Farming Today last Saturday morning had a discussion about shooting between Andrew Gilruth of GWCT and Pat Thompson of RSPB. Pat did very well but it’s more interesting to listen to Gilruth I think. He rarely answers the question. He reminds me so much of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s performance in Parliament yesterday evening – smooth, unruffled,…
Category: Lead
A chat on a train
A fortnight ago, I set off to give a talk about driven grouse shooting at Walthamstow Wetlands as part of the London Wildlife Festival. I got off the tube at Tottenham Hale (a new experience) and walked to the site to find lots of glum faces as the Saturday and Sunday events had just been…
In September Birdwatch
Rebecca, Ruth and I had a chat at the Bird Fair. In this month’s Birdwatch there is an excellent article on raptor persecution by Ruth Tingay as well as a host of excellent images of rare birds from the UK and elsewhere in Europe. I enjoyed Bill Oddie’s back-page column too. In my Political Birder…
SNH hands out non-toxic ammunition to goose shooters
This story about a Greylag Goose cull on Orkney caught my eye (largely because someone sent it to me – thank you!). I don’t know enough about the reasons behind the cull to comment on whether it is the least bit sensible but I was interested to see that the goose carcasses were to be…
GWCT comes clean on lead
The move by Waitrose to require its game suppliers to supply game meat that has not been shot with lead ammunition from the 2020/21 shooting season is likely to have considerable knock-on impacts. The GWCT is the leading scientific authority used by the shooting industry and, for example, restaurants that sell game. For example, when…