You are all winners – 123,077 of us

The campaign to ban driven grouse shooting was voted Birdwatch readers’ Campaign of the Year. Yes, I’ve noticed that driven grouse shooting is not yet banned, but 2016 saw a very big step in that direction because the public understanding of the issue grew enormously.  Many people who knew little, and cared little, about what…

Delighted!

I’m delighted that You Forgot the Birds won the Birdwatch readers’ guano award for 2016. I expect the Badger cull was a close second but I don’t know for sure. Although the Badger cull has a much bigger and more harmful impact on wildlife the YFTB crew seem to me to encompass an awful lot…

Ho! ho! ho! HOT wishes you a meddling merry Christmas!

It’s so lovely that the Hawk and Owl Trust trustees have sent us all a Christmas message. And I see that the HOT have gained one Henry Robinson as a trustee. Could this be (I think it could) the past president of the Country Landowners Association? It’s a small world isn’t it? Remember the last…

A press release from the RSPB in Scotland

STARTS RSPB Scotland has dismissed a press release issued today by the “Gift of Grouse” campaign that attempts to draw a veil over the continued persecution of birds of prey on areas of land managed intensively for driven grouse shooting. The reports on which these assertions are based are not in the public domain, and…

The minister’s speech

On the last day of October our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting (123,077 signatures) was debated alongside another, so-called rival, e-petition to protect grouse shooting (which still languishes under 25,000 signatures despite being over half way through its allotted time). Having let a month pass I’ll now return to what was said on that…