Raptor Persecution UK lift the lid on a can of worms in two blogs today (here and here). It’s all about the puzzling tale of Rowan who was ‘likely to have been shot’ (see RPUK blog of 7 November, and my own of 11 November) – and now we know, as if we didn’t before…
Tag: hen harrier
Highlander lives – probably.
The disappearance of Hen Harrier ‘Highlander’ off the airwaves may be due to tag failure, though this isn’t yet certain, but a tagged adult female answering to the description of Highlander (brown with a white rump but with an aerial that kinks left) has been spotted in some of her earlier haunts. Good news! I…
Hen Harrier InAction Plan
Sometimes something is so awful that you just hope it will go away – and that’s how I feel about the Defra Hen Harrier InAction Plan which fails to address the real problem for the Hen Harrier – that it is illegally killed by grouse shooting interests because it eats Red Grouse that they would…
Peregrina EnChantica and more
Comments Off on Peregrina EnChantica and more
If you came to the Rainham Marshes Hen Harrier Day you will certainly remember the choral delight of Peregrina EnChantica. Well they are performing again two weeks today, on 20 January, but they’ve got some less musically skilled accompanists in the shapes of David Lindo, Charlie Moores and myself – at least the music…
Brexit, CAP and grouse moors 2
The disappearance of income support for grouse moors in a post-Brexit world is apparently on the cards – and is a sound policy route to follow as a small aspect of making our money work better for taxpayers, consumers and farmers alike. But the other side of the coin is that more money should be…
Don’t panic, don’t panic!
The Hawk and Owl Trust is looking for a Crisis Management Strategist! The successful applicant will have a ball and chain which they can fit to the leg of the current Chair and a gag of an appropriate size. In between putting out fires that were started by the organisation’s Chair they will update their…
Highlights from 2016
These are just a few image highlights from the pages of this blog from 2016. This Hoatzin image is by Oscar Dewhurst – 6 November One of Ralph’s best cartoons of the year – 21 May One of my favourite birds of the year: This was nice: And this: I saw a White-tailed…
Nature Directives are saved – but not for us…
It’s great that pressure from the EU population has meant that the Birds Directive and Habitats Directive have been passed as fit for purpose. A staggering 520,000 people signed up across the EU to save these nature-saving pieces of legislation – more than have ever supported any similar EU petition in the past. I signed…
Ho! ho! ho! HOT wishes you a meddling merry Christmas!
It’s so lovely that the Hawk and Owl Trust trustees have sent us all a Christmas message. And I see that the HOT have gained one Henry Robinson as a trustee. Could this be (I think it could) the past president of the Country Landowners Association? It’s a small world isn’t it? Remember the last…
Dull day – or maybe not
There are (or were in 2014) more Bearded Tits in the UK than there have been since records began – more than 770 pairs. That’s quite a success story and a lot of these birds nest on nature reserves. Yesterday I strolled down to my local patch of Stanwick Lakes on a dull grey day….