Friday was quite a busy day, with news about crimes against birds of prey tumbling out early in the day. This was a bit inconvenient for me as I had other things planned. But it means that we’ve all had the weekend to mull over the news. What was the news?: The RSPB published a…
Category: THE WILDLIFE NGOs – RSPB, Wildlife Trusts Wild Justice, BSBI etc
RSPB – go ask for the NE data.
One of the quotes from today’s RSPB Birdcrime report is; ‘Natural England holds a wealth of data from hen harriers tagged since 2007. We have recommended that the Government commissions an independent investigation of these data to help determine where and why tagged hen harriers and other tagged birds of prey are disappearing.’ Well, there…
The question remains…
Who was instrumental in determining the wording of the press release which described Rowan, the Hen Harrier, as ‘likely to have been shot’ when, it appears, that all involved knew that it had been shot? For new readers see Raptor Persecution UK blogs here and here, and my blogs here and here. Was it: someone…
Guest blog – #SaveLodgeHill by Adrian Thomas
Adrian Thomas is a lifelong birder, editor of The Birds of Sussex, and author of RSPB Gardening for Wildlife. Oh, and he has a day job with the RSPB as a Project Manager, which has included the NoAirport@Cliffe campaign and working with the Environment Agency to create Medmerry, the major managed realignment scheme in West…
Guest blog – New Nature magazine by Alice Johnson
Having always loved wildlife, Alice studied a degree in conservation and has been involved with various projects, including helping barn owls with The Wildlife Trust and little terns with the RSPB. She keeps a wildlife blog (Nature Nattering) and writes content for The Woodland Trust. New Nature Magazine – Nature through…
Happy Birthday (tomorrow) Matt Shardlow
Matt Shardlow was on Farming Today this morning (before I was awake for once)(click here, 9 mins in) doing a spirited job. I don’t know the ins and outs of the subject so I can’t tell you that Matt was right, but it would be possible to check. But I am sure that he sounded…
If only…
David Mitchell, or David Mitchell Coren as we might call him, wrote an excellent column on telling the truth yesterday. One of his points, with which I agree, is that the good guys need to be squeaky-clean in this so-called post-truth age. We will only live in a post-truth age if we allow truth to…
Press release from the RSPB in Scotland.
Starts General licence system used as cover for criminal destruction of birds of prey RSPB Scotland has expressed concern at Scottish Natural Heritage’s response to their recent consultation on the ‘general licences’ that permit the killing of some species of protected birds under certain circumstances. We do not believe that this approach will contribute to…
A press release from the RSPB in Scotland
STARTS RSPB Scotland has dismissed a press release issued today by the “Gift of Grouse” campaign that attempts to draw a veil over the continued persecution of birds of prey on areas of land managed intensively for driven grouse shooting. The reports on which these assertions are based are not in the public domain, and…
The RSPB and driven grouse shooting
It’s certainly not my place to be setting out the RSPB’s position on driven grouse shooting but there have been signs, some public and some less obvious, that the RSPB is losing patience with driven grouse shooting and with Defra. Let’s just recognise that the RSPB has come a long and slightly difficult way since…