News on the RSPB Skydancer blog reveals that this year there were 3 successful Hen Harrier nests in England (out of 7 attempts) – they produced 10 fledged young. Considering this was generally regarded as an excellent vole year – whereas 2016 was a poor vole year – the standstill in Hen Harrier breeding numbers…
Tag: grouse shooting
Guest blog – Hen Harrier reintroduction by Ian Carter
Ian Carter has worked as an ornithologist for more than 25 years. He was involved with the Red Kite reintroduction programme in England and has a keen interest in the conservation of raptors, bird reintroductions and wildlife management more generally. He is particularly interested in human attitudes towards wildlife and the complex ways in which…
Update on National Trust position on grouse shooting in High Peak
The news that the National Trust has completely blanked the petition by local people, including a good number of National Trust members, and is seeking to let a large area of its High Peak moorland to shooting interests has not gone down well. This version of the NT advert appeared on the Moorland Vision blog…
NEWS: National Trust opts for shooting in Peak District
The National Trust today advertises for a shooting tenant for its land in the Dark Peak from which its current tenant, Mark Osborne, will soon be exiting. This represents about 40% of the NT landholding in the High Peak and so is a substantial decision over the direction of land management on NT land….
Scotland’s mountain hare shooting industry exposed in new report
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Press release from OneKind: OneKind, Scotland’s animal campaigns charity, will release a new report on the persecution of mountain hares in Scotland on Monday 31 July, a day before the open season on mountain hare killing begins. The report titled Mountain hare persecution in Scotland exposes the scale of mountain hare killing for recreational…
This would be a particularly good time
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With the gathering of the shooting industry at the Game Fair stating today, this is a particularly good time to add your support to Findlay Wilde’s thunderclap against wildlife crime on the grouse moors. Please sign here.
Peak signatures
Congratulations to local campaigners in the Peak District who, today, hand in an almost 5000-strong petition to the National Trust asking that they do not replace their exiting shooting tenant on their 8000ha estate around Kinder Scout and Bleaklow but instead move quickly forward with the NT’s own High Peak vision for rewilding and better…
Labour MP appears to welcome Hen Harrier decline
Labour MP Kate Hoey, former Chair of the Countryside Alliance, appears to be happy about the decline in numbers of Hen Harriers in her native Northern Ireland and seems to think that it results in more Curlews and Ring Ousels. The usual line from the shooting community is to shed crocodile tears when Hen Harriers…
Sunday book review – Sky Dancer by Gill Lewis
This is a book about Hen Harriers too (see reviews of The Hen Harrier and Bowland Beth)! But this book takes a different perspective – it is a novel about the impacts that Hen Harriers, and their persecution, have on a local family and the community in which it sits. In theory, this is a…
Some news and some blogs
Things that have caught my eye in a busy week: at least two pairs of Bee-eaters have hatched young at East Leake – and Mark Thomas from RSPB was on Today this morning talking about it (he’s very good with the media) official announcement of the West Pennine Moors SSSI (a few fields were snipped…