sad news from Malta – the great Joe Sultana passed away on Tuesday, aged 78. Joe was a passionate campaigner and advocate for birds on Malta and in the Mediterranean in general. He led BirdLife Malta for many years and his son, Mark, is now BirdLife Malta’s CEO. Campaigning against bird killing (much of it…
Tag: grouse shooting
Three more gone – Defra’s plan is wholly inadequate.
Hen Harrier, Hilma. Photo: Steve Downing. Hen Harrier, Octavia. Photo: Steve Downing Hen Harrier, Heulwen. Photo: Guy Anderson. Three more young Hen Harriers have disappeared – all in areas of driven grouse shooting. See the RSPB Skydancer blog for details. Rory Stewart’s Hen Harrier Inaction Plan is working very, very badly – just as many…
An alternative narrative
Natural England’s answers to some questions about the failure of two Hen Harrier nests on a Yorkshire grouse moor this season were published on this blog this morning. To be fair to NE, they only responded to the questions I posed, rather than giving a full account of events on this grouse moor over the…
NE and grouse moor Hen Harriers
I asked NE some questions about their role in protecting two nests of Hen Harriers in Yorkshire last summer (2018). The two nests were on the same estate and one male was paired with two females. Natural England’s account of what happened on this moor does not fully accord with what local raptor workers tell…
A Labour MP writes
I was interested to see this response that a blog reader received from their Labour MP. I long for the day when I have a Labour MP, but as I don’t, I cannot write to check how close this is to the standard letter sent out to constituents by other Labour MPs. But maybe you…
Press release from Leigh Day – brood-meddling judicial review
A legal case to challenge the trial of brood management of endangered hen harriers will be heard in the High Court on 5 and 6 December 2018. Permission was given in July for a judicial review of Natural England’s decision to grant a licence to allow brood management of the birds. The case is being…
Five year old prince taken grouse shooting
The Royal Family do some strange things. The appearance in the news (see here, here, here, here) that 5-year-old Prince George had been taken to experience his first grouse shoot could not have been an accident. In 2008, it was revealed that Prince George’s great-grandmother donated money to Songbird Survival. Earlier this year the Queen…
Let’s get this past 2000 signatures this weekend (please)
Les Wallace’s moderate and sensible petition calling for a proper economic analysis of the costs and benefits of grouse shooting and grouse moor management is approaching 2000 signatures. It would be good to see it pass that mark this weekend – at the end of its first month. The RSPB Skydancer blog gave it some…
Hen Harrier survey, 2016, published
The headline results of this survey were released in June 2017 but now the full paper has emerged in Bird Study. Status of the Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus in the UK and Isle of Man in 2016. Simon R. Wotton, Stephen Bladwell, Wendy Mattingley, Neil G. Morris, David Raw, Marc Ruddock, Andrew Stephenson and Mark…
Our Hen Harrier data
We are going to have to wait a little while or a long while to see the results and findings of the long-awaited analysis of the Hen Harrier satellite-tagging study that you and I (as taxpayers) have funded for many years. However, it already looks as though the findings could be the dynamite to blow…