In a move that will be highly embarrassing for the UK government, particularly for Defra and the Defra Minister Richard Benyon, the RSPB today launched a complaint to the European Commission over the Walshaw Moor affair. The RSPB is ‘Stepping up for Nature’ by suggesting that Natural England, the delivery agency of Defra, contravened European…
Tag: grouse shooting
Wuthering Moors 27 – Secrecy and power
The revelations over the 23-year old events at Hillsborough have been shocking – deeply shocking. But I wonder how many of us felt a little personal guilt for moments when we thought ‘It’s a long time ago’ or ‘Let it go’? This week the obstinacy and determination, and passion (there was lots of passion), from…
Mmmmm! Yummy!
I tell the story in Fighting for Birds of staying at the house of a grouse moor manager and being given grouse to eat for dinner. I quite like grouse but I prefer pheasant on my plate. There was a bit of an expectant hush as my host and some other guests waited to see…
Turtle doves under fire
I haven’t seen a turtle dove in Northamptonshire this year and it seems I am not the only one. This was a bird that I didn’t see in the north Somerset countryside where I grew up. It was only when we came on holiday to East Anglia that I saw my first turtle dove –…
Guest Blog – response to Mark Avery by Magnus Linklater
Magnus Linklater is a former editor of The Scotsman and Scottish Editor of The Times. He is trustee of an estate in Perthshire, and a regular commentator on rural affairs. I knew that taking on the RSPB would be nothing but trouble. But I was not quite prepared for the volume and ferocity of…
Wuthering Moors 27
Blogs entitled ‘Wuthering Moors’ form a series of articles about the Walshaw Moor Estate and its relationship with Natural England and Defra. The Observer published this letter from a sizeable group of Hebden Bridge residents who are concerned that the management of nearby grouse moors including Walshaw Moor has increased the risk of flooding for…
The raptor haters? – Magnus Linklater
Magnus Linklater is a clever man as befits some Old Etonians and some former editors of The Scotsman newspaper. I’ve only met him once and we got on quite well as we looked at the heather moors of the Langholm Estate one sunny day. He wouldn’t deserve a place in this occasional series of articles,…
Wuthering Moors 26
Ban The Burn campaigners launched a national campaign on Sunday evening, August 12th, in Hebden Bridge. The Ban the Burn! campaign aims are: a ban on burning and draining blanket bog an end to loopholes in the Heather & Grass Burning Code and other regulations Environmental scientist Dr Aidan Foley had an upbeat message for the…
Wuthering Moors 25
An amazing local reaction – I wish I could be there PRESS RELEASE On Sunday August 12th, flood-hit residents of Hebden Bridge and campaigners from across the country will set out from the town centre on a BAN THE BURN protest walk to the Walshaw Moor grouse-shooting estate. Following the walk, the BAN THE BURN national campaign…
BBS 2011
The latest Breeding Bird Survey report is now available – an everyday story of declining farmland birds? Of the 19 species in the Farmland Bird Index, nine increased (grey partridge, stock dove, jackdaw, whitethroat, tree sparrow, yellow wagtail, linnet, goldfinch, yellowhammer) and nine decreased (kestrel, lapwing, wood pigeon, turtle dove, rook, skylark, starling, greenfinch, reed…