RSPB begins to lose patience with grouse shooters

The RSPB held a ‘debate’ on the future of grouse shooting in Westminster last week. You can listen, though it is difficult to hear everything, and it is quite long, to the ‘debate’ here. It’s a pity there isn’t a video because then we could all check on the accuracy of the reports that the…

Natural England praises moorland estates

One can almost forgive the Moorland Association’s over-the-top spin – that’s all they have left to give. There are a few pairs of Hen Harriers on English grouse moors this year. Not as many, I think we will find, as are nesting in other places but the Moorland Association had to jump the gun (apt…

How many bad apples?

When Charlie Jacobey was telling me what I thought, and occasionally letting me get a word in edgeways, he reckoned that there were just a few bad apples in the shooting industry. I reckoned there were lots. The latest very sad news of a Hen Harrier caught in a trap on a grouse shooting estate…

River

River, a Hen Harrier from Lancashire disappeared in an area of grouse moor in the Nidderdale AONB (a notorious raptor-persecution hotspot) in North Yorkshire in November 2018. She was one of several young tagged Hen Harriers that didn’t even make it to Christmas, yet alone to their first birthday, let alone to raising eggs and…

A few snippets – people and whales

RSPB: the new RSPB CEO, Becky Speight, starts work on 19 August (I was rather hoping it would be the Inglorious 12th for a true taste of what the RSPB is up against). WCL: Elaine King, the CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, has moved on to the post of CEO of the Chilterns Conservation…

Henry is tired but triumphant

Here is Henry Morris, with a very painful Achilles tendon, leading the pack of runners up the finish after 200km of running across the grouse moor killing fields of the north of England at 2pm today. Henry covered all the 200km and was accompanied by a range of friends, family and supporters for parts of…

Henry Morris – a Hen Harrier hero

The three dots on the second horizon are Henry Morris and chums a few minutes into their amazing four-day run across the grouse moors of northern England – the killing fields for protected wildlife. Henry started his run in the Forest of Bowland AONB and ends it today in Nidderdale AONB – both wildlife crime…

Henry – keep on running!

Henry Morris and friends are doing an amazing run across the grouse moors of the north of England to highlight the plight of Hen Harriers. In the last two days, Henry, accompanied by a relay of friends, has run 82 miles. He’s half way through but today is the most difficult of the four days…

Run, Henry, run!

This was Bowland Knotts yesterday evening – it was a lovely clear evening. It’s a pretty deserted place on the road across the moors from Slaidburn to Clapham in Bowland – a few Curlew and lots of Meadow Pipits – but there was a relatively big crowd there at 8am this morning as the Marathon…

Hen Harrier marathon run

Today Henry Morris and some friends are going to start running through the grouse moors of the north of England to highlight the plight of Hen Harriers. Henry will be wearing a satellite tag and you can follow his progress as he runs through the hills – follow the run here in real time. Support…