Yesterday’s devastating scientific description of the impact of grouse shooting on the threatened Hen Harrier (the original paper, my blog on its findings) was greeted by Natural England Director, Rob Cooke with the following: This research identifies the scale of the problem hen harriers have faced on grouse moors. It makes for sobering reading and…
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Long-awaited scientific paper nails grouse moor crimes
It’s been a long time coming but the paper published today in Nature Communications is crushing proof that grouse moor management is overwhelmingly the source of wildlife crime against Hen Harriers. The open-access paper by Megan Murgatroyd, Stephen Redpath, Stephen Murphy, David Douglas, Richard Saunders and Arjun Amar is entitled: Patterns of satellite tagged hen…
Hen Harrier brood meddling – Mark Avery is appealing
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…
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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