What a gorgeous bird the Pheasant is! Pheasant blasting starts on 1 October but I think they’ll be thin on the ground, and in the air, in these parts this year. On my recent journeys around rural Northamptonshire, and raids into Cambridgeshire to carry home loads of blackberries, there seem to be very few Pheasants…
Category: REARED GAMEBIRDS
After a very long wait…
This review was published yesterday. It is a major part of the DEFRA response to a Wild Justice legal challenge over the failure of DEFRA to assess the impacts of the unregulated release of tens of millions (47+ million Pheasants and 10 million Red-legged Partridges) on non-native gamebirds on sites of conservation importance. Wild Justice…
Where is the review of gamebird impacts?
DEFRA announced on 21 February 2020 that a review of numbers of gamebirds released and their impacts on protected sites was ‘expected to conclude in March 2020’ and yet we are now near the end of the first week in August. Just saying… Wild Justice will be in court as the Claimant in this matter…
RSPB and gamebird shooting
The RSPB is taking its time over this consultation on gamebird shooting but it is going to be worth it. The infographic that the RSPB has released is clearly not the whole picture, and is an interesting selection of information. There is quite a lot of food for thought here alone. RSPB members are 62%…
Gamebirds challenge takes a step forward
Today Wild Justice heard that it had been granted permission for judicial review of the release of 47 million non-native Pheasants and 10 million non-native Red-legged Partridges into the countryside for shooting. Wild Justice says that these unlimited, unregulated releases need to be assessed for their impacts on sites of nature conservation importance. This does…
More or less amazing
The BBC Radio 4 programme (20 minutes in), More or Less, was asked by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall about Pheasant numbers in the UK. Pat Thompson of the RSPB gave the figure, the most up-to-date figure available, of 47 million captive-bred Pheasants released into the countryside each year (but maybe not this year). And it is because…
Guest blog – Pheasants and Adders by Nigel Hand
Nigel Hand, a professional herpetologist, has been at the forefront of UK reptile and adder conservation and research for over twenty years, developing a methodology of external radio transmitter attachment to track this relatively small snake. His monitoring reptiles and radio tracking adders has provided valuable insights into their secret habits and the issues they…
The gamebirds have it, the gamebirds have it.
Yesterday I asked you whether you preferred game bird, gamebird, game-bird or maybe you really weren’t the least bit fussed about it. There were a lot of very interesting comments. And the results were as follows: A resounding majority (58% of responses) of 362 responses was for gamebird with the next most popular response being…
A serious game…
OK, this is a serious matter. There has, for the first time, been a serious difference of opinion on strategy between factions of Wild Justice and its legal team. The strategic matter under dispute is how to write the name of the group of birds in which pheasants and partridges are found. Are they game…
Wild Justice gamebirds challenge in Guardian
Defra challenged over ‘unlawful’ release of 57 million game birds in UK.