The Hen Harrier came a glorious ninth in the poll for our national bird – left fluttering in the wake of the Robin and a host of other species, but edging ahead of the Puffin (which must be gutted!). It’s enough to set us all off on a sky-dance! It was remarkable that the Hen…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
What next?
There’s been an outpouring of frustration mixed with anger on social media, and in my head, over the fifth disappearance of a male Hen Harrier from the English uplands this year. Yesterday I was quite distracted whilst doing a BBS visit – I had to keep telling myself to concentrate and count the Carrion Crows!…
Mayhem
The fifth ‘disappearance’ of a male Hen Harrier from an active nest in England marks 2015 as ‘May mayhem’ year (see here and here). If five male Blackbirds disappeared from a small number of monitored nests it would be pretty odd, and Hen Harriers are designed to live a good deal longer than Blackbirds. A…
Being open
Members of the ‘Sodden 570’ at last year’s Hen Harrier Day event in the Upper Derwent Valley will recognise this area – we were getting soaked just off the left hand (western) side of the map on 10 August last year. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act provided open access to open ground (in…
Back soon? Not soon enough!
It’s now a month after the general election (remember the general election?), parliament has reassembled, and the Tory government hasn’t yet reopened the e-petition website. Maybe they’ve decided not to bother with them any more? Or maybe they are just incompetent. I’m quite keen to launch an e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting (with a…
Natural England bleats
Natural England roused itself from slumber yesterday, perhaps after reading this blog (you never know – they do, you know!), and uttered a few weak words on the disappearance of a male Hen Harrier from Geltsdale in Cumbria. It’s good to know that Natural England is ‘very concerned’ about the state of a species on…
Geltsdale: another missing male Hen Harrier
Yesterday the RSPB released the news that there had been a pair of Hen Harriers nesting at their Geltsdale nature reserve in Cumbria, but that the male had gone missing and the nest had consequently failed (see here, here and here). This followed the news that three male Hen Harriers had gone missing in the…
It’s good to be in Scotland
An advantage of being in Scotland is that the Torygraph up here didn’t have this non-story in it. The disadvantage was that it had some quotes by the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association instead. I didn’t seem to have missed much. Apparently being an ex England captain is now an ecological qualification. At least Botham is described…
Henry occupies another butt
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Henry looks sad. He thinks illegal raptor persecution is a blight on the uplands. He feels sad for all the Hen Harriers that have been bumped off. You could have your photo taken in a grouse butt too. Show your support for Henry and the hen harrier – occupy the butts. #HaveYouSeenHenry? …
Henry
Henry has some friends. Are you a friend of Henry? #HaveYouSeenHenry?