One can almost forgive the Moorland Association’s over-the-top spin – that’s all they have left to give. There are a few pairs of Hen Harriers on English grouse moors this year. Not as many, I think we will find, as are nesting in other places but the Moorland Association had to jump the gun (apt…
Category: SHOOTERS
76 minutes of chat with Fieldsportschannel.tv
I had a chat with Fieldsportschannel.tv ‘s Charlie Jacoby last week. I was lured to a field in Yorkshire en route to meeting Henry Morris and friends on their run across the moors. I am, it seems, The Joker to ‘their’ Batman (which one is Batman then? Andrew Gilruth? Tim Bonner?) and the Vader to…
It’s not us – it’s you GWCT
By chance, my review paper of Pheasant impacts was published at the same time as a BTO study to which I refer in the British Birds article: Pringle, H., Wilson, M., Calladine, J. & Siriwardena, G.M. (2019). Associations between gamebird releases and general predators. Journal of Applied Ecology. Pringle et al. add another piece of…
General Licence 31 – Woodpigeons and serious damage to crops
This general licence was published yesterday evening by Natural England – the next ones look as though they will be published by Defra. I’ve had a quick look at it. Noticeable is this passage; This appears to be a recognition of the point raised on this blog last week (and raised in the Wild Justice…
Chris Packham CBE – national treasure or endangered species?
Chris Packham is a mate of mine – although he’s not very matey really. But he’s also a colleague and he’s a great guy. He’s had a lot of flak in the media and social media since we, that’s Chris, Ruth Tingay and myself, Wild Justice, won a legal challenge against the system of General…
BASC can’t believe that the ‘C’ stands for conservation either
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NE plans for licensing of bird-killing represent massive change of emphasis.
Where is NE heading with the licensing of bird-killing under General Licences? It’s difficult to tell, and we’ll have to see. However, the claim that it will all be business as usual already looks unlikely to be true. Charlotte Smith: will it be harder to get a licence? Marian Spain, Natural England: it shouldn’t be…
Bird notes
Following the success of the Wild Justice legal challenge over the General Licensing system that Natural England has operated, there has been an outpouring of abuse towards anybody to do with this case (and some who have had nothing to do with it) in the press and on social media. But some of the same…
Pigeon Pie and the General Licences
Woodpigeon. Photo: Tim Melling Let us take Woodpigeon as an example. Under what circumstances do Woodpigeons cause serious damage to crops – and what constitutes serious damage? And which crops can be seriously damaged by Woodpigeons at which times of year? How is the shooting of Woodpigeons solely for food consumption legal – we suspect…
BASC doublespeak – another example
As disputation goes, this is on the level of ‘I didn’t steal your car and it’s mine anyway’ David Mitchell in Observer 14 April David Mitchell wrote in the Observer last week about the public subsidy of gun licences and is somewhat unimpressed by BASC’s ‘argument’ from those who give ‘specially bred poultry a terrifying…