At the Bird Fair I walked past the large stand of the Hawk and Owl Trust many times – there was a small group of volunteers there but I saw no visitors (in contrast to the small BAWC stand which was very, very busy). Several others commented on the same thing. One claimed to see…
Tag: hen harrier
Ten Bird Fair thoughts
the discussion about driven grouse shooting was completely packed (c500 people), the discussion about rewilding was completely packed, some of the usual diet of quizzes were not well attended – go figure, the Bird Fair audience is open to having some challenging debate and discussion about nature conservation as part of the mix in one…
Just a quick note on the Bird Fair
I’ve been at the Bird Fair all day – I’ve just got home and opened a bottle or two of wine which friends are drinking downstairs. What a great day! Just a quick note of thanks to Simon Lester for coming to the debate on grouse shooting. All credit to him for coming when not…
10 Things to do on Day 1 of the Bird Fair
Remember your entrance ticket – if you purchased in advance! Rain is forecast – you may need to bring a coat and wellies You will need some money for buying books, beer and butties Come to the Q&A on driven grouse shooting at the Events Marquee at 16:30 and ask a difficult question of someone…
I’d like to thank Duncan Thomas…
The days of 13-15 May 2014 were very important in the genesis of our campaign to ban driven grouse shooting – you may recall that the first of three e-petitions was launched just two weeks later and that started the whole thing rolling. I wrote about those days in short summary in this blog (see…
Hen Harrier missing over…guess what?…a grouse moor
The RSPB announced today that a young male Hen Harrier, fitted with a satellite transmitter as part of the Hen Harrier LIFE+ Project, has gone missing on a grouse moor in the Monadhliath Mountains, south-east of Inverness. The bird, named Elwood, was the only chick to fledge from a nest in Banffshire, which was being…
Letter to my MP
Dear Mr Pursglove Do you remember that e-petition on the parliament website which I have mentioned before? My e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting? Well, it has recently passed 100,000 signatures (with five weeks to go) and so it will be considered by the Petitions Committee on 6 September and is very likely to be…
Bird Fair debate on future of grouse shooting
We’re in the run-up to the Bird Fair (btw weather forecast suggests some rain) and one of the stand-out events on Day 1 is the ‘debate’ on the future of grouse shooting chaired by Rob Lambert and featuring Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green Party (who spoke brilliantly at the Peak District Hen Harrier…
Countryfile last night
I didn’t watch Countryfile live last night as I was doing some work – but I caught up with it in the evening. I thought Bob Elliot from the RSPB was great (as always) and I also thought that the edit was fair. It was filmed on 28 July at Geltsdale in Cumbria (and the…
Words are important
Just a minor quibble. I did several radio interviews last week and I noticed that I kept being introduced with the same words – later I discovered that they came, basically from this BBC news story by Claire Marshall. The introduction on a series of BBC local radio stations often started by saying that animal…