Let’s just stick with Hen Harriers for a while – I’ll come back to wider environmental issues next week. And as far as Hen Harriers and driven grouse shooting go – you can’t have both, you have to choose. Ever since the results of the first Langholm study (see Chapter 3 of Inglorious and here)…
Tag: Natural England
Fingers crossed
In a cleverly titled blog (New hope for goshawks or just a shot in the dark?), Mark Thomas of the RSPB Investigations team sets out the history and current state of play with Goshawks in the Peak District. It’s well worth a read and the map is very striking too. What this blog does, and…
Hen Harriers in the Yorkshire Dales National Park (not)
Wouldn’t you love to be able to see a food pass by a pair of Hen Harriers in a National Park near you? The Yorkshire Dales National Park has much excellent habitat for Hen Harriers – it ought, with the adjacent Nidderdale AONB, to have at least a dozen nesting pairs. Since 2000, there should,…
Remarkable
I have it on good authority (though not absolutely cast-iron I would admit) that Defra minister(s) have asked, through the Defra Press Office, that the Natural England Press Office don’t bother to include any links to this blog in media summaries they send to Defra, as ministers won’t read them. That’s not remarkable – but…
Round up
A few things that have caught my eye: remember microbeads? – Defra minister says UK supports a ban another dead Red Kite found dead in Yorkshire near Blubberhouses – this one was shot Craig Bennett, FoE, on why Brexiteers don’t want to talk about the environment please sign this e-petition to call on Norway…
When in doubt – ask Shania Twain!
The RSPB is getting into a bit of a pickle, and that’s a shame. It has had a really bad week with its natural allies and that week comes after a slow slide in confidence throughout 2016 in the organisation’s ability to make a difference on raptor persecution at a policy and advocacy level. The…
Worth waiting for
This is a press release from the Yorkshire Dales NP in response (a slightly slow response) to the pole trap incident of last week. A bit late thought it may be, it is well worth reading. Birds of prey traps condemned by National Park Authority Grassington, June 7, 2016. Illegal persecution of birds of…
The alternative Countryfile interview.
On Sunday Countryfile sank lower than even I thought was possible with a hopeless piece about grouse moors. Here is the link and the piece starts at about 22 minutes into the programme. Presumably, in the interests of BBC balance, Springwatch will be showing this image of how Mountain Hares are looked after on grouse…
Poletrap updates
From Rob Cooke, Natural England’s Director of Terrestrial Biodiversity: ‘Natural England is extremely disappointed to hear of the recent case in Yorkshire in which three pole traps were set. We strongly condemn the use of these barbaric, indiscriminate traps, which have been outlawed for more than a century, and urge anyone who has evidence of…
Shhhhh! Don’t mention the poletraps…
It’s all very quiet isn’t it? Considering how many organisations are falling over themselves to spout their enormous concern about wildlife crime against birds of prey on grouse moors when it comes to providing a solution for the grouse moor managers (poor things!) there is very little discussion of this admission of guilt by a…