Global temperatures are set to reach 1°C above pre-industrial levels this year (Daily Mail, Independent, BBC) and world leaders are going to Paris in a few weeks time to sort it out. Today the RSPB released an important report and some very interesting polling information. Let’s deal with the polling first. The polling suggests that…
Tag: Natural England
Buzzard bashers
On Friday we heard that High Court judge, Justice Oueseley, upheld a judicial review against Natural England over its refusal to issue licences to kill Buzzards that were allegedly causing damage to a Pheasant shoot by eating too many Pheasants. Reports by Raptorpersecutionscotland and National Gamekeepers’ Organisation. There has been an outcry by raptor lovers…
Too little, too late
The RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts have just woken up to the fact that this government isn’t doing much for the environment – and doesn’t intend to – and that it is the job of NGOs to put pressure on decision makers to do the right thing. The best time to put on the pressure…
Thoughts on Inglorious from Ronnie Graham
Mark writes: below you’ll find a long series of comments on Inglorious by Ronnie Graham (of whom I know, but who don’t know personally). I thought you might find it interesting because Ronnie is interesting – a shooter and a raptor worker. His comments are reproduced in whole below and my comments (which I have…
Farmland birds still bumping along the bottom
In 2014 the numbers of farmland birds (as measured by overall trends in 19 species – see below) were at the second lowest level of the last 45 years (since, almost, records began). Guess what? The lowest level was in 2013! This is not a record of which any politician can be proud. The farmland…
New wasp (genus) for UK
An ichneumon wasp new to the UK was caught in a chance sweep of a butterfly net at the RSPB’s Broadwater Warren nature reserve is a type of wasp never before recorded in the UK. Back in 2013, Tony Davis of Butterfly Conservation was undertaking a moth monitoring programme at Broadwater Warren when he came…
Intensification of grouse moor management in Scotland
Today the League Against Cruel Sports publish a report by Andy Wightman (land ownership expert) and Ruth Tingay (raptor expert) on Scottish grouse moors. It seems, to me, to be a bit of a departure for LACS as its full of rather dry facts – dry, that is, until you put them all together in…
Inaction speaks louder than words
The most remarkable aspect of the preliminary results of the 2014 national Peregrine survey (organised by the BTO but I read about it here) is that the UK population of this species has hardly changed in 12 years – a 3% increase since 2002. The last Peregrine I saw was a couple of weeks ago…
Why licensing won’t work for grouse moors.
Our e-petition asking the Westminster government to ban driven grouse shooting passed 20,000 signatures recently. The momentum is growing all the time. I wonder how many signatures we will have amassed by 21 January? We’re not even half way there yet. I’m often asked why the RSPB doesn’t support a ban on driven grouse shooting…
Regulatory failure
There’s an excellent post today on the Raptor Persecution Scotland blog about what manner of things might be in any grouse meat that you eat. Watch out Henry! I wonder how much medicine from medicated grit gets into Hen Harriers, Peregrines and other wildlife through ingestion? Has anyone looked at that? Game meat, including…