Red Grouse get to Iceland

As climate change worsens, the expected range of the Red Grouse will shift north, perhaps leaving northern England altogether, at least those are the predictions of climate change modelling (see, for example, here). But in the Daily Mail (and only the Daily Mail as far as I can see – editor Paul Dacre, grouse moor…

House prices skydance in one street in Bracknell

There’s a newish estate in Bracknell where all of the roads are named after birds.  Each of the signs has a picture of the bird and a QR code, which takes you to the relevant page on the RSPB website. Apparently, this was all the idea of a local councilor, perhaps to make up for…

Response from Yorkshire Water

Andrew Walker, Catchment Strategy Manager at Yorkshire Water, replies to my blog of earlier today: “You are right to be concerned about rotational heather burning on blanket bog; we are too. As you are aware from our previous correspondence on the matter, last October, we are working with key stakeholders to find a more sensitive…

Dear Yorkshire Water

Dear Yorkshire Water I’m not a customer of yours but I am interested in your position on management of the uplands for grouse shooting. You will be aware, because you supported the study, that last October an important study was published by Leeds University on the impacts of intensive moorland management for grouse shooting on…

Burning for grouse shooting, a threat to habitat, in the Observer today

Today the Observer has a piece on the Climate Change Committee’s report to parliament (mentioned on this blog on Wednesday) which raised the issue of intensive grouse moor management ‘The damaging practice of burning peat to increase grouse yields continues, including on internationally protected sites.’. The article was interesting for a number of reasons. The…