsibility for the consequences. Essentially, WIld Justice has got what we asked for almost a year ago – an admission of unlawfulness from Natural…
Get rid of lead ammunition from deer culling – Deer Working Group
The Working Group recommends that the Scottish Government should make a clear commitment to end the use of lead bullets to shoot deer in Scotland, carry out the necessary research and promotion to enable that change to be made after a transition period and, as a part of that, amend The Deer (Firearms, etc.) (Scotland)…
BASC, Countryside Alliance and Moorland Association become eco-zealots – shock!
In a statement, some so-called leading rural organisations pretend to join the ranks of eco-zealots and condemn illegal raptor persecution. Of course, these organisations have always said this, but they’ve never been able to deliver any change on the ground. They aren’t so much leading organisations as lagging ones – about a century off the…
Sophie increases lead intake of customers?
Farming Today (today, 1 minute into the programme) features former chartered accountant Sophie Bagley and her game meat enterprise in Yorkshire (as featured earlier in the Mail Online). What she says about game meat is largely true – it is low cholesterol, it is low carbon, it is low fat and to some extent game…