This is the story of the recovery of Grey Partridge on the Duke of Norfolk’s land at Peppering on the South Downs (that’s Arundel Castle on the cover). It is a beautifully written tale (by Roger Morgan-Grenville) of a successful species recovery project based on the landowner’s enthusiasm for having a wild partridge shoot for…
Tag: grouse shooting
Bye, bye Amanda
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The news that Amanda Anderson is leaving the Moorland Association after 10 years as Director doesn’t come as a great surprise. Ten years of batting on a very sticky wicket would be enough for most people. Also, Amanda has not been very high profile for a few years and the Moorland Association’s Twitter feed is…
The Defra board – hardly a model of independent scrutiny
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Following yesterday’s blog about the appointment of Heather Hancock, grouse moor owner, as lead non-exec on the Defra Board a few more points. the transparency data on the Defra website are out of date despite being updated on 27 July 2023 – yes, yesterday! They have information about former non-exec directors but nothing about Heather…
New Defra non-exec director is a grouse moor owner
You couldn’t make it up, but then, you don’t have to. The latest non-exec appointment to the Defra Board, made by the Secretary of State Therese Coffey herself, is a grouse moor owner from the Yorkshire Dales on whose grouse moor two Hen Harriers are reported to have disappeared. Although Defra somehow manage not to…
Guest blog – Shooters’ ecological illiteracy on social media by Paul Irving
Now I’ve been a wildlife freak almost all of my 72 years and for much of my working life, it was part, even if sometimes tangentially of what I did. My main interest is/was raptors but not to the exclusion of anything else, if it flies, crawls, walks, swims, slithers or just flowers I’m interested…
Paper published today on Hen Harrier killing
This paper, published today, is a re-run of the previous publication of Natural England’s similar dataset back in 2019 – if you understood the previous paper then this new one won’t alter your understanding (click here for what is actually a much-praised explanation of the previous, excellent, but highly technical, paper). I don’t use ‘re-run’…
RSPB press release – Illegal killing major cause of death in Hen Harriers
Illegal killing major cause of death in Hen Harriers New study shows yearly survival rates of Hen Harriers ‘unusually low,’ with birds typically living just four months after fledging. Illegal killing is the main cause of death for older birds, accounting for up 75% of deaths each year in birds between one and two years…
RSPB press release – Rare bird of prey found mutilated as 20 other individuals go missing
Rare bird of prey found mutilated as 20 other individuals go missing One of the UK’s rarest birds of prey, a Hen Harrier, has been found dead with its body mutilated A post-mortem examination concluded that the bird was killed by having its head pulled off whilst still alive. Twenty more Hen Harriers, including…
A reader writes and asks…
I received the email in blue below a few days ago, but since I was looking at gentians on The Burren (I think that’s what they were) and seeing hundreds and hundreds of Whimbrel in Galway Bay (I’m sure about them), hearing my first Cuckoo of the year in Connemara (yep, that’s a positive identification)…
Sunday book review – Cruel Intentions by Alan Stewart
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This is the sequel to the excellent Calls from the Wild (reviewed here). PC Bob McKay gets to tackle more wildlife crimes such as Fox hunting and deer poaching. Grouse moors, and their shady managers, play large parts in this volume along with bothered Beavers, baited Badgers and disturbed dolphins. Alan Stewart writes very well…