It’s good to talk. But talking can also be used as a refuge from taking action. If there’s one thing that is likely to get me animatedly irritated (and friends have seen this happen a few times) is when somebody comes onto the scene of the grouse shooting/moorland/raptor persecution issue and says something along the…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
See you there on the Inglorious 12th
Pay up, Countryside Alliance!
I have permission to use this image of a Red Grouse by Tim Melling. The Countryside Alliance does not. Tim Melling is wondering where he should send his invoice please? He tells me that £500 would be an appropriate sum and that he’d like it to be a donation to Birders Against Wildlife Crime, perhaps…
Seriously rattled – and rightly
In a long rant the Countryside Alliance shows just how rattled it is by the challenges to driven grouse shooting. It’s all the usual stuff, in fact it’s quite a useful refresher course in the Alliance’s lack of solid arguments on the subject. But it’s interesting to think about why the grouse shooting folk have…
UK Hen Harrier survey results – what they say (5)
Hanky for Mr Stokes!
Dara and Tweet of the Day
Here is Dara McAnulty (centre) pictured with his brother Lorcan and sister Blathnaid, and some bloke off the telly. I’ve been watching Dara’s blog for months now, and I look at it every week for sure. And I follow him on Twitter too (@naturalistdara). This morning Dara was making his second appearance on Tweet…
Isle of Man Hen Harriers
Yesterday we learned that the UK Hen Harrier population in 2016 was lower than in the previous two comparable surveys (2004 and 2010) but slightly higher than in 1998 and 1988/89. In the Isle of Man, a self-governing Crown Dependency (which is not a part of the UK, nor subject to the Common Agricultural Policy…
UK Hen Harrier survey results – what they say (4) – the coalition of chaos
The coalition of chaos on the Hen Harrier – all it lacks is a contribution from the DUP. Aside from that it has spin, U-turns, failure to answer the question, attempts to blame the victims for the problems, attempts to blame the other party for everything for which you are responsible and a strong whiff…
UK Hen Harrier survey results – what they say (3) – Defra
Defra is the government department responsible for wildlife and their new Secretary of State, Michael Gove, wants to know the answer to this question ‘If we want the UK’s approach to environmental protection and enhancement to be seen as the best in the world, what does that mean and what does it look like at…
UK Hen Harrier survey results – what they say (2)
2000 pairs of Hen Harrier are missing from the UK – overwhelmingly due to widespread, systematic and illegal persecution by grouse shooting interests. The results of a UK-wide survey were released today: there were 545 pairs in 2016 compared with 633 in 2010. The media response: Overall, there are quite a few mentions of these…