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.
Find it incredibly hard that anyone can think this minor new piece of law will help,perhaps if i am wrong Mark will comment but the last conviction i can find for Hen Harrier offence is the year 2000 obviously it is almost impossible to get a conviction,please do not think i am not against B O P persecution but present ways of improving their lot are not working,as a retired small farmer if so minded i could have done absolutely anything on the remote parts and no one would have ever known so for sure these massive moors can never be policed effectively.Changing peoples attitude by talking or other means in my opinion is B O P only hope.