The poor season for hen harriers was covered in yesterday's Daily Telegraph and Guardian. The Guardian basically rehashes our press release (I'm not complaining!) whereas the Telegraph quibbles a bit about whether the lack of this grouse-eater is the fault of grouse-shooters. I found the last line in the Telegraph piece very witty - you don't often find jokes in the papers' news coverage. It says that '...gamekeepers and landowners insist that shooting estates are helping to protect the hen harrier by ensuring grouse moors are well managed and maintaining native moorland.'. That was meant to be a sardonic joke, surely?
I can't find any comment from Natural England on their web page on this sorry state of affairs - although we did offer them a quote in our press release. In the past Natural England has been commendably outspoken on the subject of raptor persecution. On 22 December 2008 Natural England were happy to say 'Persecution is prime cause of harrier disappearance.'. On 2 November 2009 Natural England were happy to say '... illegal persecution has led to today’s critically low breeding numbers and patchy distribution.'. So what has happened since then? The General Election was held on 6 May 2010.
Maybe in this new age, Defra is the place to look for comment on this subject? I cannot find any comment on the Defra website - certainly not under 'news'. Bu then this isn't news is it? It is the status quo.
The Raptor Politics website is naturally concerned about the plight of this fantastic bird. Farmers Guardian and Bird Guides also cover the story.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Yes redkite quite agree about the legislation but as most shooters are law abiding and a lawful pursuit,although personally get more satisfaction seeing a pheasant on our garden hedge this morning than seeing a dead one i think we may get better results from not having a war with them because sad to say whatever the RSPB thinks shooters consider that they are hated and some suggest that we would be better off with the law abiding ones on our side so to speak as lots of extra eyes.Seems even on Orkney Hen Harriers decreased in the 90s by 97% sheep killed them presumably by treading on nests.Think quite a lot of shooters feel they are being forced to take a harder attitude because the RSPB seem intent on lumping them all together as B O P killers whether that is true or not that is how they feel.