From Fighting for Birds: I was on a train to London on 24 October 2007 when one of my staff ‘phoned me up and said he’d had a phone call from a Natural England staff member who had just seen two hen harriers shot out of the air on or near the Sandringham Estate….
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
Guest blog – The Shooting of a Marsh Harrier in the 1960s, by David Bryant
Prof David Bryant is a distinguished ornithologist who was the first Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Exeter until his retirement some years ago. He set up the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on the Penryn Campus of the University of Exeter in 2003. But here he writes about an event which happened…
Dr Coffey – do the right thing
Dr Therese Coffey is the junior minister in Defra and some time fairly soon will be asked to sign off a government response to Gavin Gamble’s e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting assuming that it passes 10,000 signatures (which it will). Dr Coffey closed the debate on grouse shooting almost a year ago in a…
Heather burning
Heather burning in England is legal from 1 October to 15 April (far too late in my view) in upland areas – see rules here. It is the responsibility of local authorities to measure air quality – if I lived in an area where heather burning were common then I would ask the local authority…
A view from the Peak District
Please sign Gavin Gamble’s e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting.
Two Bucks
I gave two talks in Buckinghamshire last week – one to 6th formers at Ousedale School and the other to the Bucks Bird Club – I enjoyed both. Talking to the young people about being a biologist and conservationist is one way that I can, in a small way, put something back after a long…
Hawk and Owl Trust – don’t mention the Hen Harrier!
Rather bizarrely, the Hawk and Owl Trust does not mention the Hen Harrier in its Annual Report covering the period April 2016 – March 2017. Surely one of the H&OT’s project was, and still is, one of satellite-tagging Hen Harriers – didn’t they satellite tag two Hen Harriers at Langholm in the summer of 2016? …
Natural England EIR request – Hen Harrier data
Dear Natural England In 2008 Natural England published an excellent, interim, report on its Hen Harrier study entitled ‘A future for the Hen Harrier in England?‘. In that report you state that ‘In three incidents nests had been destroyed by illegal burning‘. Please tell me: In which county/ies did these incidents occur? Were these incidents…
Natural England EIR request – Hen Harrier Mick
Dear Natural England, You issued a press release about a Hen Harrier called Mick on 7 February 2017 in which you stated that Mick’s disappearance had been reported to the North Yorkshire Police. Your director, Rob Cooke, said ‘The disappearance of a hen harrier is deeply concerning to all who appreciate these rare and impressive…
Upside down and inside out.
Yesterday evening the BBC regional programme Inside Out for the East Midlands and Yorkshire featured a very good piece on driven grouse shooting. Well done them! Here is the link and the piece is the first one after the general introductions. You’ll hear some familiar voices and see some familiar faces: Tim Birch from Derbyshire…