Hey, the Hon Philip Astor, this one’s for you!
Got any hen harriers yet?
Category: Henry the Hen Harrier
Henry’s tour day 61: Balmoral
Henry’s back in Scotland and went for a mooch around Balmoral, the Queen’s private residence on the eastern side of the Cairngorms National Park.
The royal family are known to enjoy a spot of grouse shooting when they decamp to Scotland each summer. They have 2,940 hectares of grouse moor at Corgarff, as well as renting 4,688 hectares of sporting rights from the neighbouring Invercauld Estate.
Interestingly, there appears to be a recent intensification of grouse moor management on the leased ground, especially on the Glen Callater and Baddock beats at Glen Clunie. Hmm….
A while ago it was suggested to us that the Queen would be exempt from any vicarious liability prosecution, should any of the pertinent raptor crimes that might lead to a prosecution be uncovered on land she either owns or rents. We’re not sure how accurate this statement is and would be interested to hear from anybody with a more detailed knowledge.
Henry’s tour day 60: Walshaw Moor
Henry’s tour day 59: an away day
Henry took a break from the barren grouse moors of the north and headed to the RSPB’s Nene Washes Reserve in Cambridgeshire.
He watched a marsh harrier and a short-eared owl and met a photographer who was looking for a chocolate-coloured barn owl. It was good to be at a site where the raptors you expect to see in that habitat are actually there.
Tomorrow he heads back north.
Henry’s tour day 58: occupy the butts!
Henry’s tour day 57: Kildrummy
Henry called in at Kildrummy – the location of some pretty obscene ‘raptor management techniques’ recently- see here.
Rumour has it there’s a new keeper at Kildrummy Estate, following the incarceration of Scottish gamekeeper (and SGA member) George Mutch, (formerly of Kildrummy Estate), for his disgusting crimes.
The new keeper’s name? Local rumour suggests something quite incredible, but that can’t surely be true.
Here’s an anagram: Hmm crust
Henry’s tour day 56: back on Donside
Henry is back on the eastern side of the Cairngorms National Park.
Here he is at Glen Nochty. Probably safer not to go down this road – bad things happen here where the forest borders a grouse moor (which can be seen in the distance).
Henry’s tour day 55: burn, baby, burn!
Henry is growing increasingly interested in the management techniques used on intensively-managed driven grouse moors.
He was bemused to see this sign on the Nawton Tower Estate in the North York Moors National Park. ‘No fires’ on this designated Site of Special Scientific Interest….but what’s all that black, charred moor in the background?!
Mark Avery has today published a timely blog about the environmental effects of moorland burning – see here.
The Nawton Tower Estate is also known as the Bransdale Moor Estate, according to this parliamentary discussion. And actually, this discussion is rather interesting for another reason as it reveals details of tax breaks for grouse moor owners in return for public access rights, but after taking the tax breaks some landowners decided they wanted to restrict public access – it’s fascinating! The context of the above parliamentary discussion can be found in this Hansard report.
The grouse management on Bransdale Moor has been linked to Mark Osborne – see here, and apparently this grouse moor is ‘often described as the premier North Yorkshire Moors grouse shooting estate’ – see here.
Henry didn’t see any hen harriers during his visit but did see a lot of pheasants(?!) and a lot of red grouse.
Henry’s tour day 54: drug habit
Henry’s Tour day 53: Occupy the butts!
Occupy the butts!
Go to a grouse moor, find a grouse butt, take a photograph of yourself occupying the butt, send in the photograph to this website.
Finding one of these butts is easy – you don’t have to walk for miles across the moors – a lot of them are right there by the roadside. Grouse butts are normally marked on OS maps at 1:25000 scale. Try http://www.streetmap.co.uk and zoom in on your favourite moor.
It’s not illegal to stand in a grouse butt and take a photograph, as long as you are not damaging it nor interfering with ‘lawful activity’ (i.e. disrupting a driven grouse shoot). We’d encourage you to visit a grouse butt at any time between now and Hen Harrier Day (Sun 9th August) – just over 6 weeks away – before the shooting starts on 12th August.
Raptor Persecution UK 