Standing up for Nature
Two Cambridge colleges, at either end of The Backs, have recently announced their new ‘Masters’. At the up-town end of the waterway, and said to be the richest per student capita college of all, St John’s, the new Master will be Heather Hancock. Mrs Hancock has featured in this blog now and again over the…
It is possible, but very unlikely, that Dominic Cummings was reading my latest column in British Wildlife which points out that we need some more experts in Westminster and Whitehall when he wrote his latest blog post. Cummings called for misfits and weirdos to bolster government’s ability to know what it is doing. He has…
Hen Harrier Days celebrate a fantastic bird and highlight the illegal persecution that it faces. They are a family occasion, a show of solidarity with nature and a call to action. The Hen Harrier is a rare native bird and it would be much commoner if we could end wildlife crime. Yet public awareness remains…
And so 2019 draws to an end. How was it for you? Here on this blog, December 2019 was a record December. Previous Decembers had never got into the 80,000s in pageviews, with December 2015 (at 79,000 pageviews) being the best December on record until this year when, as of yesterday, the pageviews already surpassed…
On University Challenge (Christmas series) the other night there was a question about which species is ‘… said by the RSPB to be the UK’s most intensively persecuted bird, partly because of illegal killing by gamekeepers on grouse moors’. Neither team got Hen Harrier (even though the scientific name had been given and some other…
A life-long birder, Charlie Moores co-founded Birders Against Wildlife Crime and is a former trustee of League Against Cruel Sports. He writes and makes podcasts about wildlife and the environment. Twitter: @charliemoores So I’m in the kitchen at home, mid-2015. Thinking about things. I’d like to say about Hen Harrier Day or bettering my efforts…
I was out on 1 January last year doing a winter farmland bird survey where I was rewarded by first hearing and then seeing a Wood Lark in east Northants. That was a good way to start the year. A post on 2 January predicted that it was going to be a bad year for…
The Werritty report into grouse shooting was published yesterday after an unconscionable two year period. I accept that Prof Werritty was ill during this period but this report is not an impressive document and will not command much respect. It does give the Scottish government a free hand to do whatever it wants to do…
Sarah Robinson, Director of Conservation, Scottish Wildlife Trust said: The Review Group on Grouse Moor Management’s report highlights the serious impacts that unsustainable moorland management can have on Scotland’s uplands. We welcome the recommendation that the Scottish Government should signal its intent to introduce licensing unless bird of prey populations on or near shooting estates…
Independent Grouse Moor Review does not go far or fast enough to tackle raptor crimes ‘Werritty’ Review Group publishes findings RSPB Scotland has given a cautious welcome to the publication today of the long-anticipated report by the Scottish Government’s Independent Grouse Moor Review Group, chaired by Professor Alan Werritty. We support the recommendations relating to…