The English MP who is the Hen Harrier champion is Angela Smith, MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge. She has, in the past, been an outspoken critic of killing of birds of prey, especially in her own Peak District constituency. Angela was also one of very few non-Conservative MPs to speak in the Westminster Hall debate…
Tag: hen harrier
Makes me smile every time…
This sign is used for various country fairs across the land and it is used every year. As birders head north to the Norfolk coast to enjoy whatever migrants are hopping around in bushes between Holme and Cromer, many see this sign and it reminds them of… a Sandringham estate gamekeeper being convicted of setting…
Peak District National Park takes note?
Just as the Yorkshire Dales NP recently consulted the public on its way forward, so too did the Peak District NP. Although the PDNP has so far been less open than the YDNP on the results of its consultation, this blog understands that new ‘Areas of Impact’ (ghastly jargon) have been inserted into the plan…
Two Manx Hen Harriers die of natural causes
It does happen – it’s strange that we don’t hear more about Hen Harriers dying of natural causes. The RSPB has released information on the deaths of two young Hen Harriers satellite-tagged (as chicks) this year. Mannin failed to complete the sea crossing between the IoM and SW Scotland whereas Grayse died on the IoM…
All those tagged raptors, Moll
Driven grouse shooting depends on widespread, systematic and illegal killing of protected wildlife. The original Langholm study showed that raptors, particularly Hen Harriers and Peregrines, are perfectly capable of taking a sufficient toll of Red Grouse before 12 August that there won’t necessarily be enough left to provide the profits to support several gamekeepers’ salaries. …
Sitting round the table with … with whom? Talking about … about what?
Whether it be Brexit or throwing missiles around the northern Pacific there comes a time when people have to sit down and talk things through. So might it be for driven grouse shooting? I have to say that there has been so much talking that it is difficult to imagine quite what would come out…
Countryside Alliance Awards #ruraloscars
I’ve nominated the Bowland Brewery for the Countryside Alliance Awards – modestly described by the Countryside Alliance as the rural oscars. I am a fairly regular purchaser of Bowland Brewery’s Hen Harrier ale and I like it as a beer and as an idea – my beer drinking gives money to the RSPB’s Hen Harrier work….
Cairngorms NP doesn’t know what to say…? UPDATED
Peter Argyle, Convenor of the Cairngorms National Park must have been keeping his fingers crossed that this wouldn’t happen. He attends a packed hall on Hen Harrier Day, says some of the right things about illegal persecution, and then another Hen Harrier disappears mysteriously in his National Park. And, of course, it was last recorded…
A large landowner speaks…
Given that the Convenor of the Cairngorms National Park, Peter Argyle, attended the Boat of Garten Hen Harrier Day event, and spoke at it, and would have heard the strength of feeling in that room about continued raptor persecution within the Cairngorms NP, it will be interesting to see what the National Park has to…
Calluna lost in the heather
RSPB press release: Satellite-tagged hen harrier disappears on Scottish grouse moor Rare bird of prey vanishes on 12th August The RSPB has issued an appeal for information after a young hen harrier, fitted with a satellite tag as part of the charity’s EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE project, disappeared on an Aberdeenshire grouse moor. “Calluna”, a…