HANDS OFF OUR HEN HARRIERS Following this morning’s news (see here and here), Henry invites you to save this date: Saturday 25th June For a midday picnic and rally on a Yorkshire grouse moor. Further details available towards the end of this week.
Tag: grouse shooting
RSPB speaking softly and left its stick at home.
The RSPB continues to talk up the hopeless Defra Hen Harrier plan even though it shows no sign of making a difference on the ground. In a rather unspecific update Martin Harper says that there is only ‘a tiny handful’ of Hen Harrier nesting attempts in England to date. Tiny handful? Attempts? This long-heralded update…
Intransigence
Today we should hear news about the status of Hen Harriers in England in the first year of the Defra Hen Harrier recovery project. See here for the only real Hen Harrier recovery plan. There should be 330+ pairs of Hen Harrier nesting in the English uplands and last year there were 12 pairs (from…
40,000
40,000! Thank you! You and I are making all sorts of people sit up and take notice. We are about 40% of the way through the time and 40% of the way to the target of 100,000 signatures. Does that make you feel optimistic or pessimistic about getting to 100,000? Well, as far as I’m…
Cartoon delayed
Due to circumstances beyond Ralph’s control, and my control, his cartoon will appear later this evening. I was out for most of yesterday afternoon, all evening and into the early hours of today. I was at the Ricoh arena in Coventry at a Bruce Springsteen concert – and very good it was too. I was…
Shhhhh! Don’t mention the poletraps…
It’s all very quiet isn’t it? Considering how many organisations are falling over themselves to spout their enormous concern about wildlife crime against birds of prey on grouse moors when it comes to providing a solution for the grouse moor managers (poor things!) there is very little discussion of this admission of guilt by a…
Looking forward to talking in Oxford
I’m looking forward to talking in the Oxford Festival of Nature next week. I’ll be talking about…guess what?…why we should ban driven grouse shooting and why the residents of Oxford should do some catching up (per capita) with the residents of Cambridge in signing our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. Cambridge 110 signatures…
Poletraps on the Yorkshire Dales grouse moors – caution!
In a blog post that should change the course of the summer, the RSPB reveals a case of three poletraps being placed on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. What the RSPB says: Read it all here, but here’s a summary. Three set pole traps were found on a grouse moor in…
Thank you Steve!
I am grateful to Steve Ormerod for his guest blog of yesterday. It was good of him to respond, as he did – he didn’t have to at all. As Steve wrote, the RSPB and I share almost completely common ground on the problems as we see them. Maybe we differ here or there, but…
Guest blog by RSPB Chair of Council, Prof Steve Ormerod
Mark, As I promised, I’m responding to your questions and challenges set out in your earlier blog. You regularly and accurately point out that we are all basically after the same thing: we a future for England’s moors and hills that is free from the illegal killing of birds of prey and where land management…