John Armitage’s well-supported e-petition has received the following response from Defra: ‘As this e-petition has received more than 10 000 signatures, the relevant Government department have provided the following response: The Government is aware of incidences of illegal killing of birds of prey and Ministers take the issue very seriously. To address this, senior Government…
Tag: hen harrier
Vermin
We (and I am talking England here) don’t have a vermin list. I’m glad about that. Whenever I hear someone talking about vermin it makes my metaphorical hackles rise. Why should we regard any species that has evolved on this planet as being a problem? Yes, individuals of species can cause us problems but it…
Cheltenham preview for Day 1
I’m off to Cheltenham tomorrow for the first of four days racing at the Cheltenham Festival. Despite the deluges of much of the winter the ground has been drying out, as it always does these days at Cheltenham, and the going will probably be just on the soft side of good. But we’ll see how…
John Armitage’s successful e-petition
There have been 1011 e-petitions directed to helping Defra find its way to the sunlit uplands of truth and sustainability, launched, supported and closed on the Number 10 website. John Armitage’s will, today, be the 1012th. You have until 10:36 to add your name to his e-petition. Only 10 of those e-petitions passed the 10,000…
Rewilding revisited – Guest Blog by Simon Phelps
Simon is a keen conservationist, wildlife photographer and naturalist. He currently works for the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and is also an active member of A Focus On Nature (AFON). He spends much of his free time out on nature reserves around the country watching and photographing any wildlife that he can find. All the views…
That flame should be fizzling out
Natural England are in a bit of a mess over the uplands – you might say they have been bogged down. NE had to dump their vision for the uplands of England because landowners – perhaps including their Minister at the time (Richard Benyon) – didn’t like it. They went back to basics and looked…
A question for Natural England
‘Our studies of the movements of satellite tagged birds are continuing, as they are yielding much useful information on the movements, habitat use, and ecology of Hen Harriers. But they are also raising questions about their ultimate fate. We have, for instance, been looking into the disappearance of six Hen Harriers at an autumn roost…
An imperfect storm?
It’s been a ghastly day weather-wise but I have been thinking about the storm that is coming together around raptor persecution. I thought hard about it – it put a smile on my face. No, raptor persecution isn’t as important as climate change, or flooding, or even, to my mind, farmland bird declines – but…
The Hen Harrier in the room
We must congratulate Princes Charles and William for speaking out against the illegal killing which is driving the African elephant closer to extinction. Channel 4 (and the RSPB) made the point that there is plenty of illegal destruction of wildlife here at home too. Some of it in the part of Scotland where Prince William…
I blame the Environment Agency
It’s raining – I blame the Environment Agency. And while we are at it, I blame them for the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, toothache, late buses, cancer, the Great Fire of London, Eric Pickles, Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal, the Countryside Alliance, potholes, Judas Iscariot, the wreck of the Torrey Canyon, plagues of locusts,…