Moorland Association rattled – keepers take note!

In their June newsletter, the Moorland Association mention to their members that there have been three damaging incidents for the reputation of grouse shooting in recent weeks. The first they describe as the ‘Hen Harrier Decoy Film’ incident – although at the time Amanda Anderson wasn’t sure what she was looking at, saying ‘From the…

Kite attack!

  The Daily Mail is edited by Paul Dacre who owns a grouse moor. Saturday saw a piece about a scourge of Red Kites attacking young girls and old ladies – men seem to be immune.  There is a serious issue here and that is that artificial feeding of Red Kites has made them less…

The National Trust’s former shooting tenant, Mark Osborne

Mark Osborne, the exiting shooting tenant of the National Trust in the Peak District, is a very well-known name in shooting circles. He is not a nobody, he is someone for whom ‘failure is not an option’ according to Lord James Percy in Fieldsports magazine.  Mr Osborne is prone to tell people that he is…

Hands off our Hen Harriers – picnic on the moors.

Are you holding the date of 25 June, midday, for a picnic on a grouse moor in north Yorkshire?  I am. I’m looking forward to it. Apparently this picnic will be in a constituency which has more than 100 signatures on our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting, is in a National Park and is…

When in doubt – ask Shania Twain!

The RSPB is getting into a bit of a pickle, and that’s a shame.  It has had a really bad week with its natural allies and that week comes after a slow slide in confidence throughout 2016 in the organisation’s ability to make a difference on raptor persecution at a policy and advocacy level. The…

Domino effect?

 The week started badly with a flaccid statement from the ‘campaigning’ RSPB but ended well with firm action from the staid NT. Readers of this blog may well be up to date with many aspects of the NT’s decision to terminate a shooting let through the excellent Raptor Persecution UK blog or through Martin Harper’s…

And another e-petition!

Mark my words, there will be some more coming soon too. But here is another e-petition about Hen Harriers and grouse moors. I’ve signed it (even though there are a couple of mistakes in it). You could too.

Worth waiting for

This is a press release from the Yorkshire Dales NP in response (a slightly slow response) to the pole trap incident of last week. A bit late thought it may be, it is well worth reading.   Birds of prey traps condemned by National Park Authority Grassington, June 7, 2016. Illegal persecution of birds of…

The alternative Countryfile interview.

On Sunday Countryfile sank lower than even I thought was possible with a hopeless piece about grouse moors. Here is the link and the piece starts at about 22 minutes into the programme. Presumably, in the interests of BBC balance, Springwatch will be showing this image of how Mountain Hares are looked after on grouse…