I’ve just come back from a day in Norfolk – that’s why this post is a little after 1800. I like birdwatching! I went birdwatching yesterday, I went birdwatching today, and I expect I will do some birdwatching tomorrow. Most of my birding today was at the RSPB nature reserve at Titchwell – I like…
Tag: hen harrier
Last week
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I enjoyed last week – here are some highlights: Monday – Ring-necked Parakeet in London – year tick Tuesday – woke in London at 0530 to the beautiful sound of a singing Blackbird Tuesday – planned the downfall of driven grouse shooting over lunch with friends (can’t fail!) Wednesday – windy, rainy, but went for…
True, very true.
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The North York Moors National Park has a blog – hooray! It’s an official blog – hooray! Put ‘hen harrier’ into the search engine and you get the very honest return of… No – nothing to see here. Nada! Zilch! Bugger all! Please sign Gavin Gamble’s e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting and…
Defra maintains destructive ambiguity
You may remember that the Defra response to Gavin Gamble’s e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting referred in an alarming way to control of problem species. I asked Defra what they meant and have only just (yesterday) received a response. Here it is: Dear Dr Avery, Thank you for your email of 27 November about…
Craven Herald
The Craven Herald is based in Skipton, grouse-shooting country. Here are two recent stories, both by their Senior Reporter, Clive White. Family terror as dog is snatched by bird of prey – you have to read quite a way into the article before you realise that this is a falconer’s bird, and nowhere are you…
Where next?
The RSPB has pulled out of the failed Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative – well done, a bit slow, but good for them. It’s interesting that this closely followed the publication on the RPUK blog of the intended press release about the failure of the project over recent years and the publication of an…
Guest blog – Driven Grouse Shooting on Borrowed Time by RSPB chair Kevin Cox
Kevin Cox was appointed Chair of RSPB Council in October 2017, having previously served on Council from 2011-2016. He has been a Council member and trustee of World Land Trust for the past 12 years, as well as Chair of its trading company. He helped Birdlife Bolivia set up a protected area for the critically-endangered…
Bird flu – which birds?
It looked as though we might get through this winter without avian flu arriving on our shores but no such luck. After the first case was detected at the swannery at Abbotsbury there is now another case involving 13 wild birds in Warwickshire. Let’s hope that there are no more cases affecting poultry and poultry…
Brood meddling in the Guardian
Patrick Barkham in the Guardian: Conservationists say government scheme, aimed at placating grouse moor land owners who object to the birds breeding on their land, will not boost numbers of the endangered birds. There’s a good quote from the RSPB but we are all wondering what the RSPB will actually do now. There’s a very…
Brood meddling – a mad muddle
Yesterday Natural England announced that it had issued licences for Defra’s highly controversial Hen Harrier brood management scheme (but this blog by Raptor Persecution UK is a much better description of what is going on). Natural England was once a statutory nature conservation organisation of high repute but it is no longer fit for purpose. …