Photo: taken on 31 December 2018 I hear that there is a lot of activity on Walshaw Moor these days – and also these nights. Locals have heard that there are some more grouse butts going in to the moor. No doubt Natural England would be aware and would have consented this activity if it…
Tag: grouse shooting
2019 will be another bad year for driven grouse shooting.
2019 will be another bad year for driven grouse shooting. Here are some of the reasons: the long, long, long-awaited analysis of the NE Hen Harrier tagging data should be published soon. Getting these data published clearly hasn’t been as straightforward as the authors had hoped as back in mid-August they were hoping that the…
2018 – another terrible year for grouse shooters
Grouse shooting is still with us but its supporters must be counting the years. The ratchet of progress is irresistible and driven grouse shooting is doomed. 2018 brought its demise a bit closer and so will 2019. I’m looking forward to 2019. 2018 was the year when: there were very few Red Grouse available for…
Guest blog – The worst of times or the best of times? by Ian Parsons
These can be depressing times for wildlife lovers. Many of our wild bird and mammal populations are declining at an alarming rate, our Raptors are being systematically disappeared from parts of the countryside, our politicians don’t seem to care, the statutory bodies (overseen by those politicians) that are supposed to be protecting and enhancing our…
Back to that excellent RSPB raptor report
The report on raptor persecution in Scotland published by the RSPB last week deserves a wide readership. I’ve been looking at it again over the weekend. There is a good, and new, piece of interpretation on satellite-tagged Hen Harriers (p12). Of the 18 Hen Harriers that died, or which disappeared under mysterious circumstances (ie their…
RSPB report on raptor killing 2015-17
This is the best report the RSPB has produced on illegal killing of birds of prey. Well done them! This report considers only Scotland and only over three years but this was a time of many important cases and many important scientific findings. The content will be familiar to many who read this blog and…
RSPB press release – Raptor killing in Scotland
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Grouse moor regulation vital to end illegal killing of Scotland’s raptors New report calls for action A new RSPB Scotland report published today has further reinforced the need for grouse moor regulation to be introduced in order to bring to an end to the widespread persecution of raptors in Scotland. The Illegal Killing of Birds…
Grouse moors – poor value
This report was published a few days ago by Common Weal – a member of the Revive coalition (see here and here) that is looking to reform intensive grouse shooting in Scotland. It’s interesting, although not stunningly so. The report compares the economic gross value added (GVA) and jobs, both per hectare, of grouse shooting…
Your National Parks and AONBs need you!
If you are going to respond to the consultation on National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England, and I do hope you will, then you have until 18 December (that’s Tuesday) to do so. Maybe a task for this weekend? Here is the link. It doesn’t take very long to respond to…
RSPB reports another Hen Harrier disappeared
Arthur, a Hen Harrier tagged this summer as a nestling in the Peak District has disappeared in North Yorkshire says RSPB (although this is, slightly confusingly (it confused me), a repeat of a previous press release). The bird, named Arthur, hatched from a nest in the Peak District the summer of 2018. This was the…