Henry’s arrived in the Cairngorms National Park.
You might think he’d be safe here, what with it being a National Park and all that.
You’d be wrong.
Almost 45% of the CNP is covered by ‘managed moorland’ and raptor persecution here has been so prominent that last year it led to the Convenor of the Cairngorms National Park Authority declaring that “it threatens to undermine the reputation of the National Park as a high quality tourist destination” (see here and then here).
It sounds like an odd thing to say, but something good has stemmed from the ‘disappearance’ of five breeding hen harrier males this year, and that’s the amount of media coverage generated by these incidents.
The national press has been all over these crimes (and yes, we are calling them crimes because you’d have to be either pretty dense and/or wilfully obstructive to claim that these ‘disappearances’ are the result of anything else) with plenty of column inches in the Guardian, Independent, Daily Mail and Express, as well as TV broadcasting on the BBC News and Channel 4 News. Social media has also been busy, with massive coverage on Twitter and Facebook in addition to constant coverage on several well-read personal blogs, all with a wide social reach.
Instrumental to all this media attention was the release of the information in the first place, and for that we have the RSPB to thank. As a result, the RSPB find themselves at the centre of (another) targeted slur campaign, funded by the industry with the most to lose in terms of public perception when news gets out about another ‘missing’ hen harrier in yet another area managed for driven grouse shooting. The funny part is, the more they smear the RSPB, the more that news editors will want to run the story, so the more people are going to hear about what’s going on.
Some may worry about what’s been written in some of the papers – the Daily Mail coverage was, well, pretty much what you’d expect from the Daily Mail (with it’s grouse moor-owning proprietor), but did that matter? Apparently not. The plight of the hen harrier has never been so high profile and never have so many people raised their voices in support of this species – it’s inconceivable that just a couple of years ago the hen harrier would have been voted the nation’s 9th favourite bird (as it was this week) – it would have been lucky to have made the Top 100, let alone the Top Ten. That’s pretty impressive, especially when you consider that the grassroots campaign in support of the hen harrier is still pretty young – it’s only really just got started.
There’s even more media coverage this weekend, with this article in the Independent. It doesn’t really tell us anything new, apart from learning that United Utilities had ‘banned’ the reporter from visiting the one remaining hen harrier nest in Bowland because the issue had become “too political”, whatever that means. But the content of the article isn’t really what’s interesting – what is interesting is that the Independent thought this issue newsworthy enough to send a journalist all the way from London to Cumbria to look at the now abandoned hen harrier nest on the Geltsdale Reserve. The accompanying text is largely irrelevant (although undoubtedly it will have been read by some people who were previously unaware of hen harrier persecution on driven grouse moors, so that’s good); it’s the fact that the story is being published in the mainstream media, again, that’s important.
Not only does extensive media coverage reach an ever-increasing audience, it also helps to build pressure on the authorities who are in a position to do something about these seemingly untouchable raptor killers, but so far have managed to do virtually nothing, or at least anything meaningful.
A few days ago the UK Government’s statutory nature conservation agency, Natural England, published a statement in response to the news that five breeding male hen harriers have ‘disappeared’. You can read it here. It tells us how ‘concerned’ they are, but other than that, it seems to be business as usual. More satellite-tagging to “provide even more detailed information on how birds move around the landscape and the factors currently limiting the population”.
That’ll be the same satellite tag information they’ve been collecting for the last eight years and have yet to publish in any detail.
Another day, another location (Perthshire this time), another grouse butt to occupy!
Check out BAWC’s new Hen Harrier Day website and submit your photos – get involved!
An important judicial review is underway at the High Court this week. It concerns the legal question about whether Natural England acted fairly when it refused licences to a gamekeeper to allow him to kill buzzards and sparrowhawks to protect his pheasants.
The JR has been brought by Northumberland gamekeeper Ricky McMorn and is backed by the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation.
Article in the Chronicle here.
We’ve blogged extensively about this over the last three years. See here for earlier posts, which include discussions about whether DEFRA/Natural England should entertain a licence application from a gamekeeper with a previous conviction for possession of a banned poison (apparently that’s not a problem), whether the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation should expel a member with a conviction for possession of a banned poison (apparently not), and whether there’s any scientific evidence to demonstrate buzzards (and sparrowhawks) have a substantially detrimental effect on game bird shoots (there isn’t).
Henry’s entering South Lanarkshire. You might know it from the annual raptor persecution maps – there’s usually a dirty great big red spot indicating that this is a raptor persecution hotspot.
You don’t need a map to tell you that, though. Just look at the landscape and the tell-tale muirburn strips of burnt heather on the hills will tell you all you need to know. This is driven grouse moor country.
Last month somebody stole a clutch of eggs from a Marsh harrier nest in Norfolk (see here). Around the same time, eggs were also stolen from a Kestrel’s nest and a wagtail’s nest. Norfolk Constabulary are linking the three thefts.
In response, local businessman Mervyn Lambert is offering a £5,000 reward for information, adding to the other £2,000 already available (£1K from the Eastern Daily Press and £1K from the Hawk & Owl Trust).
However, Mr Lambert isn’t limiting his offer to these three crimes. “I’ll give £5,000 for any information, not only about stealing birds’ eggs but poisoning, trapping and shooting protected birds“.
Good stuff.
Further details in the Eastern Daily Press here.
Henry paid a visit (under heavily armed guard) to the RSPB’s Geltsdale reserve in Cumbria, scene of the latest hen harrier ‘disappearance’.
A team from Channel 4 News was also at Geltsdale to talk about ‘disappearing’ hen harriers – that programme aired on Tues evening (9th June). If you missed it, it’ll appear on Channel 4 Catch Up in the next few days.
It was good to see the issue of hen harrier persecution featuring on a national news programme and it was even better to see who the grouse-shooting industry had put forward as their spokesman – one Duncan Thomas, ex-Police Wildlife Crime Officer (Bowland) and currently working for BASC. Some of you may remember him from last year’s Countryfile – we blogged about his performance here.
Here’s what he had to say on last night’s programme:
“There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that these birds have been persecuted. They could merely have moved on or died from natural predation. We’ve had a horrendous spring up here, many many species have suffered as a result, as a direct result of that, and in all the time that I was [Police] Wildlife Crime Officer and doing this job [BASC], I’ve not seen direct evidence of human persecution. I’m confident that everybody up here is doing their bit to make this work. What we need is the Hen Harrier Recovery Plan to be able to reintroduce and to spread this species in to suitable habitat and to get the population back to a level where everybody’s comfortable with“.
‘No direct evidence’ is probably the line used by those defending Jimmy Savile for all those years. Truth will out in the end – it always does, and we are all well on the way to exposing that truth to a much wider audience than ever before.
What Mr Thomas forgot to mention is the management of the grouse moors adjacent to the Geltsdale reserve. Wonder who owns those and perhaps more interestingly, who the sporting agent is?
The presenter, Tom Clarke (Science editor, C4 News) chose his words carefully and did a reasonably good job, although he needs to check his research when he claims that ‘hen harriers are doing quite well in Scotland’ – they’re actually not – see here.
A farmer in Spain has been found guilty of laying out poisoned baits and poisoning at least 11 red kites, five dogs, six foxes, a cat, a raven, a buzzard and four vultures.
His sentence? Two years in prison, two years disqualification from farming or any other profession relating to animal husbandry (post release), four years disqualification from hunting (post release), a fine of 90,270 Euros plus an additional fine of 28,500 Euros to be used specifically to monitor red kites in the local area for the next three years (see here).
Now THAT’S a deterrent!
Spain is one of several European countries way ahead of the game when it comes to tackling raptor persecution. Amongst other measures, they have a dedicated dog unit that utilises specialist sniffer dogs trained to detect poison and poisoned baits. These dogs are so good they can even detect the location where a poisoned bait has been laid previously but has since been removed. These dog units are not just deployed to a site of a suspected incident; they are routinely deployed to undertake spot checks wherever they want and whatever time they want. There’s none of this ‘you need landowner permission’, or ‘you need a warrant’.
Remember this the next time you hear the Scottish Government or the UK Government say they are tackling raptor persecution and are treating this crime seriously.
Henry paid a visit to Moy Estate in the Monadliaths.
Regular blog readers will probably remember what was found on Moy Estate in 2010:
A 20-year-old gamekeeper (James Rolfe – straight out of game-keeping college) was charged with possession of the dead red kite and was fined £1,500. No charges were ever brought against anyone for any of the other offences.
Previous blogs on Moy: see here, here, here and here. It’s particularly worth having a look at this, especially in light of recent hen harrier ‘disappearances’ in England. They weren’t necessarily shot (as the grouse-shooting industry keeps telling us) – they could just as easily have been trapped like this (as the grouse-shooting industry keeps forgetting to mention).
The gamekeeper on Moy was convicted four years ago in 2011. Since then, several more satellite-tracked red kites have ‘disappeared’ since their last signals emitted from Moy, and several buzzard and goshawk nests seem to fail each year. It’s quite windy at Moy. It was probably the wind that blew off those rings from the young golden eagles’ legs and blew them straight in to a jar inside the gamekeeper’s house. It was probably the wind that severed the leg of the red kite and then blew it in to a hole on the moor and then blew moss over the hole to cover it. It was probably the wind that blew away the more recent ‘missing’ red kites. It was probably the same wind that blew holes in those buzzard and goshawk nests, too. Still no breeding hen harriers on this estate – yep, must have been blown away.
Word has it that the game management on Moy Estate is being taken over by a sporting agent with whom we’re very familiar. Cue hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of night vision equipment to carry out his particular style of grouse moor management.
Henry left the estate before darkness fell. He lives another day, although he’s still single.
Those fine gents at Birders Against Wildlife Crime (BAWC) have launched a dedicated website for Hen Harrier Day 2015 – see here.
This year’s Hen Harrier Day is Sunday 9th August and events will be taking place across the country. If you’re planning an event, please send details to info@henharrierday.org so it can be advertised on the new website.
If you’re not organising an event yourself but want to participate and show your support, keep an eye on the Hen Harrier Day website for regular updates and information about what you can do.
Now, more than ever, is the time for us to stand and be counted.
Raptor Persecution UK 