Are you inspired by Hen Harriers in the PDNP? Would you like to be? Then this is your opportunity – complete the consultation by the end of July. The whole plan is very weak on biodiversity preferring to talk about people all the time. I’ll come back to this. Many thanks to Bob Berzins…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
How you can help the Hen Harrier
Remember this video? Filmed in 2013, but only released in May this year, and it resulted in no prosecution. Hen Harriers are killed on grouse moors because they eat Red Grouse that people want to shoot for fun. Hen Harriers have had full legal protection since 1954 and yet the main factor determining their range…
RSPB, what’s the plan?
Martin Harper, the RSPB Conservation Director says, ‘The hen harrier, by contrast, has suffered a significant setback in its recovery according to the results of a recent UK survey. It is on the brink of extinction as a breeding bird in England…how do I explain their absence to my children? Well actually, Martin said that…
A short history of a lot of talking
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…
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…