Well, what a good day I've had. As well as enjoying a visit to the lovely Rainham Marshes reserve it was also hosting the annual Hen Harrier day event - and boy, didn't we get the weather? The official event greeter was at the door:
I really felt for her in what had to be a hot and uncomfortable costume. Looks adorable, though!
This is Peregrine EnChantica. They were singing a most appropriate song for the occasion.
There were lots of these and other banners and placards about.
Mark Avery obligingly pulls on an official T-shirt over his shirt in between signing copies of his book, Inglorious.
Whatever did Mike Clarke say to Chris Packham?
Mark Avery gets the event started. Up first is Charlie Moores of BAWC:
He doesn't like microphones.
All smiles as he gets it sorted! He was a nervous but sincere speaker who earned several spontaneous rounds of applause with the points he made.
The next speaker was Mike Clarke, who revealed he'd grown up in Kent and regularly seen hen harriers in the area in his youth. That's what I call lucky.
They saved the best for last. What a great speaker Chris Packham is - it was a world away from his Springwatch style as he spoke seriously about the plight of the hen harriers as well as the tactics of those individuals who clearly prefer the status quo. He even pointed out that it was pointless to try to upset him as, being autistic, he officially doesn't care what they think! I think that point got him the most applause.
This placard was regularly updated.
He shows off the increase with his 'I'm going to get this to 100,000 if it kills me' expression.
'Henry' gears up for action again. It was really hot by this point.
He actually stayed for quite some time - chatting to people and signing copies of his autobiography for anyone who asked. What a nice bloke.
The lovely Howard Vaughan of Rainham. Gotcha, Howard!
A good day was had by all and the numbers were well in excess of expectations. I'm looking forward to next year....let's all hope we've got more than 3 pairs of hen harriers breeding in England in a year's time.
That petition to ban driven grouse shooting finishes on September 20th. I'm posting a link to it here as I'd love to see it top the necessary 100,000.
Well done Clare, looks like a good day was had by all and long live the Hen Harriers; I already signed the petition a while back; thanks for this interesting post.
Thanks, Clare, looks like you had a great day and thanks for posting. Did you buy a T-shirt? We've heard Chris Packham a couple of times at the London Pet Show and he is clearly very dedicated to birds and to all wildlife. I'm so glad to know how the day went because we debated whether or not to go. In the end we chickened out because by the time we would have arrived the car park would have been overflowing, not to mention we didn't fancy standing around in the sun! Instead we did some pre-holiday work in the garden, cleaned some of the bird feeders and delivered a new baby pressie to friends who are grandparents for the second time and who are about to visit the newest child.
Good to see the event was well supported,I've not heard news of other events today and there are more events tomorrow. Unfortunately we have been unable to get to the Ilkley Moor event nor the Saltholme RSPB event tomorrow.
The Good news we had Hen Harriers nest at RSPB reserve Geltsdale this year in Cumbria, just on the border with Northumberland, but sadly only one young.
The petition is now up to 74,141. According to the latest Blog from Rainham someone reported that the event was poorly attended. I wonder who that could have been? The Rainham people wonder if the individual turned up at the wrong Rainham and I can only agree with that assessment.
74,351 now. I should mention that there was an earlier petition which finished back in January, well short of the required margin. If anyone reading this thread thinks they have signed the current petition it's worth trying again as it could well have been the earlier one you actually signed. I found this out yesterday when the current petition accepted my signature - the petitions don't accept repeat signatures.
Clare Bailey said: If anyone reading this thread thinks they have signed the current petition it's worth trying again as it could well have been the earlier one you actually signed.
I think that may be the petition I signed Clare as it was months ago but when I went to sign this current one, it recognised my email address and said I had already signed the petition
Great report Clare & really good pics ... just signed, 74,525 & went back to double-check & total gone up by another four in a minute!!
Blimey. It's up to 75,977 now.
This must be the knock-on effect from today's Hen Harrier events.