England’s uplands are infested By old money and interests vested Lords, Earls, Viscounts and Dukes Morally bankrupt driven grouse shoots But don’t meddle with The rural way of life Swathed in lies Publicly subsidized Cloak and dagger Soaked in blood This traditional slaughter Fusillade and laughter Wildlife murdered Where are our Hen Harriers? Insurmountable barriers…
Tag: Natural England
Guest blog – Grassland management (1) by Paul Sterry
Looking back through the prism of late middle age, I think the truth is I hated school. Not just disliked it, but hated it. My last and worst experience was at Queen Mary’s in Basingstoke, a Grammar School that thought it was a minor Public School. It wasn’t the institutionalised bullying, or the sadistic masters…
Poor old Duke
We are often told that Hen Harriers depend on grouse moors for their survival – this is a big lie rather than a small one. The fact is that Hen Harrier breeding success over a long period of time (in England and Scotland) and survival (as measured by the lack of survival of satellite-tagged birds…
Some information on brood meddling
Information recently received through Environmental Information requests – some areas are still to be answered in any detail. But this does show us the identity of the Scientific Advisory Group and formally discloses some relevant information on the brood meddling process. Interesting, I feel, that NE don’t know how much time they have spent on…
Something pretty odd here
Here is a table of petitions on the Westminster parliament website – they are ordered by their petition number (smaller numbers = earlier petitions). To get your petition into the system you have to write it (creation date; all dates are in July so 1 = 1 July, 22 = 22 July and 44 =…
This…
Please sign and share this new e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting. The petition was submitted by Chris Packham on behalf of Wild Justice on 4 July and got the requisite five signatures to go into the system on 5 July. Quite why it has been stuck in the system for nearly six…
The Inglorious 12th
Intensive grouse shooting is in the news like never before: Natural England Chair, Tony Juniper, calls for vicarious liability for wildlife crimes (as did his predecessor of course – but this time it is at the beginning of his tenure and not at the end)(see Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times) Labour calls for review of…
Hen Harrier Day event tomorrow
The weather forecast (Saturday morning) is good for tomorrow – it’s going to be a bit windy today! We’ll be checking the forecast and suggest you do too! An update from Carsington at midday Saturday was that the weather then was ‘Very wet and not a little windy’ but that the forecast was better for…
GWCT comes clean on lead
The move by Waitrose to require its game suppliers to supply game meat that has not been shot with lead ammunition from the 2020/21 shooting season is likely to have considerable knock-on impacts. The GWCT is the leading scientific authority used by the shooting industry and, for example, restaurants that sell game. For example, when…
Poor prospects for Red Grouse shooting – short, medium and long term
According to this round-up by Guns on Pegs this looks like being a poor year for Red Grouse shooting in most parts of the UK – the second year in a row. This looks like it is probably due to the weather – and the types of extreme weather events that haven’t helped this year…