Peregrines

The results of the 2014 Peregrine survey are now published (not very quickly). It’s good to see the detail although the overview results have been available for quite a while.  Peregrines have done well in the lowlands and badly in the uplands. We already know (since 2011) at an even finer grain, for northern England,…

Marc’d down on Wemmergill

The news (RSPB blog, RPUK blog) of yet another disappeared Hen Harrier from the cohort of 2017 youngsters is not a great surprise. There aren’t that many left! But the location is interesting – Wemmergill Moor.  Wemmergill Moor is a big-name grouse moor.  Until 2006, this moor, of 17,000 acres had been in the same…

An eagle called Fred

  Press release: Golden eagle persecution 7 miles from Scotland’s Parliament? A young satellite-tagged golden eagle has disappeared in highly suspicious circumstances in the Pentland Hills, just seven miles from the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh. The eagle had hatched at a nest site in the Scottish Borders in 2017 and last June, in cooperation…

Boris sneers at environmental protection

It was an interesting decision to choose Boris Johnson, one of the most distrusted politicians in a distrusted government, to ‘reach out’ to us all over Brexit in a divisive speech entitled ‘Uniting for a Great Brexit‘. Did it work for you? Here is one passsage: ‘We can simplify planning, and speed up public procurement,…

Brood meddling – a potential legal challenge (or two)

Anyone seeking to mount a judicial review of NE’s decision to issue a licence for brood managment on Hen Harriers this year (see here and here) has a couple of months to get it sorted. We, that’s me and some mates, have been exploring this option seriously, and still are. I should be meeting a…