You can’t shoot a virus. If I were running a shoot, which I’m not, I’d be pretty uncertain as to what I am allowed to do from Monday onwards when the rules in England change. But the rule of 6 seems to apply to everyone, including those shooting Red Grouse and Partridges, whose seasons are…
Tag: Ruth Tingay
Natural England and crowdfunding
Last year I wrote about Natural England asking you for your money, through crowdfunding, to carry out a mixture of tasks which ranged from the daft to what seemed to me to be Natural England’s statutory duties (and therefore what I was paying for through my taxes). Tony Juniper responded to the ENDS report with…
Thoughts on today’s Inglorious 12th
I’ve enjoyed today’s Inglorious 12th more than most. I’ve had a relatively relaxing day. When I watered the vegetables at 6am this morning before making a cup of tea, I had seen the expected news that Labour had come out in favour of licensing grouse shooting. This is very much to be welcomed. Looking back…
Hen Harrier Day online tomorrow
Hen Harrier Day Online goes live at 10am tomorrow – introduced by Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin. To watch through the day visit the Hen Harrier Day YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/HenHarrierDayUK Alan Cranston, Chair of Hen Harrier Action, said:“The hen harrier is a symbol for our wider concerns about nature in the uplands and that is…
In the garden
In the garden this afternoon filming a chat for Hen Harrier Day online on Saturday.
It’s the silly season on the grouse moors
This piece in The National is a hoot. You can always spot dodgy pseudo-science when something is aiming to ‘prove’ something rather than to investigate it. And in this case gamekeepers are going to collect data on birds of prey on grouse moors. Quite what all this is about, who knows? We know birds of…
Even children find Natural England laughable
There’s no doubting that Wild Justice has been the best crowdfunder that Natural England has had. NE is now recruiting 200 staff to do its job better. Although the recruitment advert is ghastly, and makes Natural England sound like a support group for tree huggers, whereas it is actually an environmental regulator and enforcer with…
Gamebirds challenge takes a step forward
Today Wild Justice heard that it had been granted permission for judicial review of the release of 47 million non-native Pheasants and 10 million non-native Red-legged Partridges into the countryside for shooting. Wild Justice says that these unlimited, unregulated releases need to be assessed for their impacts on sites of nature conservation importance. This does…
Raptor Aid interviewed me
I spent five hours on Microsoft Teams and Zoom yesterday, and was knackered at the end of it. Not sure why – all I was doing was chatting to nice people. Here is my 1-hour chat to Jimmi Hill of Raptor Aid about blogging, writing, campaigning and driven grouse shooting. Thanks Jimmi for the opportunity….
Is it wild hacking time in Scotland?
You might remember a series of blogs I’ve written about wild hacking of Gyr Falcons in two parts of Scotland. Last year SNH licensed the temporary release of 100 Gyr Falcons in Ayrshire and 150 in Moray in the period 1 June to September and with no more than 40 at a time in each…