It’s been quite a day. The so-called ‘Glorious 12th’ has been taken back by the conservationists and re-named Hen Harrier Day, in an inspired move by Alan Tilmouth (read his blog entry here).
Although he only came up with the idea yesterday, Twitter has been alive today with hundreds of people using the #henharrier tag to celebrate these spectacular birds and to express their anger at the virtual extermination of the species on grouse moors across England. Unsurprisingly, the game-shooting organisations were conspicuously absent.
Mark Avery also came up with a plan to help hen harriers. He’s called it BanGS – see here.
Meanwhile, news came through that police in Bolton are appealing for information after an injured and distressed peregrine was found by the side of a road. It had been shot. Full details here.
Elsewhere, the Suffolk Wildlife Trust is appealing for information after a barn owl chick was stolen from the Carlton Marshes Nature Reserve last night. Information here.
In other news, we’ve been having a look at some VERY interesting literature – a copy of the Leadhills Estate gamebook (don’t ask how we got hold of it!!) – which very helpfully documents annual counts of killed ‘vermin’ over a considerable number of decades. ‘Vermin’ in Leadhills-speak includes hawks, badgers, otters, cats and ravens amongst others. It’s fascinating. We’ll be writing more on this in due course…
Raptor Persecution UK 
Ecologist here, the extermination of “vermin” on Estates and the records they keep of it are well known. It’s often used as research material if we can get our hands on one from a friendly estate, and the kill counts tend to be somewhat… absurd.
Yes, many items on the televised news about how “great” grouse shooting is, all propagandist pish of course. The estate owners were all beaming about how great a year it’s been for grouse, which begs the following question;
If it’s been such a great year for grouse, then what has happened to all the havoc caused by winged predators? We’re always hearing about the raptors having a devastating impact on gamebirds, and raptor numbers are “out of control”, yet here we have landowners/managers saying grouse are doing great. Does this then suggest that vast numbers of raptors are being illegally killed on these estates?
Absolutely Marco, the estates have already killed a good proportion of them, I very seldom see any raptors flying in the vicinity of Aviemore these days.
You can also see by the Leadhills log the reason that the Scottish Wildcat is in raped decline!
If u rarely see raptors around aviemore all I can suggest is either your ornithology skills are in serious need of improving or you are trying to mislead people.
Also just because they say cats it could mean feral rather than wildcats!
Yes, it it’s at Leadhills, then it will be feral cats. But could you tell me what they mean by “Hawks”? Does this mean that these gamekeepers were breaking the law by killing protected species?
There is no doubt about it at the times these records are from probably every gamekeeper in the country was killing protected species this isn’t a new revelation the persecution any predator of game in the past is well documented.
And judging by recent events, persecution of predators is still regular and widespread, so it’s not helpful to try and suggest it’s a thing of the past.
BBC Radio Scotland yesterday had what was virtually an advert for BASC/Landowners – no counterpoint at all
A cracking response on Mark Avery’s blog by Paul Irving to Adrian Blackmore’s ( Head of the shooting campaign, Countryside Alliance) letter in the Guardian, I recently criticized Martin Harper of the RSPB for not using the power of their membership to put pressure on the government to get tough on these criminals, if I was a member of the Countryside Alliance I would be asking for a refund of my membership fee’s after reading Blackmore’s letter. This guy is so out of touch it’s unreal he’s holding down a job. Dont forget he’s had plenty of time to check figure’s and think of writing something inspiring for the coming season, instead He claims there’s been no persecution of Harriers and mentions the RSPB keep bringing up Sandringham Harrier affair in 2007, but cant remember Bowland Betty being shot over a Grouse Moor in 2012, pulls the same old lame excuse out that the RSPB are unfairly targeting Gamekeepers, sure I recently saw a video of a Gamekeeper Bludgeoning Buzzards to death.
He ends up claiming the RSPB are being misleading and emotive using the word extinction in the case of the Hen Harrier in England, stating there are 646 pairs in the UK and an estimated worldwide population of 1.3 million birds, putting this into some kind of context, 10,000 Red Grouse were shot on one estate alone in 2012 and there are an estimated 35 million pheasants released in this country annually
I am sure the Leadhills book will be very interesting reading but we should remember that some conservation organisations cull “vermin” routinely to protect specific species. They also do not understand the value of predators and fail to see the bigger picture. How will you answer this when the enemy throw it back?
You are correct when you state that some conservation organisations kill some predators, which I don’t agree with, but the major difference being that these organisations are culling within the law. The majority of game estates are illegally killing protected species, and using illegal methods to carry out their outdated practices.
Hen Harrier Day. An inspired move.
Wow keepers killed things! What a total revelation!
Illegally, as per usual. Do you condone such things, Grouseman?
Not at all but these are old vermin records and such records have been documented for years. I’m sure everyone is aware of the Glengarry reports from the turn of the century the fact is they are from a different era I don’t see the relevance.
For all I know, the book in question may contain recent data, but even if this is not the case, there is some relevance as attitudes amongst many gamekeepers and landowners have not changed and illegal persecution is still widespread in this day.
Well the dates at the top of the sheets are a slight giveaway they are not recent records!
That is If the image is of the actual logbook and its contents, and not a representation. There is the possibility that RPS is withholding the information until the exposé. If it is an original page from the book, then there could be more recent records than those shown. However, even with 1982 as the latest given year, this is still long after raptors were afforded full protection, yet we have a total of 34 hawks being killed in that year alone (63 in 1975). In this instance, the word hawk could easily relate to Sparrowhawks, Buzzards, Falcons or Hen Harriers, but more than likely a combination of all of these protected species.
More illegal acts carried out by the game-shooting industry.
It’s happening ‘down under’ too…
Just seen this item:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/news/article/-/18501351/queensland-farmer-convicted-fined-18-000-for-poisoning-52-birds-including-10-brolgas/
And just today, the RSPB release the dates for the 2014 Scottish Birdfair, which is again being held at Hopetoun House. They are obviously not paying much attention to this page, or their supporters or volunteers who have criticised their choice of location.
It’s just unbelievable. We’ll be blogging more about this, as well as the latest revelations from the Leadhills (Hopetoun) Estate, later this month…
The National Trust was at this as well – would you like a copy of their shooting lease from the 50s?
It’s unacceptable today as it was acceptable in those days.
The glamour and high profile of raptors should not let us take our eyes off mundane stuff like reducing our consumption and dealing with invasive non-native species.
Yes Rob, we’d be interested in seeing a copy of the shooting lease from the 50s – thanks for offering to share it. It can be emailed to: raptor.persecution.scotland@hotmail.co.uk
The ‘mundane stuff’ (your words) should not let us take our eyes off what is happening under our noses this year, last year, and every other year during the last six decades – and should not be used as an excuse to stop asking the questions about why it is still allowed to continue…