News has now emerged about both of the missing Hen Harriers from the controversial brood-meddled nest of this year (see these two blog posts by Raptor Persecution UK 2nd brood meddled hen harrier chick vanished from grouse moor in Yorkshire Dales National Park and Brood meddled hen harrier chick vanished from grouse moor on Bowes Estate,…
Tag: grouse moor
RSPB on driven grouse shooting
There was an interesting bit on the Today programme yesterday (click here, between 0845 and 0850) when Beccy Speight of the RSPB talked about the State of Nature report (and see here). Beccy did well but then, rather out of the blue, she was asked about grouse shooting and the fact that some people, including…
Own goals galore
Whoever it was in the Moorland Association who had the bright idea to issue a press release which alluded to the fact that two recently tagged Hen Harriers were missing in action in the most roundabout and misleading way was a fool. Whoever it was in the Moorland Association who issued this press release without…
Press release – Moorland Association
Satellite data from an innovative scheme to help boost England’s Hen Harrier population has shed new light on the activities of the birds at the centre of the initiative. Five Hen Harriers which fledged this summer were fitted with satellite tags as part of a trial of a brood management scheme in which a brood…
The Glover review (3) – disappointing on wildlife
How can I possibly be disappointed with the Glover review when it gives nature top-billing (depending on how you read the report) and contains many useful passages such as those below? In our call for evidence, the message was clear: more than any other single thing, people and organisations agreed that our landscapes should do…
Good report on a bad state of affairs
The lack of birds of prey, due to high levels of illegal persecution, in many upland so-called protected areas (AONBs and National Parks) is a disgrace that is becoming clearer and clearer to the public at large. And this report on the state of affairs for the Nidderdale AONB is another welcome step forward in…
Some more information on brood meddling
You may remember that c10 days ago I published some information received from Natural England about brood meddling (see here). There was some information missing from that response which has now been supplied in the form of this interesting email from Prof Ken Norris to the rest of the scientific steering group; Note that this…
A very interesting paper on Hen Harrier diet
AbstractThe hen harrier is a heavily persecuted bird of prey in Great Britain since its diet includes Red grouse, a game bird shot in driven and walked-up grouse shooting. Unlike walked-up shooting where shooters walk up moors and flush grouse with dogs, in driven grouse shooting the grouse are driven by beaters towards static shooters….
Wilful blindness continues, completely unabated
Here is an annotated (in bold and italics) copy of the government response to the phenomenally popular petition by Chris Packham to ban driven grouse shooting (see here). Basically, Defra maintains its wilful blindness of the issues and their responsibility to solve them. Grouse shooting is a legitimate activity [only in the sense of being…
Tim Melling – Hen Harrier
Tim writes: according to the RSPB, 2019 was a record year for Hen Harriers in England with 33 young fledged from 9 nests. But it is within my memory that 30 pairs nested in Lancashire’s Forest of Bowland alone. Nine nests for the whole of England is perilously low. Quoting from RSPB recently “Hen harriers…