Keep an eye out for BBC’s Springwatch programme this week.
Starting this evening, there’ll be a feature film from the RSPB’s Geltsdale Reserve in Cumbria introduced by the BBC’s Frank Gardner, who takes a closer look at hen harrier persecution on driven grouse moors.
You’ll recall that last month, the RSPB reported that two hen harrier nests on Geltsdale had yet again been abandoned after the breeding males ‘vanished’ whilst away hunting on nearby moors (see here).
Then on Tuesday evening Frank will introduce another film, this time from the RSPB’s Lakenheath Fen Reserve, where he’ll chat with Mark Thomas from the RSPB’s Investigations Team about the wider issue of raptor persecution.
Well done to the producers at Springwatch who made the decision to make these films. After years of carefully avoiding the raptor persecution scandal, it’ll be great to finally see it featured and discussed on the country’s premier TV nature programme, reaching millions of new viewers.
BBC 2, 8pm and available on iPlayer afterwards.
UPDATE: The episode is now available on iPlayer – well worth a watch here
Raptor Persecution UK 
Brilliant news. Lets hope the destructiveness, illegallity and tragedy is clear. And exactly what sector is responsible for the vast majority of illegal persecution, with nothing watered down. It’s shocking.
Great news.
Excellent – and getting Frank Gardner to present it is also excellent – hugely respected journalist. Wonder if they will reference the Dorset WTEs?
Looking forward to it. It’s a shame on our country that we do not protect our protected species. The facts should be more widely known.
Great Stuff. Well done to all who were a part of getting this issue aired on Springwatch.
Cue much gnashing of teeth on the streets of Kensington and Chelsea!😄
Excellent! Now let’s hear them squirm in the court of mass public opinion. At last!
It’s disgraceful that more is not done to protect Raptors in the UK.
But what do you expect from landowners, who only care about profits.
Killing Raptors and blasting birds out of the sky.
Morons!
Great news! I think the subject will now reach people who don’t follow other forms of wildlife news.
Excellent piece with no holds barred.
Well done Frank and RSPB,you told it as it is.
The CA whingeing was priceless dribble.
Totally agree. Both nights reports were very done and I too thought the CA responses total nonensence! Haven’t seen any feedback from the coverage tho?
Certainly a step forward, but it was disappointing to see the countryside areliars given a voice in the name of “balance”. Some viewers may still fall for their bullshit.
Not seen it yet but Frank Gardner is a brilliant journalist so I expect he didn’t hold back, being a keen birdwatcher himself. I’m glad Springwatch and the BBC have grasped this v painful nettle and it will be the start of a better future for our raptors. I’ll try not to swear at the shooters featured but probably will.
Excellent coverage, well worth a watch. Now available on iPlayer:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001mpdt/springwatch-2023-episode-5
There’ll be another feature on raptor persecution on this evening’s show (Tues, 8pm).
I was impressed with it. Given Frank Gardners’ career, the usual smear of saying the reporter is just some woolly headed softy who doesn’t live in the real world, etc won’t get far! Look forward to the other pieces, and I hope he sticks with this topic as part of his work through the years which I sense he will.
Further to the above, the Part Two was the best and most “real” piece I’ve ever seen on raptor persecution on mainstream media. I’m pleased they didn’t shy away (as often do) from showing some pictures and videos of ultimately what this is all about – piles of shot / poisoned supposedly “protected” birds. Well done to all.
I was disappointed that certain about the Countryside Alliance weren’t spelt out:
1) they changed their name from the Field Sports Society to disguise their underlying agenda
2) they have fewer than 100,000 members (many of whom are probably townies who visit the countryside purely to kill quarry species) against a rural population of 12.5 million people, the majority of whom polls always show are opposed to the interests they claim are ours
3) they have NEVER done anything to bring about the ending of the crimes against wildlife, particularly birds of prey. Mouthing platitudes is NOT action.
[Ed: Thanks, Simon, but Point 3 is inaccurate. The CA has been heavily involved in tackling the wildlife crime of hare coursing]
Thanks Ruth – good joke!
You mean cracking down on the proles emulating their “betters”: mustn’t let them get above their station!
I watched it last night, well overdue but great that at last the issues and crimes are being exposed on mainstream media.
Tonight’s report clearly showed the footage we’ve seen posted on here. V brave to do it and get it out to a wider audience. But this should just be the start to a much bigger debate.
Also, as a journalist, I get enraged by these bland and clearly insincere statements by organisations and public bodies who are too cowardly to face being questioned about the lies they tell.
So much hand-wringing and wailing from the BASC that I was almost sick
This is another watershed moment: the BBC Natural History Unit daring to mention raptor persecution in the UK. The tide is turning.
Good points: choosing Frank Gardner was genius. His delivery was excellent. Broadcasting an immediate followup (reinforcing the information). Chris Packham’s reactions.
Not so good points: allowing the Countryside Alliance and the BASC (shooting interests) to put ‘counter’ arguments.
It reminded me of the twenty years of obfuscation by the BBC over ‘global warming’ – pretending that there was ever any scepticism within the scientific community to the really quite conservative assessments made by the IPCC – and the outright opposition to the IPCC assessments by Channel 4 (The Great Global Warming Hoax) – when all the opposition came from politicians and fossil fuel interests.
Censoring the bludgeoning to death of the Buzzard. The tabloid press are littered with “BBC hit with complaints” – when it is OK to show fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and insects being torn to pieces/eaten alive by predators. The sequence should have been broadcast in full.
The BBC published this EPG description “And we also tackle an often unspoken but all too real subject… raptor persecution”. ‘Unspoken’, that was, by the BBC themselves.