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I learned today of the passing on Saturday of Colin Wilkinson, a former colleague at the RSPB. Colin worked first in the RSPB Central England Region (the cinderella of RSPB regions – lots of people, not so many birds) which morphed into the Midlands Region. He was based in the Banbury office and more recently…

The RSPB is taking its time over this consultation on gamebird shooting but it is going to be worth it. The infographic that the RSPB has released is clearly not the whole picture, and is an interesting selection of information. There is quite a lot of food for thought here alone. RSPB members are 62%…

BASC say they are launching a 7-figure Fighting Fund for ‘proactive legal initiatives to secure the future of shooting’ whatever that means. Quite what this will do for BASC’s membership is difficult to see – they will have to decide whether their membership subscriptions are being well spent. At the moment BASC isn’t asking for…

Interesting update on RSPB gamebird shooting consultation from Martin Harper: RSPB members, staff and volunteers are broadly aligned in their views, specifically: the majority are knowledgeable about the issues associated with intensive gamebird shooting, the majority support the conservation principles; any opposition to the approach proposed is more likely to come from the shooting (1%)…

Tim writes: I gave up chasing rare birds some years ago but when a juvenile Lammergeier (aka Bearded Vulture) appeared in the Peak District, I decided it was too good to ignore.  It was just a 20 minute drive from my house, plus an hour’s walk to reach its favourite roosting crag.   Apparently this is…