Blog

Earlier this week this blog passed its ten year anniversary.

I’m not sure how that happened but as the number of blog views approaches 6 million it’s rewarding to see that the blog stats reflect a growing awareness of the illegal killing of birds of prey in the UK.

Massive thanks to all those who contribute – many of whom can’t be named but you know who you are – and thanks also to all those who comment and who share the blog through their own networks. To those who help fund my time, I’m indebted.

To maintain a blog like this requires significant effort. It can take its toll on some other aspects of life, and indeed it has, but it’s also brought great benefits, not least the opportunity to work with and get to know some pretty special people whose own efforts in this field and on related topics continue to inspire.

Foremost of these has to be Chris Packham and Mark Avery – our paths crossed as a direct result of this blog and led to the formation of Wild Justice. Two others of significance are Ian Thomson (Head of Investigations, RSPB Scotland) and Andy Wightman MSP, both of whom have been staunch supporters and providers of excellent advice – pictured here at last week’s Scottish Raptor Study Group conference:

[Ian Thomson, Ruth Tingay, Andy Wightman, photo by Andrea Goddard]

Back in 2010 I was pretty naive and didn’t expect to still be writing about this stuff ten years on. Fortunately these days, especially with the help of social media, it’s much more of a movement and there’ll be no turning back and shoving it all under a rug anymore.

Thanks to Andy Wightman MSP for lodging this motion of support at the Scottish Parliament earlier this week – it’ll be interesting to see who signs it and who doesn’t!

Huge congratulations to the Scottish Raptor Study Group (SRSG) which celebrated its 40th anniversary at the weekend.

[SRSG Secretary Patrick Stirling-Aird cuts the birthday cake during the annual conference on Saturday, accompanied by keynote speaker Dr Maria Del Mar Delgado and Tayside Raptor Study Group Chair, Claire Smith. Photo by Ruth Tingay]

The SRSG is a network of over 300 raptor experts who monitor and record the fortunes of birds of prey across Scotland. The members are organised within 12 regional branches covering all of mainland Scotland and most of the islands.

They check over 5,000 known raptor territories for occupancy each year and record the status, distribution and breeding success of each species. They’ve amassed a unique long-term dataset of raptor records and this information is vital for understanding changes in population trends. Their results are published annually as part of the award-winning Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme and have contributed to hundreds of scientific publications. These results are used regularly by conservation agencies and Government to inform local, regional and national conservation plans and policies.

SRSG members work on a voluntary basis and between them contribute thousands of days to fieldwork and data collection every year. SRSG members have varied backgrounds and are from many different professions, but are united by their commitment to the protection and conservation of Scotland’s raptors.

Golden Eagle Species Champion Andy Wightman MSP has recognised the importance and significance of the SRSG’s efforts and has lodged a motion at the Scottish Parliament asking his fellow MSPs for support:

The motion was only published yesterday so it’s early days but already has a number of cross-party supporters. If your MSP isn’t listed yet, it’d be worth you contacting them and asking them to support Motion S5M-21080 because it never hurts for them to receive mail from constituents who care about raptor conservation. If they choose not to support this motion it’d be very interesting to hear the reason(s) for that decision. [NB: If your MSP is also a Minister they’re not able to sign up to support motions].

Not sure who your MSP is? Find out here

Wild Justice’s latest legal challenge, seeking a judicial review of the unregulated release of millions of non-native gamebirds in 2020, has been attracting some attention.

Announced this morning, the news has hit the headlines at the Guardian with a particularly good article (here) from Phoebe Weston, who’s clearly taken the time to read the details of this case:

Good to see that Phoebe’s article is currently ranked as the paper’s most popular environmental story:

Wild Justice has lodged court papers seeking a judicial review of pheasant and red-legged partridge releases in 2020.

[Seven week old pheasant chicks, often known as poults, in a release pen on an English shooting estate]

The three co-founders of Wild Justice said:

Chris Packham CBE: “DEFRA has been dragging its feet on this issue since we first raised it. It is time to sort this out and Wild Justice is fully prepared for a court battle on behalf of UK wildlife.  Our challenge relates to Natura 2000 sites in England but the impacts will be felt right across the UK countryside“.

Dr Ruth Tingay: “The lack of monitoring and regulation of gamebird releases is staggering. The Government doesn’t seem to know or care how many are released each year and even the figure of 60 million gamebirds may well be an underestimate.  Incredibly, there is nothing to stop the shooting industry releasing twice as many gamebirds next year. This has to stop and proper regulation brought in“.

Dr Mark Avery: “These non-native gamebirds go around gobbling up insects,  other invertebrates and even snakes and lizards, they peck at vegetation, their droppings fertilise sensitive habitats which no farmer would be allowed to fertilise and they provide prey and carrion that swell the populations of predators that then go on to prey on other threatened species. And the biomass of Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges exceeds that of all native UK birds put together. This is a very serious ecological assault on the countryside which government is failing to assess and regulate“.

Wild Justice is represented by Tessa Gregory and Carol Day, solicitors at Leigh Day.

Carol Day: “Wild Justice quite rightly held off issuing legal proceedings last year on the basis that the Government said it would review arrangements to consider the impact of the gamebirds’ release in future. It is now clear that the review has only just started and that no action will be taken that could affect the shooting season in 2020.

If Wild Justice waited until September to challenge the legality of the gamebird releases it would be too late. The Pheasants and Partridges would have left their breeding pens, and the damage could then be done. And so – responsibly and properly – the Claimant is acting now, at a time when it is still possible to head off the alleged illegality“.

To read the full press release please visit the Wild Justice blog here

Last October the RSPB announced at its AGM that it was to undertake a policy review of gamebird shooting (see here).

This welcome review had been prompted by ongoing environmental concerns including ‘the ongoing and systematic illegal persecution of birds of prey such as hen harriers on some sporting estates; the ecological impact of high numbers of game birds released into the countryside increasing the density of generalist predators; the mass culling of mountain hares in some parts of our uplands; the use of lead ammunition; the impact of burning peatlands and medicating wild animals for sport shooting’.

The review is now underway and the RSPB’s Global Conservation Director, Martin Harper, has laid out the planned process in a recent blog (here) as follows:

Review process

There are three stages to our review.

In this first phase we are seeking the views of members and those with an interest in gamebird shooting. This will help us develop nature conservation principles for gamebird shooting and associated land management to be approved by our Council this summer.

The second phase involves completing scientific reviews of the evidence of impacts from the two most intensive forms of shooting (driven grouse and gamebird releases) to help assess these shooting styles against the conservation principles.

The final phase involves reviewing the RSPB’s existing policy on driven grouse shooting and developing a new position on gamebird releases.

We plan to announce the results of this review of our policy at the AGM in October.

ENDS

Martin’s blog goes on to explain how RSPB members can contribute to the review. Questionnaires have also recently been sent out to those of us known to have an interest in gamebird shooting, with an April deadline for responses. This all looks promising for the RSPB to keep to its anticipated timetable of announcing the policy review results in October this year.

As an aside, some of the shooting organisations will be looking at the RSPB’s membership consultation process with envy today – from what’s been posted on social media there is deep resentment from many shooters about the lack of consultation with members prior to yesterday’s announcement on the proposed phasing out of lead ammunition; BASC especially appears to be haemorrhaging members as a direct result of this poor communication. They’ve even stuck Duncan Thomas in front of a camera calling for calm (check out BASC’s Facebook page to get an idea of the carnage). This doesn’t bode well for the success of the planned voluntary ban on lead ammunition.

This morning a load of game shooting organisations announced that they wanted to promote a voluntary ban on the use of lead ammunition and to see an end to its use within five years.

This announcement is hardly a surprise. The poisonous properties of lead ammunition and its devastating impact on wildlife has been known for years and years and years, and most of the previously significant sources of lead in the environment (e.g. lead-based paint and leaded petrol) were eliminated decades ago.

Lead-based ammunition has since been the most significant unregulated source of lead deliberately emitted in to the environment in the EU but recent recommendations from the European Chemicals Agency to the European Commission propose an outright ban in terrestrial as well as wetland environments (where it is already banned although testing has proved UK compliance is poor).

The game shooting organisations have seen the writing on the wall and have decided to jump before being pushed. If you don’t believe that then have a look at this video featuring Ian Bell, BASC CEO – it’s hilarious – “It’s us who sets the pace, not the people who challenge us“. Yeah, right, Ian. The shooting industry hasn’t just had its arse handed to itself on a plate by environmentalists, then? Try reading about the Lead Ammunition Group and its history of resignations.

Of course, we’ve been here before with the game shooting industry and voluntary bans – they don’t work. Of course they don’t work – this is an industry that struggles to comply with the law, especially on raptor persecution, let alone a voluntary commitment!

According to a statement from the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust (WWT), a group that’s been at the forefront of campaigning against lead ammunition for a very long time,

‘While the transition to lead-free ammunition is a positive move forward, conservationists stress that previous voluntary bans have been unsuccessful and without policy change at government level, there will still be risks to human health, wildlife and the market for game birds. A full restriction will contribute to the further removal of poisonous lead from our environment‘.

Of course, for a voluntary ban to have any chance of success all the stakeholders need to be on board to start with. And according to Ian Bell, “All the major shooting and rural organisations are calling for this change“. Are they? It doesn’t look like it – where’s the Scottish Gamekeepers Association’s logo on that press announcement? It seems to be missing.

Ah yes, here’s why…..without any sense of irony about the neurological damage of consuming lead shot for years, here’s the SGA’s response to the call for a voluntary ban on lead ammo:

[Screen grab from the SGA’s website, this statement was posted there yesterday evening]

For as long as these dinosaurs are left to their own devices don’t expect to see a voluntary reduction in the use of lead ammunition in Scotland any time soon.