The recent debacle in the Scottish legal and conservation system over the four-year delay in doing nothing (!) over the illegal alleged killing of a Hen Harrier is a matter for Scottish legal officers and Scottish nature conservationists to sort out with the help and support of Scottish politicians. The female Hen Harrier that…
Tag: grouse shooting
Nature being let down by the system
I’m not entirely sure which shocks me the most – the deed itself or the inability of the conservation, political and legal systems to deal with it. The video released today by the RSPB is nearly four years old. It seems to show a Hen Harrier being flushed off the nest and shot. The RSPB…
Bad Defra; bad grouse moors.
There is dancing in the streets of El Rocio this morning as news spreads of the reprimand given to the UK government (esp Defra) by the EU over the poor job done by the UK to protect blanket bogs from burning. Blanket bogs don’t prosper under a scorched earth strategy and all this crap about…
A general election for the environment?
Have you spotted that there is going to be a UK general election this June? I bet you have. This will allow all the political parties to set out their environmental policies so that we can choose between them – in theory. Don’t hold your breath! I will be rather surprised if Labour has any…
Heather burning and health
I definitely wasn’t awake at this time so I am grateful to a reader of this blog for pointing me in this direction. On Radio 5 Up All Night on Thursday 30 March at 2hr 21min 19 secs into the programme, there was a discussion about the smoke from heather burning and its potential health…
The RSPB on driven grouse shooting
Martin Harper has penned (or keyboarded) an interesting BB eye in this month’s British Birds magazine. It is entitled ‘Why it is in the driven grouse industry’s interest to clean up its own act’ and it rehearses the long list of ills with intensive management of driven grouse moors with which so many of us…
Another Red Kite down in the Dales
POLICE are appealing for information after a Red Kite was found dead with gunshot wounds near Greenhow, Nidderdale on the afternoon of Saturday, March 11. That’s just along the road from where Henry had a picnic last year. PC David Mackay, a Wildlife Crime Officer of North Yorkshire Police Rural Taskforce, said: ‘It has taken…
GM crops
Genetic modification after Brexit is now being discussed and I’ve just listened to Princess Anne’s opinions on Farming Today. What she said wasn’t very controversial despite all the hyping by the BBC yesterday. The benefits of genetic modification were all hypothetical ones in the future rather than ones that are available now and being held…
Merlins in the Lammermuirs
In the current issue of British Birds there is a paper on a long-term study of Merlins on grouse moors in the Lammermuirs which makes an interesting read (as do many other pages in the journal). Data were collected over a span of 31 seasons (with that break in data for the Foot-and-Mouth year…
Police and BASC get kids onto the North York Moors
BASC joins forces with police to get youngsters on the moors. Yet another example of close working between police and BASC. Planned activities are expected to include: identification of live birds – oh, another Red Grouse identification of dead birds – here’s a raptor! and here’s a Ring Ousel in a fenn trap arson –…