Some more blogs that you might find of interest:
Parkswatch Scotland: Three new year resolutions for Prince Charles in the Cairngorms (here)
Mark Avery: Thoughts on 2020 (1) – Driven Grouse Shooting (here)
Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation: Bringing hope in troubled times (here)
Rob Sheldon: Sainsbury’s, obfuscation & toxic lead – day 35 (here)
Wild Justice: General Licences in general and our challenge to the NRW General Licences in particular (here)
Alick Simmons (guest blog for Mark Avery): Digging holes (here)
Guy Shrubsole: The climate sceptic’s grouse moor (here)
Jente Ottenburghs (guest blog for British Ornithologists’ Union): Soaring over Scotland (here)
Vulture Conservation Foundation: Bearded Vulture ‘Vigo’ is actually ‘Flysch’ from Haute Savoie (here)
Wild Justice: Gamekeeping gets a change of job description (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
New Year’s congratulations to Wild Justice for the new General License 40 conditions (and GL42), announced by DEFRA from January 1st. 2021. (See blog, above)
Birders and countryside people are being tipped off to look out for contraventions….
Agreed 100%
Thank you Ruth for bringing the attention of the other blogs to us. All make good reading and gives us the feel good factor that so many other people take the time to study our avi fauna.
Of these my favourite was Roys!..Happy New Year everyone…
Re Charlie, like all driven grouse moor owners he has done virtually nothing to improve the biodiversity of those holdings for which he has been responsible for decades.
Why ?
Because any such change would massively affect the capital value of those grouse moors.
Anyone who listens to his family’s greenwash is surely deluded.
Actions are what matter and planting pretty meadows in Gloucestershire are just window dressing.
The dire state of their grouse moors leaves no question of where their priorities lie ….. in their bank balance !
Keep up the pressure !
Gotta love Guy Shrubsole.
I need some advice on Corvid traps, following Wild Justice’s recent success in court. How much water does this new ruling actually hold? The thrust seem to be that Corvids may only be killed to protect Red and Amber listed birds, and quotes Red Grouse and Grey Legged Partridge as falling into that category. The list of Red and Amber listed birds is sadly endless, and includes many birds of meadow and woodland,for instance, the Song Thrush. As I understand it then, a gamekeeper has only to say he is protecting Song Thrushes to justify trapping and killing corvids. If that is true, is this ruling of any use . Please disabuse me, I would dearly love to dent the dark arts of my local gamekeepers. Opinions please
It is not a ruling, it is a change in the General Licensing law, and any ‘authorised person’ must be satisfied that they have made reasonable endeavours to achieve the purpose in question using alternative, lawful methods not covered by the license, unless they would be impractical, ineffective or disproportionate.
You should record:
any action that you, or a person other than you, has taken to comply with condition 1: alternative lawful methods
the date of any action you have taken
where you took the action
the species and conservation purpose for which you take action
the number of birds killed, or nests or eggs destroyed, for each species and purpose
the method used to kill birds, or destroy nests or eggs
It’s recommended that you:
keep these records for 3 years, starting on the date on which the action is taken
are able to produce these records on request
You must make reasonable endeavours to use lawful methods of non-lethal control before acting under this licence to kill or take carrion crow, jay or magpie.
This means that you must consider what is reasonable both before, and whilst, acting under this licence. You must ensure that where appropriate, lawful methods of non-lethal control are carried out before acting under the licence, and whilst acting under this licence.
Some non-lethal methods have been shown to be effective for carrion crow, jay and magpie, see Table 3 for details.
Table 3: Examples of non-lethal control methods on certain target species
Non-lethal methods Target species Technique used
Exclusion techniques for Carrion Crow, Magpie and Jay: Protect the nests of endangered wild birds with nest-cages to exclude target birds and prevent predation.
etc etc.
My advice is to read General License 40 and General License 42 in full…..
Hi Steve,
You might be interested in this latest blog from Wild Justice:
https://wildjustice.org.uk/general/what-will-defra-do/