A quote from Angela Smith MP, now Independent Group MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, who is also the Westminster Parliament Species Champion for the Hen Harrier, following last week’s devastating critique of driven grouse shooting in a new scientific paper; Grouse shooting is facing serious scrutiny at the moment, especially in relation to the persecution…
Tag: hen harrier
The great divide
Our big brother blog, Raptor Persecution UK, has done a great job in documenting responses to last week’s damning scientific indictment of the role of driven grouse shooting in causing the near-absence of the Hen Harrier from the English uplands. Here are the links to the various blogs so far and some additions from me;…
We couldn’t have done it without you – says Natural England to the criminal elements in grouse shooting
Yesterday’s devastating scientific description of the impact of grouse shooting on the threatened Hen Harrier (the original paper, my blog on its findings) was greeted by Natural England Director, Rob Cooke with the following: This research identifies the scale of the problem hen harriers have faced on grouse moors. It makes for sobering reading and…
Long-awaited scientific paper nails grouse moor crimes
It’s been a long time coming but the paper published today in Nature Communications is crushing proof that grouse moor management is overwhelmingly the source of wildlife crime against Hen Harriers. The open-access paper by Megan Murgatroyd, Stephen Redpath, Stephen Murphy, David Douglas, Richard Saunders and Arjun Amar is entitled: Patterns of satellite tagged hen…
We lost – but we’ve already made a difference
A little while ago Mrs Justice Lang handed down her judgment on the legal challenges by myself and the RSPB. We lost. In fact we both lost on all counts so it sounds like a bit of a massacre – but it wasn’t. Our challenge was of the decision by Natural England to issue licences…
Guest blog by anonymous.
Mark writes: I don’t normally publish anonymous guest blogs but in this case, knowing the circumstances, I can see why the person wishes to remain anonymous. And the text stands on its own. See also this recent blog on the same subject, from a different perspective, by our friends at Raptor Persecution UK. The New…
Sunday book review – Green and Prosperous Land by Dieter Helm
This book, out of 25+ I reviewed in 2019, was the title I chose as my wildlife book of the year – I recommend it highly. You can buy this book from Bookshop.org and I have set up a booklist to make that easy through this link https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/MarkAvery Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org…
Guest blog – FC and hunts by Jack Riggall
Jack Riggall is an independent hunt monitor and anti-hunting campaigner. Fox hunting, in the last few years, seems to be an activity of increasing interest to the media as well as social media which has helped voluntary activists to document the reality for the wider public to see. In the midst of all this, the…
Preston
I spoke to an audience of 160 folk in a church in Preston on Monday evening. I enjoyed it. There were some familiar faces in the audience (some raptor workers, some RSPB staff, some birders, some regular readers of and commenters on this blog and some BASC staff). It made the evening more interesting to…
What a laugh!
It must be difficult going in front of a Parliamentary Committee to justify why you should get a job, but that is what the Chair-designate of Natural England has to do. And that’s what birder, fisherman, environmentalist and wildlife enthusiast Tony Juniper did very well yesterday. It’s difficult because you are talking to a small…