There is an excellent paper in British Birds – there often is. But the February BB has ‘The past, current and potential status of breeding Hen Harriers in North-east Scotland’ by Graham Rebecca, Brian Cosnette, Jim Craib, Alistair Duncan, Brian Etheridge, Ian Frnacis, Jon Hardey, Alastair Pout and Logan Steele. It’s a very good local…
Tag: grouse shooting
Lead Week 6, #Pbweekmia
It’s not that we didn’t tell Iceland what they were doing… Here’s an extract from a blog I wrote about Iceland’s decision to sell Red Grouse in its stores back in July this year, soon after the announcement was made. ‘Iceland will have thought long and hard about this business decision of course, and it…
This is a damaged landscape
No-one could look across this landscape and see a natural one. It is burned to bits! This management is solely carried out so that there are lots of Red Grouse that rich people can shoot. Grouse moor management leads to increased flood risk, reduced aquatic life, higher water treatment costs, damage to protected habitats and…
You Forgot the Birds
Do you remember You Forgot the Birds? I bet some of you do – they spent quite a lot of time, and I expect money too, attacking the RSPB for its … well, actually it was difficult to tell exactly what it was getting at. The YFTB campaign looked to many of us like an…
Natalie Bennett calls again for ban on grouse shooting
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After visiting Walshaw Moor and the flood-hit town of Hebden Bridge, Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, reiterated her party’s call for a ban on grouse shooting. Bennett was reported in the Daily Telegraph as saying that intensive grouse moor management is ‘incompatible with 21st-century needs of flood prevention‘ and called it a ‘conservation disaster‘. She…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
There are just six days left to sign our successful e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. Ask your friends on Twitter, Facebook and in real life! Although the ills of driven grouse shooting are far wider than just wildlife crime directed at birds of prey such as Hen Harriers, systematic illegal persecution of birds of…
Defra’s plan
Whatever it was that Defra published yesterday, it was not an action plan to save Hen Harriers. It was a hybrid between a Hen Harrier inaction plan and an action plan to postpone the demise of driven grouse shooting. In that regard it was generally a damp squib; a small victory for the grouse shooting…
Langholm bombshell
The latest, blog #5, in Ruth Tingay’s series of Guest Blogs on the fascinating meeting organised by the GWCT back in November was notable for its revelation from Mark Oddy of Buccleuch Estates that the estate, for he said he was speaking as Buccleuch Estates, want lethal control of raptors, initially under licence. So Langholm…
29,000 and counting!
Our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting has just moved past the 29,000 signature barrier. I’m very hopeful that in the 10 days up to and including (at least some of) 21 January, we will pass 30,000 too. There are now 16 constituencies where more than 100 people have signed to ban driven grouse shooting….
Guest blog – What have we learned from Langholm? by Dr Ruth Tingay
Dr Ruth Tingay is a raptor conservationist with field experience from North & Central America, Europe, Africa, Central and SE Asia. She studied the critically endangered Madagascar Fish Eagle for a PhD at Nottingham University and is a past president of the Raptor Research Foundation. She’s currently researching the illegal persecution of raptors & its…