Mountain Hares rush to leave their worldly possessions to the GWCT – not! Adam Smith from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust in Scotland said that it was possible the dead hares in the photo below were “part of a sustainable harvest”. That’ll be a great relief to these Mountain Hares and they will be…
Tag: golden eagle
Book review – Raptor by James Macdonald Lockhart
This book was a disappointment. The basic structure is a chapter by chapter account of 15 species of UK raptor, each described in a different place, stretching from Hen Harriers on Orkney in Chapter 1 to Devon Sparrowhawks in Chapter 15. Wrapped into this structure is a tale of the life, and a previous journey,…
Another great day
Last Sunday was a great day – how could it not be in scenery like this? And there was an adult White-tailed Eagle seen several times to add to the view (and a distant probable Golden Eagle too). As the eagle flew over these hills it scared Red Grouse into the air and they were…
Great day
I spent Saturday – a lovely sunny day – inside the SNH conference centre at Battleby – at a Scottish Raptor Study Groups’ conference. It was a great day. I was speaking, which always takes the shine off my day (and perhaps others’ too), but the other speakers were a very impressive line-up. We…
Lead Week 6, #Pbweekmia
It’s not that we didn’t tell Iceland what they were doing… Here’s an extract from a blog I wrote about Iceland’s decision to sell Red Grouse in its stores back in July this year, soon after the announcement was made. ‘Iceland will have thought long and hard about this business decision of course, and it…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
There are just six days left to sign our successful e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. Ask your friends on Twitter, Facebook and in real life! Although the ills of driven grouse shooting are far wider than just wildlife crime directed at birds of prey such as Hen Harriers, systematic illegal persecution of birds of…
Guest blog – What have we learned from Langholm? by Dr Ruth Tingay
Dr Ruth Tingay is a raptor conservationist with field experience from North & Central America, Europe, Africa, Central and SE Asia. She studied the critically endangered Madagascar Fish Eagle for a PhD at Nottingham University and is a past president of the Raptor Research Foundation. She’s currently researching the illegal persecution of raptors & its…
Almost forgot
We passed 26,000 signatures on our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting a few days ago. It is now much closer to 27,000 than 26,000. If we banned driven grouse shooting we would: have lower water bills have less climate change have less flooding have more wildlife have better blanket bogs have more Hen Harriers…
An ex-gamekeeper writes…
Having just finished reading your book ‘Inglorious’ I’m prompted, and indeed inspired, to write to you. I’d like to begin by telling you something about my background. Since childhood I have been passionately interested in wildlife, with birdwatching at the fore. I was brought up in the conurbations of Manchester where I was born in…
The end of grouse shooting for another year
The open season on Red Grouse ends today and reopens on the Inglorious 12 August 2016. What better day to add your name to an e-petition to get the Westminster parliament to debate the future of grouse shooting? Grouse shooting is a pointless and environmentally damaging hobby for people with guns. this would be fine…