Our blog has reached another milestone today – half a million views!
A big thanks to everyone who has viewed, contributed, commented, shared on Facebook, tweeted on Twitter, linked us to their own website etc.
Here are some stats:
763 posts written
Currently averaging ~26,000 views per month
Most views in one day: 5,815 views on 23rd May 2013 – ‘Natural England issues licence to destroy buzzard eggs and nests to protect pheasants’.
Top Ten Posts (most viewed) –
1. Natural England issues licence to destroy buzzard eggs and nests to protect pheasants.
2. Buzzard ‘management’ trial gets govt approval and £375k funding.
3. 27 eagles, 7 years, 0 prosecutions.
4. Significant haul of poisoned baits found on Leadhills Estate.
5. Police investigate alleged destruction of sea eagle nest on a Scottish grouse moor.
6. RSPB response to DEFRA’s proposed (illegal) buzzard trial.
7. Buzzards trapped and beaten to death with a stick: gamekeeper convicted.
8. The curious incident of the eagle in the night-time.
9. Golden eagle found shot and critically injured on Scottish grouse moor.
10. Update on the curious incident of the eagle in the night-time.
Raptor Persecution UK 
how many views do the shooting blogs get?
Yes – good work. As a matter of interest concern of persecution appears in other places not directly involved, e.g:-
http://www.scottishhills.com/html/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=15835
Very well done….this is an extremely important blog, to counter all the PR driven virtual conservation guff out there…
Excellent work, keep it up, hit em where it hurts.
A big well done to RPS on reaching that milestone and a big thank you for giving us a platform to air our opinions on and challenge some of the drivel regularly written on conservation matters. Only this week I read a readers letter in shooting times that appeared to have been written by someone from Songbird Survival and was a dig at the RSPB, The letter was from someone who had travelled recently and mentioned five specific locations, Shropshire, Plymouth, Somerset, Suffolk and Guildford, the Traveller had seen extremely little wildlife with the exception of Magpies and other Corvids and seemed to be suggesting that somehow this was the fault of the RSPB. Having recently been to Whixall Moss in Shropshire and knowing it was teeming with wildlife I decided to check other area’s quoted by the writer, and looked through a few probably more reliable sites, BTO atlas, County Bird reports and reports on bird guides from other bird watchers seemed to indicate a large variety of Birds in all these areas, could it be that the writer was just a very poor ornithologist, then the dig at the RSPB being responsible for this, I’m sure I read in the same magazine that gamekeepers are responsible for managing much more land than all the wildlife societies put together, considering that week by week we’re getting reports on here of Gamekeepers bludgeoning and poisoning Buzzards and Kites, natural enemies of the smaller corvids, couldn’t it be possible that they are actually more responsible for the poor bird watching journey encountered by our Traveller. I was surprised the Editor didn’t actually think on these lines and check the story before confining it to the bin, even more surprised to find he had chosen it as letter of the week and awarded the writer a free pair of hunter wellies, I bet Hunter wellies are really chuffed being associated with that kind of Garbage
Good point about Shooting Times Merlin – the shooting press are as guilty as anyone in continuing the prejudiced outdated attitudes which still go on with regards to natural predators in our countryside. Making such letters “letter of the week” is commonplace with them – encouraging a Colonel Blimp, “we know best”, “anti townie” blinkered mindset in their readers. They would love it all to turn back to the [completely fictional!] Golden Age of the 19th century, when they could shoot anything they wanted and hang it up to show passers-by how clever they were.Pathetic and damaging to this country’s international reputation and to the countryside in general.
Congratulations RPS, on your well-deserved success. Your productivity and your determination to achieve change are an example to us all!
Well done…..keep going.
Thanks for the kind comments and words of support – much appreciated.
Well done RPS and thanks so much for giving us all a platform, for outing and condemning so many of those despicable wildlife criminals.
Great work RPS.