The week started badly with a flaccid statement from the ‘campaigning’ RSPB but ended well with firm action from the staid NT. Readers of this blog may well be up to date with many aspects of the NT’s decision to terminate a shooting let through the excellent Raptor Persecution UK blog or through Martin Harper’s…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
Funding update – thank you!
Thanks to your generosity we have raised £2500 for the campaign to ban driven grouse shooting. Any further contributions would be very welcome – and it is likely that I will pass the hat around again later in the summer as we race towards the finishing line of 20 September. We aren’t, remember, even half…
Check out Raptor Persecution UK
I was on the road yesterday afternoon when an interesting and important story broke. And I’m still on the road. But I believe a team of people at Raptor Persecution UK has been working through the night to keep you up to date. So go have a look at their blog and I will be…
And another e-petition!
Mark my words, there will be some more coming soon too. But here is another e-petition about Hen Harriers and grouse moors. I’ve signed it (even though there are a couple of mistakes in it). You could too.
Worth waiting for
This is a press release from the Yorkshire Dales NP in response (a slightly slow response) to the pole trap incident of last week. A bit late thought it may be, it is well worth reading. Birds of prey traps condemned by National Park Authority Grassington, June 7, 2016. Illegal persecution of birds of…
The alternative Countryfile interview.
On Sunday Countryfile sank lower than even I thought was possible with a hopeless piece about grouse moors. Here is the link and the piece starts at about 22 minutes into the programme. Presumably, in the interests of BBC balance, Springwatch will be showing this image of how Mountain Hares are looked after on grouse…
Henry says ‘Save the date’ – 25 June on a Yorkshire grouse moor.
HANDS OFF OUR HEN HARRIERS Following this morning’s news (see here and here), Henry invites you to save this date: Saturday 25th June For a midday picnic and rally on a Yorkshire grouse moor. Further details available towards the end of this week.
RSPB speaking softly and left its stick at home.
The RSPB continues to talk up the hopeless Defra Hen Harrier plan even though it shows no sign of making a difference on the ground. In a rather unspecific update Martin Harper says that there is only ‘a tiny handful’ of Hen Harrier nesting attempts in England to date. Tiny handful? Attempts? This long-heralded update…
Intransigence
Today we should hear news about the status of Hen Harriers in England in the first year of the Defra Hen Harrier recovery project. See here for the only real Hen Harrier recovery plan. There should be 330+ pairs of Hen Harrier nesting in the English uplands and last year there were 12 pairs (from…
Cartoon delayed
Due to circumstances beyond Ralph’s control, and my control, his cartoon will appear later this evening. I was out for most of yesterday afternoon, all evening and into the early hours of today. I was at the Ricoh arena in Coventry at a Bruce Springsteen concert – and very good it was too. I was…