If there were a fan club for Walshaw Moor then I’d be a member, despite never having set foot on it. I have passed it on the roads, stopped and looked at it, been glared at by its gamekeepers and spoken about it in meetings in both Hebden Bridge and Haworth and even won a…
Category: Grouse and harriers
Hen Harrier English reintroduction project closes after eight years of failure
Natural England has admitted (click here) that its badly-judged (click here) Hen Harrier reintroduction project isn’t going anywhere and has pulled the plug. In a blog that tries to make the best of publicly-funded activity through 2018-25, cuts to NE’s budget were given more of the blame than the difficulties that NE had to persuade…
More Hen Harrier killing
RSPB press release: Chicks fledge with RSPB support after suspicious loss of parent Hen Harriers. In May 2025, over a period of eight days, four breeding male Hen Harriers suspiciously disappeared from their nests in northern England – two from RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve in Cumbria, and a further two from the Forest of Bowland…
Debate on grouse shooting 4 – the petition system
If anyone ever tells you that it is easy to get 100,000 signatures for a petition then ask them how many times they have done it. Very few people have. I have – five times and I have given considerable help and advice to others too. I’m a fan of the idea that any citizen…
Debate on grouse shooting 3 – the political parties
Having discussed the most important aspect of the debate on driven grouse shooting, the government response – click here, I will now turn to other aspects of the debate. There are 650 MPs in the Westminster parliament, and 634 come from 13 political parties with an additional 15 independents and the Speaker. Grouse moors occur…