The Guardian has just released the first episode in a mini-series podcast it has produced called ‘Killing the Skydancer‘, which centres on the illegal killing of birds of prey on driven grouse moors.
Episode one introduces Phoebe Weston (Guardian journalist) who read an article on this blog about how a brood of hen harrier chicks were stamped to death in their nest on a Whernside grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales National Park last year (see here).
Phoebe was so horrified by the story she says she couldn’t stop thinking about it and it led her to want to find out more. This podcast series is the result of her investigation as she travelled to the Peak District and the Yorkshire Dales to look for hen harriers and to interview some people from both the conservation sector and the grouse shooting industry.
Episodes two and three will be out tomorrow and Thursday.
The link to listen to episode one (21 mins) is HERE
UPDATE 16th Aug 2023: Episode two is here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I’ve just listened to this podcast and hope that it’s message is heard by enough people to make a difference But I doubt that
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You do have the opportunity to forward it on to acquaintances and help get the message across!
Great podcast Ruth, I so hope that that it gets the attention it deserves. Now if you could just get Phoebe to persuade her editor to publish your National piece in the main paper!
One gripe that always irks me is that she hasn’t given you your hard earned title of Dr. It may not be the most important thing to you but I do think it has a lot of kudos to the general public. It bestows a certain respect that just saying ‘conservationist’ doesn’t imo.
Maybe Phoebe will have noticed that the National article was written by Dr Ruth Tingay!
You are doing a superb job in getting this issue out to more people, thank you so much.
Thanks for your continued support, Paul, it means a lot.
The credit for the podcast rests entirely with Phoebe Weston and Madeleine Finlay (producer) who have worked their way through masses of recordings to bring something coherent to what will inevitably be a new audience. I’m pleased to have been able to contribute in a small way and look forward to listening to the rest of the interviews in the episodes 2 & 3.
Take away all rights to kill animals and birds for fun.Any other approach is skirting the horrible truth.
Hear hear! If only that would happen. Well said 👏
Exactly
Yes, I completely agree. This is what needs to happen.
Well done Ruth. More power to your and Phoebe’s elbow
I thought the podcast was good. It got across the point of the contempt with which the HH killers deal with both the birds and the people who try to protect them.
Very good – clear and informative and interesting to follow someone’s (a relative newcomer to the subject) thoughts as they delve deeper into the whole thing. I especially liked the analogy with wildlife crime elsewhere in the world such as poaching elephants, making the point that we as a nation erroneously think we are beyond all that sort of stuff, when in truth the “best” of us (or at least the richest, most privileged and most expensively educated – therefore those who should do better) could give anyone the world over a masterclass in how to use political power to facilitate wildlife crime!
Looking forward to the next episodes and hopefully hearing straight talking and honest opinions from Natural England harrier experts about the Whernside stamping case, among many others.
An excellent piece. No hysteria – simply plain facts, clearly reported. This thoroughly deserves to be more widely broadcast, as Paul has suggested above.
It has not appeared in today’s Guardian – an omission which I hope will be rectified in due course. Maybe they are waiting until all three episodes have been aired to make a main feature of it. I’m sure that Phoebe will do her utmost to ensure that this is achieved.
Having the Guardian and Channel 4 News reporting on this absolute scandal gives me some reassurance that the story is being told where it might be heard.
Very well done by all concerned.
Agreed with you all an excellent piece but very harrowing and upset me to think of that poor bird Suzie trying to feed her dead chicks. I’ve shed many tears lately for all these poor creatures. Note the time it happened late at night that’s why it’s so hard to catch these ( I’d like to use another word but you won’t print it) they don’t stand a chance. They are not human just wealthy low life scum not worthy of a skin!!!