BLOG POSTS
M&S refuse to answer reasonable questions
This is the full response I have received from M&S this afternoon (at 15:58). ‘I’ve checked with the team and nothing has changed since we were last in contact. We are currently working with our supplier to monitor numbers for this season and will only sell grouse if the numbers are strong enough.’ M&S intend…
M&S behaving very strangely and very badly
I’m losing confidence in M&S and I guess many of you are too. They are behaving in a very shifty manner – nothing like the openness I would hitherto have expected of them. Is M&S going to sell Red Grouse in any of its stores this year? It’s not a difficult question and it can…
53,000
Another thousand passed! I was on a grouse moor in Yorkshire with Chris Packham, in the Skipton and Ripon constituency actually, when I noticed we had passed this milestone and I texted the Moorland Association to ask whether they had yet found a landowner to represent their ‘sport’ at the Bird Fair. These are the…
No ammunition
You have to wonder whether the shooting community’s heart is in it. Maybe they are just about ready to concede defeat over driven grouse shooting. Maybe they’ve all secretly signed up to a ban on driven grouse shooting and will be happy to see the end of their pointless sport – if you agree with…
Letter to my MP
Dear Mr Pursglove You must be pleased that our constituency of Corby, the East Midlands, England, and the UK all voted for a Brexit. Personally, I was gutted by the result. I read your Westminster newsletter with interest and I must commend you on the way that you wrote about the result; very calm, very…
That was fun!
I’ve been out for a couple of days with two of my friends: Henry and Chris Packham. We’ve been making films. More on this later – for sure.
North Yorks Police – we’ll let you off.
Many have received the following communication from North Yorks Police after their investigation into the cautioning of a gamekeeper employed on the Mossdale Estate near Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales National Park for an offence involving the setting of poletraps. You wrote to us recently to complain about our decision to caution a man,…
Guest blog – Words from a Young Naturalist by Tiffany Francis
Tiffany is a nature writer, illustrator and conservationist living in the South Downs, Hampshire. She is about to complete her Masters in English at University College London and volunteers for the Hampshire Wildlife Trust and Bat Conservation Trust. Her first book will be published by Bloomsbury in Spring 2018. I have never seen a hen…
Ring Ousels on the moors
This Ring Ousel was recently photographed having been killed by a fenn trap set on a pole over a ditch on Stanhope Moor in Durham. The trap would have been set to catch stoats and weasels but of course it will catch anything that sets it off – this was an unlucky Ring Ousel. Although…