Author: RaptorPersecutionUK

Biggest threat to UK goshawks is gamekeepers, not Chris Packham!

It’s become apparent today that a journalist is sniffing around for a story about Chris Packham in what looks like the latest attempt to discredit his reputation and integrity.

Apparently ‘someone’ has made a complaint to the BBC, the BTO, and Hampshire Constabulary accusing Chris of being a ‘wildlife criminal’ because he sniffed some goshawks chicks whilst they were waiting to be ringed in the New Forest in June for a feature on the BBC’s The One Show.

That ‘someone’ has even bragged on social media about making the complaint:

That ‘someone’, or more likely one of the game shooting organisations, has tipped off a journalist in the hope of trying to make mischief for Chris in the mainstream papers.

It’s so obviously just the latest in a long-running malicious smear campaign against Chris.

If there was a genuine concern for goshawk welfare from the game-shooting sector then I think we’d have heard a bit more from them when actual crimes against goshawks have been uncovered and publicised, e.g. the trapping and beating to death of a goshawk by a gamekeeper on a pheasant shoot in Scotland (here), the shooting of a goshawk by a gamekeeper on a pheasant shoot in Norfolk (here), the disturbance of a goshawk nest in the Peak District National Park (here), the disturbance of a goshawk nest in Scotland (here), the disturbance of another goshawk nest in Scotland by masked gunmen (here), the shooting of a goshawk in the Forest of Dean (here), the trapping of a goshawk by a masked man on a pheasant shoot in Norfolk (here), the killing of a goshawk caught in a gamekeeper’s trap in the Scottish Borders (here), the shooting of a goshawk in a raptor persecution hotspot in Scotland (here), the shooting of a goshawk in Staffordshire (here), the shooting of a goshawk on a sporting estate in the Cairngorms National Park (here), the felling of an active goshawk nest in Gloucestershire (here), the setting of an illegal trap by a gamekeeper next to a goshawk nest on a sporting estate in Scotland (here), the shooting and dumping of five young goshawks in Suffolk (here), the trapping of a goshawk on a grouse shooting estate in the North York Moors National Park (here), etc etc.

It’s not difficult to predict the headline: ‘Chris Packham under police investigation’, a bit like the headlines we saw a couple of years ago when the Scottish Gamekeepers Association told Hampshire Constabulary that they had ‘evidence’ that Chris wrote a death threat letter to himself…only it turned out that their ‘evidence’ was wholly unreliable (here) and the allegation was so far off the mark it was dismissed by Hampshire Constabulary (here) and condemned by a judge in a recent and related libel trial (here).

The latest (non) ‘story’ / smear campaign hasn’t emerged in the press yet but it may appear in the next day or so.

Meanwhile, Chris has responded this afternoon – well worth a watch:

UPDATE 27th August 2023: ‘Any bad publicity is good’ – Chris Packham haters celebrate as Sunday telegraph publishes pathetic ‘bird sniffing’ accusation (here)

UPDATE 29th August 2023: ‘No case to answer’ – Hampshire Police close ridiculous ‘Chris Packham sniffed a goshawk’ investigation (here)

Ospreys breed in Ireland for the first time in over 200 years

Press release from Ulster Wildlife & the Northern Ireland Raptor Study Group

24th August 2023

OSPREYS BREED IN IRELAND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER 200 YEARS

A pair of ospreys have bred at a confidential nest site in County Fermanagh – a first in Ireland for more than 200 years.  

This beautiful bird of prey, also known as a fish hawk, has re-colonised naturally in the area and has successfully produced at least two, possibly three chicks – the first known wild osprey chicks on the island of Ireland in modern times. 

The historic discovery was made by Giles Knight, Environmental Farming Scheme Advisor with Ulster Wildlife, who has been observing the breeding pair for the last three seasons alongside his local farm visits in the area. 

“I have been keeping this news close to my chest for a long time to ensure the safety and welfare of these spectacular but vulnerable birds,” he said. 

“Along with my son Eoin, I have watched the adults return to the same site since 2021, so you can imagine my excitement the moment that I saw three chicks and two adults this year. It was a rub- your-eyes, once-in-a-lifetime moment; an absolute highlight of my 30-year wildlife career – like finding long-lost treasure.

“With at least two of the chicks fledging this season, this is a huge conservation success story and indicates a healthy wetland ecosystem with plenty of suitable habitat and fish to bring this apex predator back to our skies and plunging into the Fermanagh Lakelands. Truly the return of a living countryside!”

Ospreys are thought to have become extinct as a breeding bird in Ireland in the late 18th century due to systematic persecution. Although often sighted on migration to and from sub-Saharan Africa, confirmed breeding in Ireland has been elusive until now with Scotland their UK breeding stronghold. 

Dr Marc Ruddock from the Northern Ireland Raptor Study Group was delighted with this positive development.

“All the signs and sightings in recent years have been pointing towards this, but now actual breeding success has finally been confirmed – truly brilliant news!” he said.  

To avoid disturbance, close local liaison has been ongoing around the undisclosed site. 

Mr Knight added: “Now these birds are back in Ireland and breeding successfully, it is critical that they are left in peace so their numbers can continue to grow by returning year on year to breed. We believe and hope that this could be the start of a raptor dynasty.

“It has been both encouraging and heartwarming to see the landowner, the local farming community and our partners welcome the ospreys’ return. Their ongoing support will enable future generations to enjoy these magnificent birds far into the future.“

Across Ireland, osprey monitoring, the erection of nesting platforms, and planning for translocation and re-introduction programmes have been ongoing for many years. These efforts have now been boosted by Fermanagh’s naturally established pair. 

ENDS

Director Amanda Anderson set to leave the Moorland Association

It’s been announced that Moorland Association Director Amanda Anderson will be leaving at the end of this year “to take on a fresh challenge”.

May be she’s seen the writing on the wall and is jumping ship after ten years of propping up this dying industry.

Grouse-shooting butt in North Yorkshire. Photo: Ruth Tingay

Amanda has been a strong influence in her ten years in post, particularly in her role as what I think of as ‘chief contortionist’ in the so-called ‘partnerships’ designed to crack down on the illegal killing of birds of prey on grouse moors.

‘Partnerships’ that haven’t managed to deliver anything at all of conservation value (e.g. Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative (here and here), Yorkshire Dales Birds of Prey Partnership (here), Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (here)).

Amanda has also given us a few classic quotes over the years:

“These birds [raptors] are there on these moors. I see them from my kitchen window” – from an oral evidence session at Westminster in 2016 prior to the first debate on banning driven grouse shooting;

and

“If we let the hen harrier in, we will soon have nothing else. That is why we need this brood management plan” – from an article in The Times in 2016, reported on Mark Avery’s blog here.

Her successor will have his/her work cut out to defend the indefensible. Let’s hope it’s someone with more credibility than the current Chair of the Moorland Association, Mark Cunliffe-Lister, who recently told BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today listeners,

“Clearly, any illegal [hen harrier] persecution is not happening“.

Perhaps all the upheaval at the Moorland Association explains why the organisation has yet to publish a statement of condemnation about the latest ‘disappearance’ of three more satellite-tagged hen harriers, all gone from driven grouse moors this month (here), or the damning figure of 101 missing/killed hen harriers, mostly on grouse moors, since the start of the brood meddling sham in 2018 (here).

Incidentally, I was sent an interesting note the other day about a comment that Amanda is alleged to have sent to Moorland Association members last week about hen harriers…I’ll blog about that shortly.

UPDATE 12 December 2023: Moorland Association appoints Andrew Gilruth as new CEO (here)

Scottish Government announces plan to ban snares

Press release from Scottish animal welfare charity and REVIVE coalition member, OneKind (22nd Aug 2023)

SCOTTISH ANIMAL WELFARE CHARITY AND PATRON CHRIS PACKHAM WELCOME SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT’S PLAN TO BAN SNARES

Today, the Scottish Government has announced its intention to ban the use of snares in Scotland, following decades of campaigning from Scottish animal welfare charity, OneKind.  

OneKind strongly welcomes the Government’s proposal, which would put an end to the suffering of the wild, companion and farmed animals frequently trapped in cruel snares.  

Snares are archaic traps used, in Scotland, primarily to protect birds such as grouse and pheasants from foxes, so there is a surplus of these birds for people to shoot for ‘leisure’. However, snares are indiscriminate and often trap, injure and kill a wide range of non-target species including deer, badgers, lambs and even companion animals, such as cats and dogs.  

OneKind Director, Bob Elliot, says: 

“We are delighted that today the Scottish Government has finally announced their intention to consign snares to Scotland’s history books. The regulation of snares has failed to protect animals from the extreme physical and mental suffering caused by these archaic devices. Furthermore, 76% of the Scottish public support a snaring ban on the use and sale of snares. We are pleased that the Scottish Government has listened to the voices of Scotland’s people. 

Nothing short of a full ban will put an end to the suffering inflicted by snares. We urge the Scottish Government to make this ban watertight and not consider any exceptions to it.

OneKind has campaigned for decades for a full ban on snares in Scotland. Indeed, late last year, we marched down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and rallied outside Parliament with hundreds of supporters, like-minded organisations, and MSPs, to call on the Scottish Government to introduce a snaring and real foxhunting ban. Now we have a commitment to ban the use of snares and legislation to end the ‘sport’ of foxhunting in Scotland.” 

Bob added: 

“Scotland’s wild animals are sadly often considered to as ‘pests’ or ‘vermin’ and thus are routinely persecuted. By proposing a snaring ban, the Scottish Government is helping send a message that wild animals deserve protection. Of course, a complete shift in mindset in how we view wild animals – as sentient individuals rather than ‘vermin’ – is desperately needed, but today’s announcement shows we’re heading in the right direction.” 

OneKind’s Patron, Wildlife TV Presenter and Conservationist, Chris Packham, said: 

“What excellent news, and a potential win for wildlife, today. These torture devices ought to have been banned a long time ago and I’m glad that the Scottish Government has finally recognised snares for the unacceptably cruel traps that they are.  

Snares inflict so much suffering on wild animals and so I’m delighted that both the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government have taken a stand against snares. The UK Government must not lag behind.” 

ENDS

The Scottish Government’s announcement can be read here.

There is now a six-week consultation, open now and running until 3rd October 2023 – you can participate by clicking here.

Highly pathogenic bird flu outbreak at pheasant & duck-rearing game farm in Angus

Ministers have confirmed the presence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza at a game-rearing farm in Angus (here).

The infected premises were declared on 18th August 2023 at Forester’s Croft, Oathlaw, Forfar, DD8 3SA and Ministers have enforced a 3km Protection Zone and a wider 10km Surveillance Zone. This means various measures are now in place in both zones, and the release of gamebirds is prohibited in both zones.

Aerial view of postcode DD8 3SA, which appears to be a game-rearing farm

The wider Surveillance Zone covers part of Glenogil Estate in the Angus Glens, a name that will be familiar to long-term readers of this blog. Glenogil offers red grouse shooting but also pheasant and partridge shoots. If the estate is releasing pheasant/partridge this year, then its shooting plans may be affected if it hadn’t already released its gamebirds prior to 18th August (as they’ll still be classed as livestock/poultry until their release, when they suddenly morph into ‘wildlife’).

Forester’s Croft, the location of the infected premises, is interesting. An undated (although maybe 2017) sales brochure (here) shows its proximity to the grouse moors at the southern end of the Angus Glens, which should be of great concern given the highly contagious nature of avian influenza:

The infected premises are believed to be linked to a company called Angus Game Plus Ltd, whose website suggests it raises 50,000 poults (pheasants, partridge and ducks) a year for the gamebird shooting industry. I would usually provide a link to its website here but it is showing as ‘unsecure’, so I won’t. This company also offers what it calls ‘shooting packages’ in the wider area, including on other estates, especially goose, duck and pigeon shooting.

This isn’t the first time Forester’s Croft has come to the attention of the authorities. In 2019 the owner was found to be in breach of planning laws because he didn’t have permission for his gamebird-rearing facilities (see here and here).

Following the recent news that Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has been confirmed in red grouse in the Scottish Borders (here), and now confirmed at a game-rearing facility in Angus, the Scottish Government’s decision not to restrict gamebird shoots this year looks to be increasingly risky.

BASC & Countryside Alliance accused of attempting to limit proposed new gun legislation after fatal shootings in Plymouth & Skye

There was an interesting article in The Guardian last week where the ‘UK gun lobby’ (BASC and Countryside Alliance) are accused of attempting to ‘skew’ a Government consultation on the tightening of gun legislation after fatal shootings in Plymouth and on the Isle of Skye.

The article can be read here.

The Westminster Government launched an eight week consultation in late June to ask for the public’s views on a number of recommendations made to the Home Office after licensed shotgun owner Jake Davison went on the rampage in Plymouth and shot and killed five people in 2021, and after licensed shotgun owner Finlay MacDonald, allegedly shot and killed one and attempted to murder others on the Isle of Skye in 2022. His trial begins next year.

The recommendations on which the Home Office is consulting all seem to be fair and proportionate, e.g. that the person applying for a shotgun certificate should provide two referees instead of one, and that at least one of the referees should be of certain standing in the community (e.g. of a professional background).

However, BASC has argued that the recommendations are ‘harmful proposals’ and has urged its members and supporters to respond to the consultation to challenge the proposals.

According to the Guardian article, ‘Peter Squires, a professor of criminology and public policy at the University of Brighton, said: “It is not unlike the way the NRA [National Rifle Association] operates in the USA, with a narrow and single-minded approach to swamping the ballots.

“Virtually every independent-minded expert agrees on what needs to be done and then the Home Office conducts one of these farcical consultations and allows the self-interested single-issue shooting lobby to school its members through the process of rejecting the proposals.

“The farce is complete when the Home Office takes the results of this skewed survey and cites public opposition to the necessary reforms as a reason for inaction.”’

The article continues: Luke Pollard, the MP for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, said: “The gun lobby are arguing for no changes to Britain’s broken gun laws, meaning they are deliberately failing to learn the lessons from the Plymouth shooting.

“We need ordinary people who want changes to gun laws to make a stand and send in their views to the Home Office consultation. If we don’t learn the lessons of the tragedy in Keyham, we will be doomed to repeat them.”

Given how many wildlife crimes, and especially crimes against birds of prey, are committed by licensed shotgun holders, I think readers of this blog might have a view on whether licensing laws need to be tightened.

The public consultation closes on Wednesday 23 August 2023. If you’d like to contribute to the public consultation you can do that here.

Detailed background reading is available here.

Cornwall Osprey Project needs some help

Kernow Conservation is a relatively new not-for-profit conservation organisation working in partnership with others to restore wildlife and biodiversity across Cornwall.

Amongst many other things, they’re already leading a project to reintroduce the Water Vole to southern Cornwall and now they’ve turned their sights to a potential reintroduction of the Osprey.

Formerly a breeding bird in Cornwall, these days it’s only seen on migration.

Kernow Conservation has been working with landowners to install Osprey breeding platforms in an attempt to draw them in but they’re also now investigating the feasibility of a full-blown reintroduction, similar to the successful projects at Rutland Water and Poole Harbour.

Kernow Conservation has been running a crowd funder to help support the costs of this effort and today is the last day to donate.

If you’d like to support them in their efforts to bring back the Osprey, please click here.

NB: All donations are being double matched, thanks to support from the Aviva Fund & Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund. So for every £1 donated, Kernow Conservation will receive £3.

“Every way you look at this industry…its existence is an absurdity” – Rod Liddle on grouse shooting

Journalist Rod Liddle has taken another swipe at grouse shooting with the following article in The Sunday Times yesterday:

It’s not the first time – last year his criticism of grouse shooting prompted furious responses from the Countryside Alliance and GWCT, although BASC bizarrely used it as an opportunity to hurl abuse at Megan McCubbin (you can read their full-on attack here).

Liddle doesn’t appear to be a fan of the Countryside Alliance in general, writing an article for the Guardian in 2002 about the London march to save fox hunting, which ultimately led to his resignation from the BBC after a backlash accusing him of not being impartial (see here and here).

Hmm, given this trophy scalp perhaps it explains why the nasty brigade keeps urging the BBC to sack Chris Packham. ‘If they got rid of Liddle, why not Packham?’, is what they’ll be telling themselves.

Here’s the text of Liddle’s latest piece published in The Sunday Times yesterday:

RED KITES ARE GLORIOUS. MURDERING THEM IN AID OF A SHOOT-‘EM-UP FOR SPIVS IS GROTESQUE

Rod Liddle

A red kite was found hanging from a tree a couple of hundred yards from where I live in the north Pennine. Its death was at first a mystery and I wondered if, hideously depressed by the government’s failure to lower taxes or get a grip of the migrant issue, it had killed itself. Kites are notoriously right wing. But the bird’s carcass was sent off to a lab and all became very clear. The creature had been poisoned with carbofuran and bendiocarb – two illegal pesticides still used, surreptitiously, by gamekeepers. It had also been shot. So they had tried to kill this rather lovely bird at least twice – to protect those flapping, panicking idiots the red grouse.

That it was gamekeepers to blame is beyond reasonable doubt. I live in an area notorious for their swift dispatch of pretty much all living creatures. The 2021 edition of the RSPB’s Birdcrime report revealed that 71 per cent of all raptor persecution incidents related to land managed for the shooting of game birds, and every one of those prosecuted were gamekeepers. Kites – and buzzards – have been found dead here before this, with the same toxic substances inside them.

It was the so-called Glorious Twelfth last weekend, and the guns were blazing. Grouse moors make up 7 per cent of our land and provide a magnificent total of 1,500 full-time jobs. The claim that local communities benefit indirectly is a myth: the City boys arrive, they are lodged on the estates, they get driven out to the ranges, they fire away and they go home. In Scotland is is estimated that the gamekeepers kill 250,000 animals to allow people to kill 300,000 grouse.

Every way you look at this industry – from the point of view of economics, morality, the environment, biodiversity, land use – its existence is an absurdity. I asked one gamekeeper up here what proportion of supposed “vermin” he intended to kill. He replied: “The aim is for 100 per cent, but some slip through the net”.

These vermin include all our magnificent birds of prey (including kites, which feed mainly on carrion), mountain hares (which carry a tick dangerous to the bloody grouse), foxes, badgers, stoats, weasels and pine martens (in Scotland – they’ve already made them extinct in England). You walk up onto the moor tops – potentially our most beautiful scenery – and find yourself in a depopulated and scorched, treeless moonscape, the very antithesis of nature. All we have is million upon million of rabbits, hopping about in the blackened heather as if they were in a post-nuclear-holocaust Teletubbies set.

The game lobby will insist that they are protecting wildlife and point to the curlew, a hooting wraith from the wetlands, as a case in point. They cling to the curlew as a spider clings to the side of a bath as the water rises beneath it. Sure, there are curlew on the moor tops, for part of the year, and the occasional golden plover, lapwing and meadow pipit. But precious little else, in this vast and – when the heather’s not on fire – majestic scenery.

They will also tell you that they are protecting a historic way of life and topography. Well, not that historic: we’ve had intensively driven grouse moors for about 150 years, so it’s as traditionally British as football hooliganism. It is true that, as the lobby claims, the scenery is unique to Britain – no other country would put up with it. The burning of the heather – which enables new shoots to grow for the delectation of the grouse – is awful for the environment and climate change.

All this happens because a handful of people want to shoot birds that fly as if they’ve just eaten a full English breakfast after a heavy night on the piss. Talk about hitting a barn door with a banjo.

I have no objection to people shooting game birds for food. In many ways it is vastly preferable to the rest of the meat industry. Nor do I have much animus against the rich folks who own the land, whether they be the Arab rich folks who own the moors to my north or the rich hedge fund monkeys who own the moors to my west. I don’t even have a vast loathing for the City boys who provide the income. My complaint isn’t motivate by class hatred or envy.

Indeed, I would argue that we should increase subsidies to the landowners, provided that they rewild their estates. Wildlife tourism is far, far more popular – and remunerative – than grouse shooting: last year five times as many people visited one single RSPB reserve (Slimbridge in Gloucestershire) as took part in all the country’s grouse shoots. That’s just one, smallish reserve.

Imagine the benefit to the villages and towns if our upland areas had a true diversity of wildlife, rather than being managed deliberately to exclude the very creatures people want to see. But the wealth and political heft of the landowners, as well as their own lack of imagination, means we are left with the barren, charred expanse of grouseland.

ENDS

Durham Police appeal for information after sparrowhawk shot dead in public woodland

A sparrowhawk has been found shot and killed in a public woodland in Darlington, prompting a police appeal for information.

Members of the Friends of Geneva Wood first spotted dead pigeons a few weeks ago and further incidents have seen several more pigeons shot and now a sparrowhawk.

Sparrowhawk. Photo: Ben Hall, RSPB Images.

Durham Police and civic enforcement officers from Darlington Borough Council’s community safety team have issued a joint appeal urging anyone who uses the wood to be alert and to get in touch if they have any information that can identify those responsible.

Sergeant James Woodcock, of Darlington Neighbourhood Policing team, said: “There is legislation in place that protects various wild bird species. We will be working with the council and other relevant agencies, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and local wildlife conservation organisations to ensure legal action is taken where necessary.

We would ask anyone in the Geneva Wood area to be alert and to report any incidents to us or the council’s civic enforcement officers.”

Councillor Amanda Riley added: “Our civic enforcement officers are working closely with local police and will be carrying out extra patrols in the area, but we will also need the support of local residents if we’re to identify those responsible.

Shooting and killing wild birds in a public woodland such as this is not only illegal, but also poses a danger to others who may be in the area and anti-social behaviour of this kind will not be tolerated.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Durham Police on 101 or the community safety team on 01325 406999.

EXCLUSIVE: Scottish Water confirms no new grouse shooting leases allowed on its land

Press release from REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform

19th August 2023

EXCLUSIVE: Scottish Water confirms no new grouse shooting leases allowed on its land

Scotland’s publicly owned water corporation has confirmed that ‘there will be no new grouse shooting leases created’ across its land. This follows the recent news that the United Utilities water company will not renew grouse shooting leases in England.

In a written statement sent to REVIVE, the publicly owned company said:

“We depend on a thriving environment and are committed to enhancing biodiversity across our land holdings and asset base.

Scottish Water has only one area on which there is an operational grouse shooting lease in place. This lease is set to expire in 2027 and we will review our future options on land use priorities at that point. We will do that with particular regard to biodiversity and sustainability, taking into account our position on muirburn and herbivore management requirements. This will be subject to a formal decision-making process to be undertaken in due course; however, it is likely these considerations will lead to changes in the terms of any lease offered in future.

In the meantime, there will be no new grouse shooting leases created elsewhere across our catchment estate.”

Scottish Water has previously confirmed that no new agreements for muirburn will be granted to shooting tenants in a move to increase environmental protection of peatlands. Driven grouse shooting often depends on muirburn to sustain high numbers of grouse for ‘sport shooting’ so this new development casts the future of its grouse moor in doubt.

In response Max Wiszniewski, Campaign Manager for REVIVE said:

“Driven grouse shooting is surrounded by a circle of destruction including moorland burning. Whether it’s the environmental destruction or the killing of hundreds of thousands of animals, like foxes, stoats, weasels, crows and so-called ‘non target species’ like hedgehogs, it’s a land use that is incompatible with our aspirations for a green and prosperous Scotland.

It’s a very welcome development to see Scotland’s public water company taking this issue seriously and confirming that no new grouse shooting leases will be allowed across the rest of its land. We hope that Scottish Water will continue this trend of good news and decide to end, and not renew, their sport shooting leases when the time comes.”

Scotland’s grouse shooting season began on the 12th of August and ends on the 10th of December. Meanwhile, the ongoing Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill is set to reform grouse moor practices at a national level before the next shooting season begins.

ENDS