Henry occupies the butts

Looking very snug there Henry! Occupy the butts! Go to a grouse moor, find a grouse butt, take a photograph of yourself occupying the butt, send in the photograph to this website. Finding one of these butts is easy – you don’t have to walk for miles across the moors – a lot of them…

Bowland – signs of the times

Let’s not forget that four male Hen Harriers have ‘disappeared’ this breeding season from active nests in the AONB of the Forest of Bowland whose logo is a Hen Harrier. The Duke of Westminster owns the grouse moor of Abbeystead in the Trough of Bowland but there are a couple of other sporting estates there…

That pigeon plague

I hadn’t realised there are so many pigeons pecking away at the heather in our National Parks. Above is a Fairbang gas gun set up in the Peak District – is it really fair to have gas guns banging away in our National Parks?  Is this what National Parks are for? I gather you can…

The ghostly male Hen Harrier

That’s a bloody enormous male Hen Harrier flying across the Cairngorms! It took us, that’s me and Henry, weeks to pile the snow up like that but everyone on the A9 saw it…didn’t they?   #HaveYouSeenHenry? Keep in touch with Hen Harrier Day events through this website.  

Oddest sighting of Hen Harrier?

  A reader of this blog was pleased to see a male Hen Harrier pictured on this Environment Agency sign on the Jubilee river (which is the flood prevention scheme near Slough – of all places).  It would be possible to see a Hen Harrier near there in winter but it would be a good…

Occupy this naked butt!

Doesn’t this butt look just right for occupation?   A while ago someone tried to post a comment on this blog, and then followed up with another comment.  Both are reproduced below in edited versions.  I have edited the two comments to remove anything that might be libellous or offensive, and to protect the identity…

Access clarified?

Further to my enquiries (see here and here) about how I, as a member of the public, find out about access to ‘open access’ land in the uplands I have received this email from the Peak District National Park:   Thank you for your email and for providing a link to your blog. The restriction…

Pigeon plague on moorlands over Britain

There has clearly been a plague of pigeons attacking this valuable heather crop on an SSSI in the Peak District  – that’s the only reason for employing bird-scaring devices such as this gas gun (and what are those white flags for?) in an SSSI during the breeding season. Obviously. Since a gas gun doesn’t fall…

This was not a fake review

When I criticised Rules restaurant on the site Tripadvisor it really was me, and I really meant it – even though some comments on similar sites are apparently fake ones. I asked Rules, having been there as a customer, about the provenance of its game meat and whether it was completely up to date with…

Glen Tanar – Henry is impressed

Glen Tanar – great place. And a man cycles past without giving Henry a second glance. I don’t think there have been any Hen Harriers at Glen Tanar for a while but when I visited in 2011, I was impressed by what was happening there. I talked to Colin McLean who was then the estate…