James Marchington's Blog

New blog up and running

2011-12-28T14:28:00.000Z

If you enjoyed reading this blog, then check out my new blog on Wordpress - you'll find it at http://marchington.wordpress.com/. The new blog is a little different - less about me and my opinions, and more about stories I'm working on for various Blaze Publishing magazines. Hope to see you there!

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Ferret faking it!

2011-07-10T19:08:00.000+01:00

Ok, I give up. That jill is no more pregnant than I am. She's a big faker. She showed all the signs, she even put on a load of weight. But the time has passed and now she's getting slimmer again. Maybe she was after the extra rations, maybe she fancied a bit of peace and quiet on her own, or maybe she just enjoys the limelight. But pregnant she isn't! I'll leave the webcam on for a while, just in case. Then I'll think about what to point it at next. The vegetable patch perhaps - at least the potatoes are actually producing something!

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Gundogs in slow motion

2011-06-19T22:42:00.000+01:00

I've been playing about with the Casio EX FH20 today, filming the dogs at 210fps - this is the result. More practice needed, but the results are promising, and it's fascinating to see how they move.

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Ferret birthcam - a web first!

2011-06-18T20:30:00.004+01:00

Eat your heart out, Springwatch. In a groundbreaking web first we bring you... FERRET BIRTH CAM! A totally Kate Humble free zone, guaranteed.

Here, live on the web, watch this jill give birth. Maybe. In a couple of weeks' time. We hope.

She was mated (we think) on Saturday 21 May by Emma's albino rescue hob. So by normal calculations that should make the kits due on 2 July. Countdown clock here:

Click on the image above to watch the live stream (hopefully, if I've set it up right. If it's not working, drop me a line and I'll try to sort it out).

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Clay Shooting Classic 2011

2011-06-10T22:33:00.002+01:00

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A turning point for conservation?

2011-05-31T21:29:00.000+01:00

I take my hat off to Chris Packham. His taste in music may be suspect; his taste in dog breeds even worse. But... he has achieved the impossible. He has dared to challenge the high priests of conservation and produce a programme - broadcast on the BBC no less - that gets right to the heart of the problem.

Watch it here. Do it now, before it drops off iPlayer. Really - whatever you were planning to do tonight, drop it, and watch this instead. This is history being made. A turning point for conservation. We will look back at this programme and say "That's when the tide turned".

Of course, as a shooter, I'm delighted that he used the example of the grey partridge to illustrate a successful conservation project - particularly that he highlighted the excellent work of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, and Dick Potts. Good grief, he even managed to mention game shooting in a positive light.

But this programme goes much deeper than that. It's an honest look at the reasons behind the catastrophic decline in birds, mammals, insects and wild plants in the UK during my lifetime.

There's no finger pointing and name calling. Just honest interviews with farmers who say, simply, I can't afford to farm wildlife, I have to make a living.

And, crucially, Packham exposes the nonsense of flagship single-species conservation projects run by organisations like the RSPB. Projects that may be great for drumming up political support, funds and membership, but don't tackle the root of the problem.

As an aside, it's ironic to see the RSPB taking corn buntings from the nest, hand-rearing them and then releasing them elsewhere, bragging about the fabulous conservation benefits to this threatened species. When the very idea of doing the exact same thing with hen harriers makes their blood boil with fake rage at the shooting estates that would love to work with them on such a project.

Anyway, back to the point. I have enjoyed watching the pragmatic Packham bite his tongue when soppy Kate Humble makes some infantile comment about cute n fluffy wildlife. Last night's Springwatch was a case in point - a pair of buzzards (don't they just eat worms?) had rounded up a bevy of rabbits, voles, moorhen chicks and, yes, an ickle fluffy duckling, for their young. Humble seemed close to tears; Packham just shrugged as if to say 'What do you expect?'

Now Packham has established himself as one of TV's leading conservation experts, he has the clout to say what he believes. And God bless 'im, that's exactly what he's gone and done.

I do hope I'm right, and this marks the start of a new era in conservation thinking, where we focus on the real issues, and doing something about them, rather than leaving it to organisations like the RSPB to exploit the subject for their own political and financial gain.

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Use and abuse of badgers

2011-05-24T22:35:00.000+01:00

Like statistics, cute-looking animals are a gift to anyone with a political axe to grind.

You can use them to prove any point you like - they won't answer back, or worse still go running to the papers complaining about being used to score political points (always a risk if a politician invokes nurses, or single mothers, or etc, to support an argument).

I've often thought it would be fascinating to study the way the foxhunting debate polarised into a Left vs Right argument, with the welfare of the fox trampled underfoot in the rush to trade insults about privileged toffs and unwashed lentil-munchers.

Sadly I don't have the time, or the government funding, to do that sort of research myself. But... today I discovered that there's a scientist doing exactly that, only with the badger/bTB 'debate'.

I have my elder daughter Emma to thank for the tip-off. As part of her veterinary studies, she attended a lecture by Dr Angela Cassidy, from the University of East Anglia, on the media coverage of the Badger 'controversy' in the UK press.

You can download a pdf of one of Dr Cassidy's earlier talks here (This link may show the document in preview form, if I've got it right). It makes fascinating reading.

She appears to find that the badger issue polarises people into rural vs. urban, left-wing vs. right-wing. Discussion tends to focus on culling rather than disease and its control. There is strong evidence of lobbying creating coverage in the media at key moments, such as in the lead-up to the General Election. And new scientific evidence tends to cause arguments about the science itself - the protagonists entrench their positions and argue about the validity of the science, rather than taking the opportunity to reconsider the best course of action.

There's also an interesting section on the use of imagery by different groups - cute n cuddly badgers by one side, vicious snarly badgers by the other. And she looks at the presentation of the badger as 'good' and 'bad' by groups with different perspectives over the years, going back through Tommy Brock and his ilk to the days long before badgers were associated with disease.

It's hard not to find yourself drawn in, even reading Dr Cassidy's work, and ask yourself "Is she pro or anti?" That's kind of beside the point. Her work is a valuable insight into the way something that should be a straightforward, practical debate gets hijacked, and becomes the focus for a much deeper disagreement between groups with opposing agendas; and the media tricks both sides resort to in their attempt to win the day... while the cattle, the farmers, and the badgers, continue to suffer.

This isn't the first time animals have been used this way, and it certainly won't be the last. We would do well to understand the phenomenon.

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Just popping out for a spot of woodland management. I may be some time...

2011-05-21T20:07:00.000+01:00

How does this sound? Your own sporting estate in miniature - 13½ acres of mixed woodland tucked away in lovely countryside near the Suffolk coast.

Through the gates and up the private drive is a timber-framed, barn style house, hand built in oak and sweet chestnut, with solid oak floors, inglenook fireplace with log-burner, and a Rayburn cooker.

It's 'off grid' - electricity comes from a generator, and water via a hand-operated pump from a borehole, although there's planning permission for a wind pump.

There are no public rights of way, and it comes with full sporting rights. If you tire of walking round your own patch, there are 200 acres of Woodland Trust woodland opposite.

Nearby is a pub and farm with a cafe, and there's a bus stop serving local villages - Framlingham is 3 miles away, and Snape 6 miles.

The sale particulars say that the property must be used for woodland maintenance (I imagine that's part of the planning permission), and it comes with all the tools required for the job, including a tractor, grass cutter and mini digger.

All this is on offer for a mere £315,000 - it's enough to make you think about jacking it all in and going off to live in the woods!

PS If you're seriously interested, drop me a line and I'll pass on the vendors' contact details.

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Nice lens, shame about the focus

2011-05-01T13:52:00.003+01:00

I went out again today with that Canon 300mm 2.8 L. It's been gradually dawning on me that something isn't right - and I think I've worked out what.

Quite simply, it doesn't focus where you think it does. This photo of a rabbit was what settled it for me. I know I focused on the rabbit's eye; the little red light blinked on it, it looked totally sharp in the viewfinder - but when I looked at the image on the camera's preview screen, the rabbit wasn't sharp, as you can see clearly in the cropped-in version below. Darn!

OK, I thought, camera shake - I was using a monopod, but it was only 1/125th of a second. But hang on, look at the leaves a foot in front of the rabbit: sharp as you like.

So I did an experiment - all very scientific, using the fence around our newly-dug vegetable patch. Sure enough, at a range of 10 yards, the actual focus is about 6ins in front of where you think it is - the point where you've actually focused, and where it looks sharp in the viewfinder.

It's not really practical to 'aim off', so I'm going to have to investigate this further. The effect is identical with the lens on my 20D, and my 70-200 lens behaves impeccably on both camera bodies, so the lens itself is chief suspect at the moment. Comments and suggestions from more experienced photographers will be most welcome!

UPDATE 1: Hmm, bit of googling and I'm already discovering there's more to this than meets the eye - and maybe there was a reason why the 550D was about a quarter the price of the 5D Mk II I really wanted.

UPDATE 2: Thanks to the readers who've offered helpful suggestions in the comments. I tried a more scientific test, downloading a test sheet here, and photographing it following the instructions. The results suggest the camera is fine - I got accurate results with a Sigma 70-200mm 2.8, and a Canon 50mm 1.8 - but the 200mm lens is showing a significant degree of what I now know is called "front focus". The focus point for all three photos below was at "0" - these are cropped in to show the result.

Canon 50mm 1.8

Sigma 70-200 2.8

Canon 300mm 2.8

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What a manky fox!

2011-04-30T22:49:00.001+01:00

Typical! I manage to get within snapping distance of a fox, it stands there posing for me - and look at it, the manky thing!

Still, I managed a few shots of crows, magpies etc as well, so not an entirely wasted afternoon.

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Phwoar, look at the size of that!

2011-04-29T21:56:00.000+01:00

I've borrowed this lovely 300mm f/2.8 Canon L lens for the weekend - what a beauty! It's had a bit of a battering over its life, but the glass is still as lovely as ever, and focusing is smooth and fast.

I stuck it on my 550D and went in search of wildlife. Saw a roe doe creeping through the trees, but she didn't want to play.

Then a few young rabbits... and a couple of older ones, including this one that appears to have had myxy, and an ear full of fleas.

And then I thought, what the heck, I'll see if I can call up a fox. Within seconds of squeaking there was a brown flash in the undergrowth, just 20 yards away. He sat checking me out from behind a tree for a few seconds, didn't like what he saw, and scarpered.

And all I got was this shot of where he was a second earlier - you can just see him (circled) sneaking off through the trees. Better luck next time perhaps!

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Cameras banned from Olympics... no they're not... er...

2011-04-29T12:04:00.000+01:00

Did you apply for tickets to see the shooting at the London 2012 Olympics? If you get lucky, it seems you will be able to take a camera - just a small one, mind. Without a flash. And don't think you'll cover the price of your ticket by flogging pictures to the shooting magazines.

The media office of LOCOG, the organising committee for the games, has been leading Amateur Photographer magazine a merry dance over their 'guidelines', first telling them that even compact cameras with powerful zoom lenses would be banned, then retracting it and blaming one of their PR team for making a mistake: "She got confused. She is not a camera expert."

The latest official statement is that the guidelines are still under discussion, but "Like many other large sporting events and previous Games, one possibility is that there may be restrictions around spectators using large (in size) lenses and tripods, simply because of the impact this can have on the viewing experience for other spectators sitting close by."

There has also been a suggestion that flash photography may be banned at certain events, including shooting.

As for making any money from selling photos from the event, sports photographer Bob Martin, who is head of photography for London 2012, said: "Ticket conditions will say that pictures cannot be used commercially – that's no different to any other sporting event."

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Three ways to lose your shotgun certificate

2011-04-28T18:01:00.000+01:00

The fastest way to lose your Firearm or Shotgun Certificate is to threaten someone with a gun. The police really, really don't like that. Quite right too. There are plenty of things wrong with our firearms legislation in the UK, but on the plus side, it does ensure that legitimate firearms are in the hands of law-abiding, sober, sensible people who aren't prone to robbing banks or turning violent at the drop of a hat.

The second fastest way to lose your guns is to let the police think you've threatened someone with a gun. That (in my humble opinion) is where Kevin Hunter went wrong. A dog walker complained when Kevin told them to clear off private land. Police got the impression he'd used his gun in a threatening manner (listening to Kevin I don't think he did) and hey presto, guns gone.

Now there's a third way. Become a victim of violence or threatened violence, and the police will kindly relieve you of your guns so you won't be tempted to use them in self defence. That's what happened to Tracy St Clair Pearce, when some... er, what's the PC term for pikeys nowadays? Let's call them 'travellers'... when some travellers threatened to cut her throat, exposed themselves to her, threw rocks, etc. Did she grab her shotgun? No, she told them to clear off, and called the cops. Who took 35 minutes to show up, then treated her as the criminal. And a couple of days later they barge into her house at 3.15 in the morning demanding the keys to her gun cabinet or they'll rip it off the wall.

Perhaps there's more to this story than meets the eye, but the way it's being reported, it's not doing the police any favours. Minority Report seems just around the corner.

I don't advocate the licensing of firearms for self defence. Some people do, and they're entitled to their opinion; to me it sounds a bit too Wild West. But there's a covenant between the state and the citizen. We agree to give up our right to defend ourselves with lethal force, on the understanding that the state will protect us. In the case of Miss St Claire Pearce, the police not only failed miserably, they're now trying to justify their actions with a stream of PC twaddle.

The Mud in the Blood blog has some strong words on the subject, and I'm sure some of my American readers will be flabbergasted too.

Whatever your views, it's worth remembering what we have become, if you want to keep your certificates.

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Blooded - the movie

2011-04-10T21:32:00.001+01:00

If you hunt, shoot or fish, you must watch Blooded, a new movie out on DVD, on Filmflex, or online via iTunes or LoveFilm.

Not only that, get all your non-hunting/shooting/fishing friends to watch it too.

Blooded is not a soppy propaganda film about countrysports. It's a gritty, powerful drama about a group of deer stalkers on the Isle of Mull who are targeted by the nastiest type of animal rights extremists. The film is presented as a 'documentary' about a (fictional) event in 2005. The producers have gone to a lot of trouble to create an alternative reality, so you begin to wonder if the film might actually be based on real events. The main character is clearly based on pro-hunting figurehead Otis Ferry, and the film-makers set up a fake animal rights website for the Real Animal League, which appears to have duped a good few real antis.

Is it pro or anti fieldsports? The producers say neither. It's a film about extremism, they say - the things people do when people feel so strongly about an issue that they stop debating and start fighting.

But there's no doubt who is portrayed more sympathetically in this film. The stalkers are real, three-dimensional people who have thought deeply about their relationship with the deer they kill and eat. The antis, by contrast, are anonymous, impersonal figures hidden behind balaclavas, who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims.

Shooters will enjoy looking for the rare technical errors - a rifle missing its bolt in one shot, a supposedly experienced shot resting the rifle barrel directly on a rock. But these don't detract from the experience.

Even if you didn't care about the subject, it's a gripping story well told. Blooded deserves a place alongside cult classics such as The Wicker Man.

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Countryside Alliance Race Day

2011-04-10T20:51:00.000+01:00

Racing has never really been my thing, but if you're going to try something new you might as well do it in style - and thanks to the lovely folk at the Countryside Alliance I had a great time as their guest at their Countryside Race Day at Ascot today.

We had a splendid view of the course from a box in the grandstand. First event of the day was the Masters' Race for Repeal - a charity race with proceeds going towards the campaigning work of the Countryside Alliance, as well as the vital work of the Hunt Benevolent Fund.

In addition to the racing, there was a parade of hounds, and loads of attractions from terrier racing to a 'petting zoo' for the kids (and some of the older ones too).

The sun shone all day long, and the hospitality flowed. Why can't fundraising always be such good fun?

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The RSPB, harriers and persecution

2011-03-30T22:26:00.000+01:00

Oh how lovely! The RSPB are running Hen Harrier Safaris in Bowland. Go and watch the fabulous 'skydancers', explore the United Utilities Bowland estate with a local expert, who can reveal the fascinating wildlife and heritage that is hidden within this rugged and spectacular landscape.

While you're there, you might like to ask about the appalling story of persecution behind this little jaunt. Not persecution of the harriers (although goodness knows how they will react to being treated as a fundraising spectacle). No, I'm talking about the persecution of loyal raptor workers who for years have devoted a large chunk of their lives to protecting these special birds.For an insight into the nastiness that's gone on behind the scenes, see the Raptor Politics blog here.

The raptor workers' treatment at the hands of Natural England and the RSPB has been shoddy, to say the least. They've been pushed aside like a golden eagle in the way of a windfarm, in fact.

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Wildlife crime - the police perspective

2011-03-05T18:03:00.000Z

I was invited by South Yorkshire Police to take part in Operation Dunlin, a major offensive against wildlife crime across the South Yorkshire area, overnight on Thursday 3rd-Friday 4th March.

It was a fascinating insight into the nature of wildlife crime (at least in that area), the way police tackle it, and the problems they face. I'll write up the night's events separately, but here's a short audio interview with Superintendent David Hartley (pictured above), wildlife lead for South Yorkshire Police, and Silver Commander for the operation.

He talks about the nature of wildlife crime in his area (mostly lamping with dogs on farmland), his relationship with local gamekeepers (valuable eyes and ears, and an important part of the rural community), the incidence of bird of prey persecution (virtually nil, except one case where a farmer, not a gamekeeper, was convicted of placing a poisoned carcase), and the use of the Hunting Act (irrelevant as regards foxhunting, but can be a useful tool against poachers lamping with dogs).

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BASC welcomes "sensible and functional" WANE Bill

2011-03-02T17:28:00.000Z

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), has commended the Scottish Parliament for passing sensible and functional legislation aimed at protecting Scotland’s wildlife.

Under the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill outdated game licences have been abolished, archaic poaching laws have been reformed and the practice of catching up game birds for breeding stock has been legally recognised.

Vicarious liability, which will make the perpetrators of persistent raptor persecution accountable for the actions of their employees, is a measured and targeted approach to addressing wildlife crime.

Snaring remains a legal practice in spite of an attempt to ban it. However further regulations have been brought in to ensure best practice. These include the use of tags and record keeping, as well as training and accreditation.

Several amendments which would have restricted shooting by introducing the power to remove shooting rights have been defeated. A proposal to transfer some police powers to other agencies, such as the Scottish SPCA, was withdrawn.

BASC Scotland’s Nicolle Upton said: “BASC Scotland has been working tirelessly to ensure that this legislation would benefit shooting and gamekeeping. Unreasonable proposals to restrict deer stalking were dealt with at the consultation stage and the Bill as introduced was welcomed by shooters. The Bill has been a useful vehicle which has given MSPs the opportunity to see land management activities such as snaring in practice and to be briefed in depth on how the countryside actually works. As a result we have achieved something both sensible and workable."

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Avery's swansong is another 'irresponsible scaremongering' attack on shooting

2011-03-02T00:01:00.063Z

The outgoing Conservation Director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds stands accused of "irresponsible scaremongering" on the eve of the final stage hearing of the Wildlife and Natural Environment (WANE) Bill in the Scottish Parliament.

In a carefully timed and deviously worded press release, embargoed for 00:01am on Wednesday 2 March 2010, the RSPB calls for a "vicarious liability" clause to be built into the WANE Bill, making landowners responsible for any illegal killing of birds of prey on their land.

In the absence of hard evidence of illegal killing by gamekeepers, the release instead relies on inference and innuendo, suggesting that England's grouse moors could support 323 pairs of hen harriers. In a staggeringly unscientific leap of logic, they surmise that the 'missing' harriers must have been killed by gamekeepers.

Applying the same logic to lowland farms, suburban gardens or RSPB reserves could see farmers, householders and RSPB wardens accused of wholesale slaughter of tree sparrows, song thrushes and... hen harriers.

The RSPB release makes much of the discredited and flawed JNCC report. But it makes no mention of the serious work being undertaken to resolve the harrier grouse conflict - instead they disingenuously imply that the diversionary feeding study at Langholm is the only way forward.

At a time when raptor workers, conservationists, gamekeepers and shooters agree that working together provides the best hope for hen harriers, the monolithic RSPB political lobbying machine is increasingly out of step with progressive conservationists, and insists on pursuing its outdated war on landownership.

Insiders hope that this latest attack is the swansong of outgoing RSPB Conservation Director Mark Avery, due to retire in April. For years Avery has made overtures to shooting, suggesting he is keen to work with the industry, while using the RSPB's media department to condemn gamekeepers and shooting estates for all the hen harrier's problems in the UK. "Avery has singlehandedly undermined progress on harriers for years," said one. "Perhaps once he's gone we can really begin to get somewhere."

The RSPB release also ignores the fact that more than 200 Scottish estates have condemned out of hand, any and all illegal poisoning of birds of prey (list here). Among other significant facts glossed over is that ALL the major shooting and landowning organisations have unequivocally condemned illegal killing - including the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (Scotland), the Scottish Countryside Alliance, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, the Scottish Estates Business Group and the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association.

Here is the text of the RSPB release:

media release

Embargo: no publication or broadcast before:
00:01am on Wednesday 2 March 2010

ILLEGAL PERSECUTION KILLING BRITAIN'S HEN HARRIER POPULATION

The newly released results of the 2010 hen harrier survey have revealed a 20 per cent decline in the bird's UK population in the last six years. The hen harrier, one of our most spectacular birds of prey, is also the species most affected by illegal persecution, a fact reinforced by a recent review - the hen harrier framework - which concluded that illegal killing is the biggest single factor affecting the species, and that it is having a dramatic impact on the population in core parts of the hen harrier's range in northern England and Scotland.

The latest results complement the findings of a 2008 survey which found that only five pairs of hen harriers nested successfully on high-intensity 'driven' grouse moors in Scotland and England, despite the fact that sufficient habitat exists for 500 pairs.

The 2010 hen harrier survey recorded an estimated 646 pairs of hen harrier nesting in the UK and the Isle of Man. This is down from an estimated 806 pairs in 2004.

Dr Mark Avery is the RSPB's Director of Conservation. He said: "The hen harrier is one of our most wonderful birds of prey, but it also the species most threatened by illegal persecution. Every year hen harriers are targeted on grouse moors across the UK and it is clear that this onslaught is having a significant impact on our population. We believe that gamekeepers are killing them illegally - under pressure from their land-owning masters.

"The 2010 hen harrier survey backs up the findings of the government-commissioned hen harrier framework, which reported that persecution was the principal factor limiting this bird of prey's UK population.

"Last year over 210,000 people signed up to our bird of prey campaign demanding an end to the illegal killing of birds of prey. With such a strong voice demanding change, it is deplorable that some within the grouse moor community continue to break the law and deny people the chance to see such a magnificent bird."

With almost 500 pairs, Scotland has the vast majority of the UK hen harrier population. But here the decline has been even greater, falling over 21 per cent from an estimated 633 pairs in 2004. The survey recorded little change in England as the population rose from 11 pairs in 2004 to 12 last year. Estimates suggest there is potential for at least 323 pairs of hen harrier in England, so a dozen pairs represents less than four per cent of the potential, with illegal persecution being blamed for this huge difference. The hen harrier remains on the verge of extinction as a breeding species in England.

In Scotland, the Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill, which is currently being debated, provides a great opportunity to take new steps to try and help save hen harriers. One option being looked at is making landowners legally responsible for the actions of their gamekeepers.

Later this week, the meeting of the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime meeting will be addressed by Richard Benyon, Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisheries.

Dr Mark Avery added: "We trust that the minister will agree with us that these results show that it's time to take decisive action in the struggle to protect threatened birds of prey.

"Although more than 70 per cent of people convicted of bird of prey persecution in the last 20 years have been gamekeepers, in reality its often landowners who effectively force their employees to break the law. We believe that making landowners legally accountable for bird of prey crimes in Scotland and England is a vital step in the road to reducing persecution."

Wales, where there are no grouse moors and very little recorded persecution of harriers, recorded a substantial increase, rising from 43 pairs in 2004 to 57 last year.

Paul Irving, of the North England Raptor Forum, said: "As ever we are utterly appalled at the continuing tiny proportion of the potential harrier population found on moorland managed for grouse shooting. We believe this not only shows an utter contempt for this wonderful bird, but also it shows complete disregard for the law by game managers. That we have so far failed to change this reflects badly on us all.

Dr Sian Whitehead, Countryside Council for Wales's Senior Ornithologist said "I am encouraged by the ongoing recovery in the Welsh hen harrier population, but we must not become complacent. Declines in the breeding population during the 1980s and early 1990s could be attributed, in part, to persecution, and it is encouraging that the situation has now changed. We must continue to ensure that the Welsh hen harrier is adequately protected, and the habitat for them managed appropriately, so that this iconic species of the Welsh uplands can continue to thrive."

The 2010 hen harrier survey was funded by RSPB, Scottish Natural Heritage, Natural England and the Countryside Council for Wales. Additional support was provided by NIEA and many members of bird of prey study groups.

ends

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How not to get shot by the police

2011-02-28T16:15:00.002Z

Never mind a spot of rain, or the labrador stealing your sandwiches, this could really spoil your day's shooting.

There you are minding your own business, enjoying a bit of peace and quiet in the countryside, watching that flock of pigeons crossing the far side of the field and hoping they'll swing towards your decoys... when a dark blue and yellow helicopter comes low across the hedge.

It swings towards you, and you think "Damn, that's going to put the pigeons off for a bit." It hovers over you, and through the godforsaken racket of the rotor blades, you hear the Voice of God: "Put down your weapon..."

That's the point where you start to get the hump. What the hell? Who do they think they are? Why should I throw my valuable gun in the dirt? I'm not bothering anyone, this is perfectly legal, etc.

All of which are perfectly reasonable things to think... but could get you shot, or at the very least escalate what I've learned is a "low profile stop" into the much more shouty, gunpointy "high profile" version.

I spent Friday at Leicestershire Police HQ, with their Tactical Firearms Unit who - despite appearances - are a very decent, polite bunch of men and women who would like to get on better with the local shooting community. Actually a lot of them are very much part of the local shooting community - PC884 Graham Priestnall, for instance, is a keen shooting man who likes nothing better on his day off than to wander through the fields with his shotgun.

Two years ago, he and his colleagues decided they were spending too much time and taxpayers' money bothering people who were shooting legally, and looked at ways of improving the situation. They came up with the not-so-snappily titled VNSE - Voluntary Notification of Shooting Events.

Bascially, they ask shooters to let them know where and when they plan to go shooting. There's a dedicated telephone number and an email address, and the process takes only a few minutes - just the outline details of name, shooting location, mobile phone number, and the reg no of the vehicle you'll be using. The information goes into a diary which can be accessed by the Operations control staff if need be - if, for example, someone phones in with the classic line "There's a man with a gun, and he's acting a bit suspicious".

It sounds perfectly reasonable and sensible doesn't it. Even more so after I - and around 35 shooters from the Leicestershire area - had gone through a mock training exercise where we were put in the place of the Operations room staff.

We listened to a typical 999 call from a genuinely concerned member of the public, then voted on the best action to take. Then in came another 999 call from the same caller. This time the 'suspicious looking character' was lurking at the back of a school. A check on the now complete reg no of his 'tatty white van' showed it belonged to a man with a history of violence, and previous access to illegal firearms.

Our lecture hall full of dyed-in-the-wool shooters voted as one: send in the Armed Response Unit. I think if there had been a button for the Army, Navy and Air Force, they'd have pressed that one.

And yet... it turned out our man had borrowed his mate's van because his Land Rover was in for service. He was a professional pest controller, doing a spot of work. And since he was nearby, his wife asked if he could pick the kids up after school.

The scenario was carefully designed to show us how difficult it is for the police to get it right; how the information is always incomplete and often misleading; and how they can't just ignore what could turn into a serious threat to the public.

To help push the message home, we were treated to a firepower demonstration at the Tactical Firearms Unit's splendid indoor range, where officers fired their standard weapons - the Glock 9mm pistol, H&K G3 5.56mm carbine, baton rounds and Taser.

Then we went outside to watch their "legitimate shooter" subjected to a "low profile stop" - which is where I began this post.

As I drove back down the M1 through interminable miles of traffic cones and 50mph average speed limits, I turned all this over in my head. Do I think a voluntary notification system is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?

Well, I'm still in two minds. On one hand, Leicestershire's scheme has led to an 80% reduction in legitimate shooters being subject to the kind of shock-and-awe interruption that we witnessed. It's hard to argue with figures like that. The scheme is operated by people who are fully in favour of shooting sports, and they're doing it for the right reasons. In many ways, it is just a more efficient version of what goes on up and down the country already, with keepers calling their local police to let them know they'll be lamping or deer culling or whatever. (As an aside, the police helicopter pilot pictured above told me whenever he's out in a rural area at night, he can usually see 5 or 6 people out lamping at any one time - he clearly knows what he's looking at, and with the gyro-stabilised TI camera on that thing, he could read your number plate before you even knew he was there!)

And yet, could this be the thin end of the wedge? That concern was clearly on the minds of some in the room. This year it's voluntary, next year it's 'best practice', the year after... well, if you're not going to follow best practice, should we really be renewing your FAC?

That's certainly not what's behind the Leicestershire scheme. Graham and his colleagues set up the scheme for the right reasons, and they're pleased with the results so far. They're keen to listen to shooters' concerns, and improve the scheme where they can. When I tried to explain my "thin end of the wedge" worries, they looked at me somewhat blankly, like they thought I was being a bit paranoid. I, in turn, wondered if they, living in something of a bubble, were being a little naive.

As for the title of this post, what did I learn about how not to get shot? Simple really. Don't act like you might be about to shoot at them.

To a firearms officer, it's all about 'threats', 'compliance' and 'control'. They've been sent out to deal with someone who probably isn't , but might be, a homicidal nutter. That's a threat - to them, and to the public at large.

The helicopter hovering over you can't engage in a detailed conversation about the legalities of pigeon shooting. Neither can the armed officers standing by their vehicles 300 yards away. You can barely hear each other. If you're holding a gun, or they can't see your hands, you're still a threat.

Put the gun down slowly and carefully. You can break it or open the bolt if you wish - just take care not to look like you're pointing it at anyone. Step away from it, and go where you're told, with your arms out so that you're clearly not hiding another gun under your clothing.

They're not going to shoot you for failing to comply with an instruction. But by being cooperative you help them get their job done with the least risk to all concerned - you included. Once they are satisfied that the situation is safe and under control, then you can give them a lecture about your rights to enjoy your sport peacefully. Just remember, they've heard it all before, and like as not they're shooters just like you!

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Woodspring's Young Shots day

2011-02-21T18:30:00.002Z

What a great day Woodspring Pigeon Shooting and Wildfowling Club laid on for young shots yesterday! The club's Rob Collins explains in the video above what it's all about - but essentially they provided a hands-on introduction to the world of fieldsports for a group of 40 youngsters, most of whom had no direct experience of shooting or the countryside.

And how they loved it! It was great to see girls and boys getting down on their knees to set nets, pick up ferrets, handling dead rabbits, firing airguns, bows and shotguns, inspecting traps, blowing duck and goose calls... One father commented that he's spent a fortune on XBox games to keep his son amused - but this was the first day he hadn't heard "I'm bored Dad!"

And the whole day helped raised funds for a local children's hospice. Well done to Woodspring, and all those who supported them.

And while I was there, I took the chance of a masterclass in duck and goose calling with Stuart Hill of Bridgwater Bay Wildfowlers:

After watching my rather hopeless efforts, Rob offered me a bit more advice about the finer points of "Talking Duck":

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Threats and hate mail for working with shooters

2011-02-19T15:38:00.000Z

It seems there are some people in the birding community who cannot abide the idea of birders and shooters working together - and are prepared to break the law to torpedo progress.

Chrissie Harper, who runs an owl rescue and gratefully accepted donations from shooters to buy some much needed hospital boxes (story here and here), has now received threats and hate mail.

An anonymous letter sent to Chrissie says that "shooters are walking tall because of you", and on the back the threatening message "the world is a dangerous place".

Let's hope the raptor community are as quick to condemn this vile behaviour as they are to condemn alleged cases of raptor persecution.

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Gamekeeper thrilled to see harriers on his moor

2011-02-18T17:12:00.000Z

I was pleased to see this comment from a keeper on the excellent 'Working for Grouse' blog: "To suggest that harrier persecution is part and parcel of upland keepering is misleading, and only the most foolish would consider harming birds of prey to boost grouse numbers."

It's an interesting post, which supports my own view that the scale of the problem is often exaggerated for political and fundraising purposes.

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RSPB grudgingly admits: predator control helps threatened birds

2011-02-17T09:38:00.002Z

Fascinating, this latest RSPB press release (which at the time of writing hasn't made it onto their media website).

Instead of the headline-grabbing whizz-bang style which the RSPB's media department is capable of, it's almost like they're trying to bore you to sleep before you get to the nitty-gritty.

What the release actually says is that predator control works. Upland waders such as lapwing and curlew are affected by predation. And they do better on grouse moors, where predators such as crows and foxes are controlled.

---------------------------

UPDATE 17 Feb: The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust were quick to pick up on the point. They've issued the following press release:

Game scientists welcomes RSPB study showing influence of predators on wader declines.

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) welcomes the recent RSPB study which explores the causes of population change in upland waders.

Professor Nick Sotherton, director of research with the GWCT said, “We welcome this RSPB study as it reinforces the message that predator control on grouse moors benefits declining species of birds, especially where crows are removed. It would be very sad if we lost a significant fraction of our bird life through want of necessary wildlife management. The evidence from our research is that such losses are not inevitable and the North Pennines, which is almost entirely managed for grouse shooting and hosts high concentrations of waders, stands as a testament to the difference game management can make to conservation in the uplands.

“However, contrary to the views of the RSPB study, we also found that golden plover breed best on grouse moors and that survival rates are lower away from grouse moors. Indeed our study at Otterburn found that 75% of golden plovers produced young on keepered plots compared to just 18 per cent where predators were not removed.”

This latest study adds to the weight of evidence that has already emerged from the results of the 9-year Upland Predation Research project carried out by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust at Otterburn in Northumberland. The Trust’s findings, which were published in the scientific publication, The Journal of Applied Ecology identified for the first time that the control of common predators such as crows and foxes significantly improves, by more than three times, the breeding success of curlew, lapwing and golden plover – all species of conservation concern. Professor Sotherton said, “It is gratifying that the RSPB’s latest work confirms the Trust’s findings and further proves that securing the future of these vulnerable birds is within our grasp.”

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JNCC harrier report 'out of date and misleading'

2011-02-16T13:04:00.007Z

Shooting, keepering and landowning organisations in Scotland have issued a strongly worded attack on the JNCC's February 2011 report 'A conservation framework for Hen Harriers in the UK'. The text of the press release follows:

MISLEADING REPORT ON HEN HARRIERS SHOULD BE DISMISSED

Five organisations at the forefront of conservation of the Scottish countryside have branded a new report* on Hen Harriers as out of date and misleading. The British Association for Conservation and Shooting (Scotland), the Scottish Countryside Alliance, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, the Scottish Estates Business Group and the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association have written to the Minister for Environment setting out their concerns about the report, due to be published this week.

The report, coordinated by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), looks into the conservation status of Hen Harriers, but only up to 2004. It concludes that persecution was the main factor limiting the growth of the Harrier population, but serious scientific flaws have been identified which undermine its conclusion and the five organisations recommended that it should not be published until those flaws had been corrected. Regrettably, although SNH has recognised discrepancies in the report they have not been corrected.

SNH has also acknowledged that the report will need to be revised almost as soon as it is published to address these flaws and limitations and to bring in new data.

Contrary to the impression given in this outdated report of a Hen Harrier population still being constrained by persecution, there has only been one confirmed incident of Hen Harrier persecution between 2004 and 2009** indicating that efforts to tackle that problem are now being effective. In parts of the country where Hen Harriers are not doing so well, there is evidence for a range of other reasons, such as predation by foxes and limitations on food supply, that have not been properly considered in the report. In other areas there is no likelihood of human persecution yet Harriers are still not thriving.

A spokesman for the five organisations said: "Publication of this report has been pushed through to allow its consideration under the Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill. It is essential that MSPs deal only with scientifically proven facts.

"Our organisations are all committed to tackling any issues of wildlife crime robustly, and for the Government and SNH to now promote the use of misleading science can only undermine the goodwill that has been generated by joint projects in recent years. However, we do welcome the firm recommendation from SNH that a proper dispute resolution process is set up in Scotland to address this difficult issue. We do regret that organisations we work in partnership with in the sector were unwilling to let SNH reflect our concerns publicly."

* A conservation framework for Hen Harriers in the UK (JNCC February 2011)
**The illegal killing of birds of prey in Scotland in 2009 (RSPB)

---------------

UPDATE 17 Feb: SNH press and PR manager Calum Macfarlane contacted me with a 'balancing' comment from SNH:

Professor Des Thompson, SNH principal adviser on biodiversity, said: "The hen harrier framework report is based on sound, recognised scientific principles and the most up-to-date data available. The report is based on information from the RSPB wildlife crime investigations database, in which incidents are recorded as either 'confirmed' or 'probable' persecution.

"There will be more detailed data available within the next two years, particularly from a hen harrier survey carried out in 2010 which is currently being collated. This will add detail to the picture, but it's clear from the reliable and recognised statistics available now that persecution of hen harriers is a serious problem."

----------------

UPDATE 17 Feb: ...and now the GWCT Scotland tries to put the issue in perspective, with a release that calls for 'conflict resolution', together with an acknowledgement that other factors besides 'persecution' (eagles, food, predation) might just be having an effect on harriers:

Scotland’s harriers in good conservation status
but more work needed to resolve conflicts

GAME & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s (GWCT) review of the newly released Hen Harrier Framework has highlighted that, while Scotland’s harriers were nationally in favourable conservation status in 2004, distribution in some areas is poor.

The Trust also identifies that the scientific approach taken in this species framework needs further revision and the conservation approach for this species should be one of conflict resolution.

GWCT welcomed SNH’s recent offer to review the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Hen Harrier Conservation Framework and although the review secured helpful revisions to the framework, GWCT’s scientists remain concerned about a number of themes.

The Trust feels that the broader moorland conservation requirements have not been balanced with raptor conservation, as is required in European law. We welcome SNH’s proposal of a prompt review of the framework and want to work with all the organisations involved to achieve a better distributed and resilient hen harrier population in the UK alongside grouse moor management, a valuable economic and conservation land use.

Areas of concern:

1. We are pleased to see that on the basis of the criteria selected by SNH and the report’s authors, Scotland’s hen harrier population was nationally in favourable conservation status in 2004. However two of the three criteria used to assess conservation status, at the level of individual Natural Heritage Zones, are flawed. The result is that no matter how high or low the harrier population size surveyed in 2004, application of the criteria would always have found that half the sites failed and half passed each test. This not a robust approach to assessing long term conservation status. It also remains a matter of concern that the framework has been published in the year following a national survey of harriers but without using these data.

2. The study reveals harriers are not evenly distributed across Scottish regions in relation to suitable habitat. Persecution is the focus for possible explanations of this distribution. Although we acknowledge the effects of persecution in some regions, more could have been done to explain the relative contributions of the many other factors affecting harriers, in particular golden eagle-harrier interactions, food supply and predation by foxes on nesting harriers.

3. The accuracy of the population estimates could have been improved by not assuming a standard occupancy rate in suitable habitat and using a finer scale habitat map; an earlier report revealed that the extent of land suitable for harriers in Scotland (at the fine scale) may be 26% (rather than 42-50% in the model). At that scale the potential population size may be 931 harriers, well below the published 1467-1790.

4. The report acknowledges that the complex interactions affecting harriers are already being explored by the UK’s hen harrier grouse management conflict resolution processes. The GWCT feels that this framework should have drawn more on these. Central to sustainable harrier conservation is the balance between maintaining heather moors, healthy food supplies and low fox predation pressure for harriers while allowing red grouse shooting to thrive and deliver these harrier requirements. These issues are recognised in the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project and Environment Council attempts to resolve the real conflict between hen harrier conservation and red grouse management.

END

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Shooters donate to help save birds of prey

2011-02-09T13:15:00.001Z

This will come as a surprise to some people - but shooters rallied when Chrissie Harper put out a plea for help for her bird of prey rescue centre in Oxfordshire. Chrissie, who runs Chrissie's Owls and Stonesfield Owl Rescue, mentioned on Facebook that she was desperate for funds to buy new hospital boxes. The boxes were needed to cope with a massive increase in the number of owls and birds of prey needing treatment and rehabilitation, due partly to recent harsh winter weather, and partly to what Chrissie calls the 'Harry Potter effect'.

Shooters among Chrissie's circle of Facebook friends took up the cause, reposting the appeal and making their own donations - raising a total of £300. The amount was matched by an animal rescue centre near to Chrissie in Oxfordshire, enabling her to buy six boxes.

Here's Chrissie's heartfelt letter of thanks to me and the other shooters involved:

Chrissie's Owls and Stonesfield Owl Rescue was set up nine years ago by myself and my husband Tom, although I have worked with owls and birds of prey for twenty years, we run it together with the help of a few dedicated volunteers who help out when they can.

We have in our care forty four owls and birds of prey at the moment, these being mainly birds we have rescued from bad homes or ones which have been bought as pets, the Harry Potter effect, and then become unwanted. Last year we also took in or collected fifty wild owls and birds of prey that needed care until they could be returned into the wild, sadly a lot of these birds were very badly injured, mainly being struck by vehicles or because of the extreme weather conditions starving to death and although we try to save everything this is impossible and also heartbreaking when we lose one.

Last year was our busiest year ever and stretched us to the limit and we struggled to find room for some of the birds that needed our help, just before Christmas I was called out six times in as many days, we never refuse to help and provide a twenty four hour rescue service, we also have the complete support of our veterinary practice which we are very grateful for.

We have always raised our own money to fund our rescue, this is achieved by going to Country Shows and other outdoor events and I also give talks all over the country to groups and organisations, we also do a lot of school visits which we feel are very important as children are the future of our wildlife.

I have been totally overwhelmed by the help and support I received from people who I had never met but were my friends on Facebook when I mentioned our predicament and desperate need of Hospital Boxes to keep the large amount of rescued birds we had in last year and struggled to find room for, the response was amazing, I am very proud and had never asked for any help before but sadly felt that if we didn't get help we would not be able to do what we love and are committed to in the proper way.

The help I have received has made me many friends, many from an unexpected quarter, the shooting fraternity, I have to be honest and say that some of these people have had a few home truths from me in the past and to get their support and learn that they to have a genuine love for the owls and birds of prey that I dedicate my life to came as a big surprise to me. I have been very biased toward hunting, and I am afraid there is not much change in that direction, and shooting but this has shown me that we should not judge everyone by the few bad apples that spoil the barrel so to speak and we must all try and work together finding a solution to the problems facing our countryside today, it is time to talk not fight.

We run our own conservation scheme, all be it a small one and donate five owl and kestrel nest boxes every year locally to try and put something back for the pleasure we receive from working with these birds and hope to continue for a few more years, especially trying to help our beloved Barn Owl and the Kestrel which are in such decline.

The support I have had has shown me that we can work together and I would like to thank each and every one of you who gave so generously from the bottom of my heart, I have learnt a lot from you all and if I can change my attitude and work with you then others should be prepared to do the same, I will never agree to everything that happens but if this helps build bridges between people who shoot responsibly and people like me who donate our lives to the things we love and believe in then I will be happy.

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Harriers: the case for management

2011-02-08T16:02:00.003Z

I've had a fascinating conversation with Dr Adam Smith, director of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust Scotland.

As you might expect, he sees the harrier/grouse conflict from the shooting landowners' perspective. But he also brings a scientist's objectivity to the problem, and he's not afraid to confront the issues. And, of course, he has a unique insight into the estate owners' position - after all, he has spent years advising them on how to manage their grouse moors to make them more productive, not just in terms of grouse bags, but in a wider sense too.

I've embedded below a recording of the phone interview, but here are the main points I took from our conversation:

GWCT believes in managed wildlife solutions. In Britain, says Smith, we have fundamentally altered all our landscapes already. It's naive to suggest there's any alternative to management - whether it's corvids and songbirds, or harriers and grouse. We cannot step back and let nature look after itself.
The Joint Raptor Study which ran at Langholm in the 90’s demonstrated what can go wrong; a balance needs to be struck.
'Management' doesn't mean killing harriers. There are more subtle ways of managing the harrier population. Smith has done work with Steve Redpath and others on 'non-lethal' methods. These include 'soft interventions' such as i) Diversionary feeding (but the effect is unproven, and it's impractical in many cases), and ii) Removing harrier chicks when they hatch, raising them in captivity, then releasing them where or when they no longer threaten the grouse. The latter would require a licence.
It is perfectly possible to have a thriving grouse moor and a population of harriers - "That's an entirely sustainable position" says Smith.
The big risk for grouse moors is when grouse numbers fall to low levels (which can happen due to disease etc) - that's when harriers (and other predators) can prevent numbers ever building up again. This is called the 'predator trap'.
Grouse moor owners need to be offered a legal way out of the predator trap.
RSPB and others have resisted going along with any suggestions of legalised harrier control/management because it looks like giving in to blackmail - along the lines of "Let us control harriers or we'll carry on doing it illegally."

I am slowly coming round to the view that this perceived "blackmail" is the single biggest stumbling block to cooperation and progress on this issue.

As I've mentioned in private emails to one or two correspondents, I don't believe it's realistic to think that we will be granted licences to kill birds of prey - even though there's a good logical argument that, in certain circumstances, we should be (and yes, I'm aware that we can point to examples where even the RSPB has applied lethal control methods - although not, so far as I'm aware, against raptors which are widely regarded, somewhat illogically, as a special case).

Not only that, I think it harms shooting's position for us to campaign and lobby for a licensing system to kill birds of prey. If we could drop any ambitions for lethal control, I'm sure we'd have support from RSPB and others to develop effective methods of non-lethal control.

That last point was too much for one shooter, who told me in no uncertain terms: "Instead of censoring the shooting community and advocating appeasement why not support it against the conservation Taliban or are you actually one of them?"

As I'm learning, this debate has its fanatics on both sides! Anyhow, here's that interview with Adam Smith:

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Uk gun dealer faces charges in US

2011-02-04T10:04:00.003Z

Download the full charge document here

Gary Hyde of York Guns was arrested in the US on suspicion of illegally importing thousands of Chinese manufactured AK47 parts. The story has been reported in the York Press here.

It seems that Hyde was also implicated in an alleged plot to supply 130,000 Kalashnikovs to Libya - he was named in US State Department classified memos released by WikiLeaks. More info on that one here.

York Guns issued the following statement:

We are aware that allegations have been made against Gary Hyde a director of Jago Ltd. by the United States Authorities.

Although Gary Hyde is Managing Director of York Guns Ltd, no allegations have been directed towards York Guns Ltd. and no enquiries have been made of the company by the US authorities.

The company will continue to function as normal in his absence.

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'Please don't publish this but...'

2011-02-04T09:39:00.007Z

I'm getting a number of supportive emails from shooters about my stance on harriers and raptor persecution generally. Interestingly, they all say "this is not for publication but..."

There are clearly a lot of shooters who, like me, find raptor persecution totally unacceptable - but are nervous of standing up and being counted. I can understand that. There's a sense you might be perceived as letting the side down, by appearing to side with the antis.

I think that's a mistake. I think shooters should proudly stand up and say that they're against raptor persecution, that they won't tolerate it on any shoot they're involved in, and that they'll do everything they can to bring criminals to justice.

Like me, they'll be suprised to discover just how much support they've got.

Here's a (redacted) example of the sort of messages I've been getting:

Hi James,

I've just read your item concerning hen harriers and shooting on your blog and would just like to say that I agree with everything you say. I've been interested in all aspects of shooting since my early teens (I've forgotten how long ago that is), but also have a keen interest in birds of prey...

...it's good to see this issue being addressed in a national shooting publication. I'm with you - raptor persecution is unacceptable and I feel that if it is not addressed by the shooting community, it will be the issue that is used by those opposing shooting to bring us down.

Kind regards,

Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxx

P.S. - I'd prefer you not to publish this e-mail

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Veggie PR fail

2011-02-03T11:40:00.000Z

From: Marchington, James
Sent: 03 February 2011 11:36
To: 'Su Taylor'
Subject: RE: National Vegetarian Week press pack

You do realise we are Sporting SHOOTER magazine?! Our readers shoot things and eat them!

Cheers,

James
-------------------------------
James Marchington
Editor
Sporting Shooter & Clay Shooter magazines
3 The Courtyard
Denmark Street
Wokingham RG40 2AZ
-------------------------------
T: 0118 989 7212
M: 07836 350652
-------------------------------
Join us on Facebook
-------------------------------
RFD: Surrey 662
________________________________________
From: Su Taylor [mailto:Su@vegsoc.org]
Sent: 03 February 2011 11:21
To: Su Taylor
Subject: National Vegetarian Week press pack

Hi

It’s National Vegetarian Week sponsored by Cauldron Foods from 23-29 May 2011. It would be great if you could mention it to your readers.
As a bit of a flavour:
This year we have a brand new Going Veggie pack, 7 new recipes with photography and an event in Manchester on Saturday 21 May.

If you are interested in receiving a press pack and more information please email su@vegsoc.org
Many thanks for your time, Su

Press Officer

Su Taylor
Press Officer
The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom Ltd
Parkdale, Dunham Rd, Altrincham, WA14 4QG
Registered Charity: 259358 Company number: 959115

0161 925 2012
Out of hours press 07973 108165

www.vegsoc.org

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Harriers: the saga continues

2011-02-02T18:12:00.002Z

Things may look quiet on the surface, but underwater I have been paddling furiously. Which is a roundabout way of saying that I have been in contact with a wide variety of people who have an interest in raptors in general, and hen harriers and grouse moors in particular.

Treading carefully too, I might add - the subject arouses strong feelings. If you were to place some of the people I've been talking to in the same room... well, sparks would fly, maybe fists too. What has struck me, though, is that everyone has come across as impassioned and genuine, whatever their take on the subject.

I am not going to comment on how widespread the problem may or may not be - that's where most discussions run in to a brick wall. But talking to people on all sides of this debate, I am now convinced that some keepers firmly believe that they wouldn't be doing their job properly if they allowed harriers to set up home on their patch.

Equally, there are many in shooting (of whom I'm one) who believe that killing birds of prey is totally unacceptable, whatever the circumstances. If it means a grouse moor is financially unviable, tough. For me, shooting was never about money anyway.

When these two types of shooter collide, things get unpleasant. Imagine a situation where a young keeper with a 'modern' outlook finds himself working under an 'old school' head keeper, and gradually becomes aware that killing raptors is considered part of the job.

He wrestles with his conscience, perhaps for months. His career, his family's wellbeing, maybe even his own safety, depend on him keeping schtum, betraying everything he believes in. Perhaps that goes on, and he just learns to live with hating himself. Many of us have been in jobs like that. Or perhaps, brave soul, he decides to turn whistleblower.

First problem, where to turn? His employer? No chance. The RSPB? You must be kidding. The shooting organisations? They say they're against illegal killing, but when the chips are down can they really provide the care and, yes, protection, that our whistleblower is going to need? The police? That's probably where he turns - and that's when his personal hell escalates to a whole new level.

If we're ever going to tackle this problem head-on, this is the guy we need to support 100%. At present, it would take a very brave man indeed to dob in a rogue keeper. The RSPB's 'Bad Apples' campaign was aimed at such people, but it offered them no incentive, no protection. We need to do more. Who does, and how? Well, I don't have the answer, but my instinct is to look towards the keepers' organisations, who at least have some experience of supporting keepers in difficult situations, and of all those groups are most likely to be trusted by our man on the horns of a dilemma.

Whilst talking to various people involved in this debate, it struck me how in many ways it's similar to issues like the impact of tuna fishing on dolphins. Is there scope for a 'Raptor Friendly' scheme for shoots, just as you might see a 'Dolphin Friendly' logo on your tin of supermarket tuna?

The idea certainly has a superficial appeal - it could get shooting estates and the raptor lobby talking positively, which must be a good thing. But who would draw up the criteria? And who would administer the scheme? Would shoots really go along with something run by the RSPB? Or would we need another body to run it, one that's not perceived as so anti-shooting - even though that would weaken the value of the scheme?

Again, I don't know the answers - but I think the questions are worth asking, and I'd be very interested to hear views from all sides. Shout if you must, but I listen better when people talk nicely!

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New airgun law - where did that come from?

2011-01-30T21:31:00.002Z

A new airgun law comes into force on 10 February. You will be liable for a fine of up to £1000 if you don't lock up your airgun away from kids. Details here on the Home Office website. By kids I mean under-18s, and there's new government guidance on what they consider 'reasonable':

* store your airgun out of sight and separately from pellets
* use a robust, lockable cupboard and keep the keys separate and secure
* always store your airgun inside a house rather than in an out building, such as a garden shed
* never store a cocked or loaded airgun
* when using your airgun, keep it under close supervision and never leave it unattended

I can't argue with the stated aim of the new law, to prevent accidents and protect children. But is this any way to make firearms legislation? It's been slipped in the back door with no consultation that I was aware of - although the simultaneous publication of a supportive press release on BASC's website indicates they were involved in the process. It takes advantage of existing enabling legislation, so the minister just signs an order with no need for all that troublesome debate in parliament. I thought that was the New Labour way.

And how many children will it save? Frankly, without airgun licensing, this can only ever be enforced after the event. And anyone moronic enough to leave an airgun within reach of kids will find some other way to help them kill themselves - matches, petrol, kitchen knives, car keys (why not a law about locking up your car keys - how many kids are killed and injured that way each year?).

New government, same old rubbish attitude to guns, if you ask me.

AND ANOTHER THING... It occurs to me that this is a real danger for FAC and SGC holders - some of whom won't even have heard of it by the time their FEO next visits. FEO walks in, looks around, what's that propped up in the corner sir? Only an airgun. Hmm, got any grandchildren sir... Before you know it you've committed a firearms offence - and your shooting career is over.

With the press release coming out on 27 Jan, and the law coming into force on 10 Feb, there isn't even time for a monthly shooting magazine to tell its readers about the new law. As for those who don't read the shooting magazines - well, they may never find out.

Still, on the bright side the gunshops are rubbing their hands at the thought of all those cabinet sales!

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Gratuitous cute puppy picture

2011-01-30T19:12:00.000Z

This is Jess, my parents' new English springer spaniel pup. They drove to Staffordshire last weekend to pick her up - she seems to be settling in well and like all puppies is totally adorable. For puppy picture addicts, there are more like this on my flickr page.

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Rope lead - fail!

2011-01-30T11:25:00.000Z

This is what happens when you leave a young lab tied up with a rope slip lead!

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Harriers & grouse update

2011-01-26T17:33:00.000Z

My post on harriers and grouse moors has already borne fruit, in that Tom Cameron kindly suggested I contact Steve Redpath at the University of Aberdeen's Centre for Environmental Sustainability. Steve has done plenty of work on the harrier/grouse conflict, and tells me he is determined to help find a solution.

"We are only going to move on if there is broad agreement about illegal killing and impact," he says. "There are various possible solutions to the problem, but we are only going to get there through dialogue and especially dialogue between the moderates on both sides, whilst isolating the extreme views." For the record, he states that "there is pretty compelling evidence from a variety of sources that illegal killing is going on and limiting harrier numbers on managed grouse moors".

Steve also warned me against writing off the raptor lobby as extremists, pointing out that they are as diverse as the shooting lobby, with a wide spread of views. And he pointed me in the direction of some of his published work on this subject - for instance the positive and forward-looking Hen harriers and red grouse: moving towards consensus? published in the Journal of Applied Ecology in 2009. He also pointed me to the Environment Council's Hen Harrier Dialogue.

Steve has given me plenty to think about, and plenty of homework to do - but I find it immensely encouraging that this sort of work is already going on towards a solution.

Over the next few days I hope to talk to several people at the sharp end, as it were, and discover what the conflict looks like from their perspective. Watch this space...

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Hen harriers - fear, loathing, and few facts

2011-01-25T22:24:00.002Z

Hen harriers are in the news again. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that the WANE (Wildlife And Natural Environment) Bill is currently going through the Scottish Parliament, and various groups have identified it as their best chance of attacking sporting estates in general, and shooting in particular.

They're jumping at the opportunity to have the law rewritten in their favour - perhaps winning the 'vicarious liability' that they claim would solve everything (it wouldn't, but that's another story)

The more strident anti shooting/pro raptor voices are growing shriller, and we are seeing the carefully managed 'release' of 'suppressed' information which, it's claimed, provides scientific proof, no less, of widespread 'persecution' by gamekeepers threatening the very existence of an iconic bird of prey.

'Silence over hen harrier carnage' shrieks the Raptor Persecution Scotland blog, for instance. They point to 'damning evidence' presented in the leaked Hen Harrier Conservation Framework [word doc] which they claim demonstrates 'the indisputable link between hen harrier persecution and heather moorland that’s managed for red grouse shooting'.

Actually, it isn't, and it doesn't. The report brings no new evidence to light. Much of it is a round-up of previously published work - and if you look back at that previously published work, it's clear that evidence is actually very thin on the ground.

What the report mostly does, is sucks a finger, sticks it in the air, and says: 'Hmm, I bet there should be 2500 pairs of harriers round here, and actually we can only see 749. I blame the bastard gamekeepers.' That's not science, no matter how you dress it up - and dress it up the authors have, in a report that runs to 69 pages which have cost the taxpayer... well, perhaps someone would like to tell me?

In fact, the more I look at the published reports, papers, reviews and what-have-you, it becomes clear that they tend to emanate from a small group of indivduals with a vested interest in talking up the problem, some of whom have seemingly made a career out of taking public money to write yet more reports regurgitating their own and their mates' work.

Be that as it may, it doesn't prove anything one way or the other. No doubt people make a living out of mangling science in areas like education, policing and fire safety; it doesn't mean a problem doesn't exist.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to have a calm, rational converation about harriers. I am fascinated by harriers. I love to see them on the Isle of Skye, where I've been walking up grouse since - well, since I could walk actually, although I wasn't allowed to carry a gun until I was 12. Plenty of things have decimated the grouse there over the years; harriers aren't one of them, though I'm sure they take the odd chick.

When I'm out with my gun and I spot a harrier, I stand and stare, open mouthed, in awe. The idea of harming it couldn't be further from my mind. Perhaps if I ran a commercial driven grouse shoot my feelings would be different.

So, are grouse shooting estates slaughtering harriers wholesale? No matter how loud the bird-botherers shout, fact is the evidence is flimsy to say the least. My gut feeling is that some (highly commercial) shoots believe they can't afford to tolerate harriers, and either encourage them to move on, or kill them. But I have no proof one way or the other - something that the anti-shooting lobby find hard to believe.

I had a long chat with the RSPB's Mark Avery at last year's CLA Game Fair. It soon became clear that he believed there was a conspiracy of silence over 'persecution'. I got the impression (no doubt he'll correct me if I'm wrong) that he imagined that I, as the editor of a shooting magazine, must know all about some organised campaign of persecution, but was simply refusing to admit it. I'm not at all sure I convinced him otherwise.

Well, I don't know. I don't know a lot of things. For instance, I don't know if keepers kill one, none, or a thousand harriers a year. I don't know whether habitat is a factor explaining the anomalies in harrier distribution on grouse moors vs moorland that isn't managed for grouse. To my simple mind, it seems obvious that heather burned in strips will provide cover for small prey species, which could make it harder for a harrier to make a living. But try asking that of the self-appointed 'experts' - you won't finish the sentence before they drown you out with shouts of 'persecution'.

If big grouse shoots are killing harriers, I want to know about it. And I want to see it stopped. Not because of some Marxist-inspired agenda to take over the countryside in the name of 'the people'. But because it's going to destroy the way of life that I know and love.

Perhaps my contacts and connections within the world of shooting will help me to find out what others have failed to discover. We shall see. I intend to go looking, and I'll report what I find - for good or bad.

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Archie is found!

2011-01-18T09:29:00.003Z

REUNITED: Selena with Archie. Simon posted on Facebook: "WEVE GOT HIM!!!!! He has lost his front cover looks a little, is missing a tooth, covered in scars, overweight and has gotten very hairy but generally in good health. If only he could talk.... He didn't recognise Selena until she stopped crying and said his name normally and then he went BALLISTIC! What an unbelievably happy ending. Thank you to all our friends, dog owners & dog lovers who felt our pain and supported us through this ordeal - which I can now say (never thought I would!) is over :)"

Archie the black cocker spaniel has been found - after being stolen from a dog trainer's vehicle 1 year, 1 month and 8 days ago. Archie belongs to shooting journalist Selena Masson, former news editor and still a regular contributor to the weekly Shooting Times.

Archie was stolen from a locked pick-up belonging to Kent trainer and picker-up Chris Burns, on 11 December 2009. Thieves threw a brick through the window and used a crowbar to prise open the dog box inside.

Selena and her fiancé Simon Barr (who writes our Wild Boar Diary in Sporting Shooter) were devastated, and launched an online campaign to find Archie, offering a cash reward, but nothing was heard.

The out of the blue yesterday Selena was at a shoot lunch when she received a call from the RSPCA in Goudhurst. In measured tones, a woman asked her to describe her dog, she tells me. After confirming his colour and other details, Selena hear the words she'd longed to hear for more than a year: "I can confirm that we have Archie."

There wasn't time to get to the RSPCA centre before it closed, so Selena plans to be on the doorstep this morning when they open. Also attending are camera crews from BBC, ITV and FieldsportsChannel.

A lovely heartwarming story - and on so-called 'Blue Monday' too!

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Shooting clays - with golf balls!

2011-01-12T11:36:00.000Z

Reader Bill Miller sent me the link to this video. Enjoy!

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Shooting mags "worse than porn"

2011-01-06T12:57:00.000Z

Has your local newsagent decided that shooting magazines should be X-rated? Gary Redman's local branch of WHSmith appears to have done just that. He shops at the Harpur Centre in Bedford, and reports that he hunted high and low for his favourite shooting mags. He writes:

"After 10 minutes or so I gave up and decided to ask a shop assistant. I was somewhat confused, as I have bought your magazines there previously.

I was then shown to the rear of the store, some distance from all the other magazines shelves, to find that all shooting magazines are now kept behind a customer services counter where they cannot be directly accessed by browsers. You have to go behind the counter, i.e. into the staff / serving area, to get to them.

The desk is located in a narrow part of the building not regularly used by large numbers of shoppers. Suffice to say, if I were a new reader to shooting magazines, I would have assumed they weren't stocked by the store. Without making the effort to ask I would have gone away empty handed.

So, it would appear that shooting magazines of all types are now considered less acceptable than pornographic publications, which after all have only been moved to the top shelf! I find this completely outrageous. Are WHS suggesting members of the public shouldn't browse your publications in case they are encouraged to run amok with a gun? What next? Perhaps they will soon be asking you to cover them in plain wrapping so that the covers can't cause offence!"

Does your local newsagent display shooting magazines proudly alongside fishing, photography and the rest? Or are they hidden away from the public gaze? I'd be really interested to hear what the situation is like around the country - and if you can get a photo (perhaps with your mobile phone) of any displays, so much the better. They probably can't arrest you for it!

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Hunters welcome!

2011-01-06T10:43:00.000Z

Seen over the A361 near Tiverton...

No, not really - it's a small town in the US, where "hunter" isn't automatically a dirty word (yet). Thanks to David Taylor, the Countryside Alliance's new Shooting Campaigns Manager, who took it when he was in the States over the New Year.

Read his views on the different attitudes to gun legislation here and there, in next month's issue of Sporting Shooter.

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How to catch a mouse - without a trap

2011-01-05T08:29:00.001Z

"There's a mouse in the house, what can I do?" It was my daughter Emma, visiting her boyfriend Steve in North London.

I could lend her a trap next time she came home - I've got several types to choose from. But she wanted it gone pronto.

OK says I, have you got a vase, or a water jug, and a piece of wood? Er, yes...

Well, put some peanut butter in the bottom of the jug, put it near where you've seen the mouse, and lean a piece of wood against it for the mouse to use as a ramp.

"That'll never work, will it?" says Emma. Two days later...

It's nice to be proved right now and again! Incidentally, this is why you should never throw away old bottles and such in the countryside. Mice and voles go in and can't get out.

And if you're wondering, Steve released the mouse "back into the wild", as they say in all the best wildlife programmes.

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Antis chucking in the towel

2011-01-04T15:51:00.000Z

Fancy that! In the last couple of days, I've learned that two of shooting's most vociferous adversaries are moving on.

Douglas Batchelor, chief exec of the League Against Cruel Sports, has announced he is retiring this summer.

And Mark Avery, conservation director of the RSPB, let slip in a recent blog post that he will leave the bird-botherers in April. Just in time to apply for Batchelor's job perhaps? No, I don't think Avery is bonkers enough for them.

So does this mean shooting will get an easy ride, free from polemical rants about how we're all bloodthirsty psychopaths with a penchant for throwing toxic substances around the environment and persecuting anything with a hooky-beak?

I'm guessing not.

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Where are all the pigeons?

2011-01-03T22:25:00.000Z

A group of farmers on a farming forum have been discussing their pigeon problems - or lack of them. It's hardly scientific, but I thought I'd make some blobs on a map of the UK to mark the places they're reporting pigeons. The map above is the result. I don't think it tells us much, but it did vaguely remind me of the classic U-shaped decoy pattern, with the landing zone centred around Northamptonshire!

With all the clever web tools available nowadays, it ought to be possible to create a live pigeon map, updated with reports from the field, to show which way the birds are heading. Maybe Google Maps has an answer? Suggestions and technical help gratefully received...

Talking of techy webby stuff, if you ever need to look up a gunshop, try the excellent dealer locator at Highland Outdoors.

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Foxes scrapping in the street

2011-01-03T17:46:00.001Z

My younger daughter, Vicky, came across these two foxes having a scrap in the middle of the road in suburban Surbiton. She says they took no notice of the car, and at times she could have reached out and touched them.

Foxes in this area seem to be getting bolder all the time - there's one that hangs round the carpark at Waitrose in Esher, which expects you to walk round it, rather than get out of your way!

Various friends have told me they stopped feeding foxes in their gardens after the newspaper reports of fox attacks on children last year - but they felt sorry for them in the recent hard weather and have started putting food out again.

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Bracken's first pheasant

2011-01-03T11:20:00.001Z

We took Bracken, the 15 month old lab, to her first proper driven pheasant shoot today - and she behaved impeccably! She sat patiently but attentively at the peg (on her rather girly pink and white rope lead) and didn't pull or whine.

When we got the chance, we sent her for her first pheasant retrieve - this nice cock, which fell in plain view an easy distance away. And she went straight out and brought it back!

OK it wasn't the most demanding task, but that wasn't the point. We wanted her first introduction to driven game to be a calm and positive affair. There will be plenty of time for more adventurous work later.

As it happens, this was also my first pheasant this season too. I know readers like to think I'm constantly swanning around getting shooting invitations left right and centre. The truth is, it doesn't happen like that, and I rarely have the time to spare anyway. Still, it was great to get out and enjoy a modest driven day, courtesy of my mum who gave up her gun for the day. Thanks mum!

For the record, the total bag was 56 pheasants, a pigeon and a rabbit, between 8 guns. I shot just over my share, at 8 pheasants and the pigeon. The weather was dull and chilly, while the company was quite the opposite. It's a small, friendly shoot near Horsham in Sussex - just the sort of shoot I like best.

A great day's ferreting

2010-12-27T23:43:00.000Z

It wasn't the biggest bag ever - just four rabbits in fact. But it was a great day out, and a momentous one for my elder daughter Emma's new ferret, Boo. That's him above, with the punk hairdo after a bit of a tussle underground. And below, Emma with Boo and one of my jills - Emma is sporting her furry headband thingy she got for Christmas, and looking a bit more stylish than my usual ferreting companions.

It was Boo's first introduction to working, and he took to it very well - bolting three rabbits into the purse nets, and coming back up straight away. On the last hole (why do we always have to do that 'one last hole'?) he killed one underground. As it turned out, someone long ago had dumped a load of old chicken wire, concrete slabs and rolls of barbed wire into that very spot, and covered it over with earth. That made digging somewhat difficult.

Fortunately we had Emma's boyfriend Steve with us. That's him in the photo above. He did a splendid job of pulling up wire and slabs, then digging down to find the spot indicated by the Ferret Finder (being the oldest member of the party, these days I get to operate the Ferret Finder, and delegate the manual labour). And sure enough there was Boo, watching over rabbit number 4.

After that we decided it was time for a cup of tea and turkey sandwiches, took a few photos and called it a day - one we'll all remember for a long time!

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Happy Christmas!

2010-12-25T12:57:00.001Z

Tribute to Michael Cartledge, of the Beretta Gallery London

2010-12-23T23:07:00.002Z

Readers may have heard the sad news that Michael Cartledge, from the Beretta Gallery in London, was killed last week on his way home after the Beretta Christmas party.

George Juer, Michael's close friend and flatmate, has kindly written the following tribute to Michael, and given permission for me to reproduce it here.

Michael “Spike” Cartledge

2nd April 1978 – 17th December 2010

A Tribute by his friend George Juer

The death of my dear friend, Michael “Spike” Cartledge will come as great blow to all who knew him and a tragedy to those of us who loved him. One of the brightest stars of the London Gun Trade, Michael was killed not long after returning from hunting dangerous game in Africa. He was run over in the Mall after attending a joyous Christmas party with his colleagues from the Beretta Gallery in London where he worked.

Michael, 32, was educated at UCL (studying languages). He began his working career in the City, followed by trading futures in Paris. He made the decision that this was not the way forward, and that guns were his real interest. He returned to the UK where he secured a job in the Arms and Armour department of Bonhams. Shortly afterwards, he heard that I was leaving J. Roberts and Son Gunmakers, and he applied for my old post as Paul Roberts' assistant. He spent two happy years there honing his skills and knowledge. There was not a shooting or hunting book or journal that he had not read and committed to memory, and many consulted him for his expertise. It was also at Roberts that Michael met Catrina Kennerley, with whom he formed a very special and lasting relationship.

In 2005, when John Ormiston was asked to oversee the opening of London’s Beretta Gallery, he asked Michael to help him in the running of the Gun Room. And, when John retired, Michael continued working in the Gallery, reporting to Tim King, the manager, and working closely with him to ensure that Beretta’s flagship London store maintained its pole position.

We are told to celebrate the life of the departed, but, writing this, I find it difficult to be in celebratory mood (though Michael would no doubt chastise me for it and suggest we go out for a drink). Grateful is the best word to describe how I feel. I was Michael’s flatmate for the last 18 months of his life and a friend for far longer. I am grateful for his friendship, his loyalty, his knowledge, his inimitable character, and the maturity beyond his years. He had a fundamental kindness. He shall be missed; missed as a friend, missed as a font of ballistic knowledge, and missed as the most English of English gentleman.

Richard, another of Michael’s close friends, has put it more succinctly than anyone else:

“The world is an emptier place now. We will miss you, Spike, but whenever we are out with gun, rod or glass in hand, you will be with us and in our hearts.

Rest easy, Sir.”

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MPs debate firearms control

2010-12-21T10:33:00.001Z

Just hours after the Home Affairs Committee published its report on Firearms Control, the subject was debated by MPs in the House of Commons.

The debate was available live on the web and can still be viewed in the box at the foot of this post if you have the necessary add-on installed (I don't so I can't see it!). Or read the full text here (scroll down towards the foot of the page, or search for 'Column 1234').

Coming so quickly after the report's publication, the debate didn't amount to much - and many MPs were absent, due to commitments back in their constituencies and, no doubt, the difficulties of travelling.

Therese Coffey (Con, Suffolk Coastal) read a prepared speech which made many positive points about shooters and shooting, and emphasised the need to "tackle criminals, not the innocent".

Keith Vaz (Lab, Leicester East), chairman of the committee, ran through the report - admitting that his only previous experience of firearms had been using a water pistol "many years ago". Considering his reputation of being firmly anti-gun, he appeared to have learned a lot in recent weeks, and had clearly been impressed by the responsible attitude of shooters.

He highlighted the muddled state of Britain's gun laws, and suggested they should be revisited, not to make them "tougher", but "even better" - ensuring they are effective but reducing the administrative burden on police and legitimate sportsmen and women.

Chris Williamson (Lab, Derby North) made a muddled speech in which he appeared to confuse legal and illegal firearms use, referring to "gun culture" as though it was the same thing as sporting shooting.

Home Office Minister James Brokenshire (Con, Old Bexley & Sidcup) said the government would "consider" revising the law to make it less complex; in the meantime they would consider the need for revised Home Office guidance to make existing law simpler to administer.

Other issues discussed included pistol shooters training in Britain for the Olympics, and concerns over young people being granted certificates. Again, the debate was calm and rational, and acknowledged that legitimate shooters are safe and responsible.

All in all, I felt we could hardly have expected better from this debate - and it raises the possibility of rewriting our confusing and bureaucratic gun laws to make them simpler and easier to follow, freeing up the police to concentrate on the real problem of illegal guns used by gangs and organised criminals.

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Home Affairs Committee report on firearms control

2010-12-20T09:24:00.005Z

Well the report is out - and it might have been a lot worse. And it seems Parliament will be debating the subject of Firearms Control this afternoon! I wonder how many MPs will even have time to read the report first, never mind consider its implications or discuss them with their constituents.

Under the heading "Gun laws a mess, says Home Affairs Committee" the report "recognises that thousands of people use firearms responsibly for recreation and in their work". and says it "has no intention of restricting such activity".

The committee does say, however, that our complicated firearms laws "place an onerous burden" on the police and on members of the public who wish to abide by the law, because it is “so complex and confused”.

The committee urges the Government to "codify and simplify the law" - recommending a single licensing system to cover all firearms which require a licence "(which would also add greater safeguards)".

And it identifies age restrictions on firearms use as "a particular area of uncertainty".

BASC has welcomed many of the committee's recommendations. Their pre-released statement, embargoed for 0001h today, reads:

BASC welcomes many of Home Affairs Committee recommendations on firearms control

The UK’s largest shooting organisation, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) has welcomed many of the recommendations on the UK’s firearms laws made today by the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Bill Harriman, BASC director of firearms said: “The committee’s report contains several recommendations which we think will help to secure the dual purposes of the UK’s firearms laws: to protect public safety and to allow the continued lawful use of firearms. BASC thanks the more than 900 people and organisations from the shooting world who submitted evidence to the enquiry. The volume of responses indicates the seriousness with which the shooting community views these deliberations.”

“In particular BASC welcomes the rejection of tagging every firearms certificate holder’s medical records, the dismissal of proposals to require guns and ammunition to be kept outside the home and the rejection of a reduction in the license term from five years to two. BASC welcomes the proposal to update police guidance on the licensing system and to smooth out the peaks and troughs in the flow of grant and renewal applications. BASC also welcomes the rejection of licensing for low-powered airguns and the emphasis on enforcement of existing law to deal with any problems.”

“However, this is not the end of the road in terms of the political battle to secure effective law which serves both public safety and firearms users. The report highlights several areas for future debate. BASC does not agree with recommendations to impose minimum age limits on certificate applicants, in the knowledge that the current laws and police powers are robust and allow people to be introduced to the sport with increasing degrees of responsibility until they can shoot unsupervised.”

“BASC firmly rejects the recommendation to apply the current complicated section one firearms licensing system onto shotguns and to increase licence fees to cover costs without firm and reliable evidence of what those costs actually are. BASC will continue to work with the Government and the police on the issues raised by the report."

The Countryside Alliance are less enthusiastic. Their release, which reached me at 09.26 this morning, reads:

Home Affairs Committee misses the target

The Home Affairs Committee’s Inquiry into Firearms Control has proposed a series of recommendations which would penalise the law-abiding shooting community and do little to protect public safety. Proposals will affect hundreds of thousands of people.

Following the terrible murder and maiming carried out in Cumbria by Derrick Bird earlier in the year, the Inquiry was set up to look at the firearms licensing system. The Countryside Alliance submitted written and oral evidence to the Committee’s Inquiry.

Robert Gray, Countryside Alliance campaigns director, said: “The Home Affairs Committee report presents a missed opportunity. The vast majority of gun crime is carried out using illegally-held weapons yet only a tiny minority of the report explains how the government might address the problem. The shootings in Cumbria were the main reason for the Firearms Inquiry but the police report into the incident reveals that none of the Committee’s main proposals would have stopped Derrick Bird.

“Proposed restrictions on shotgun owners and young shooters, and the broad-brush involvement of GPs, domestic partners and increased licence fees would be hugely disproportionate. The Countryside Alliance welcomes the proposal to simplify the existing gun laws but simplification must not mean tighter restrictions. We will strongly resist any recommendations brought forward that penalise law-abiding shooters without improving public safety and preventing criminals from breaking the law.”

Elsewhere, Nigel Allen blogs that the signs are good for airgunners.

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The life of the rabbit, 1945 style

2010-12-14T22:43:00.000Z

The Life of the Rabbit (1945) from British Council Film Archive on Vimeo.

An old black-and-white 'public information' style film - no PC waffle, just good honest facts presented in straightforward style. Can you imagine this film being made today?

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10 ferrets stolen - reward offered

2010-12-04T15:47:00.001Z

Russell Summers, who I blogged about recently, called to tell me he's had a break-in at home, and 10 of his ferrets have been stolen. He's devastated - the stolen ferrets represent 10 years of careful breeding to produce his own line of great workers, so it's a real setback for him.

Russell lives in the Cranbrook area in Kent, and is offering a cash reward for any information that leads to the recovery of his stolen ferrets. If you have any information that might help him, drop me a line at james@marchington.com, or call me on 07836 350652 and I'll pass the information on.

Since posting last time, I've saved the audio file of my interview with Russell - listen to it by clicking the 'play' button below.

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New foxshooting DVD out now

2010-11-30T12:15:00.001Z

It's finished! I've been working with FieldsportsChannel and Robert Bucknell to produce the definitive foxing DVD. It's taken most of this year, and I wouldn't claim it's perfect - but our new DVD makes great viewing and it's packed with tips for successful foxshooting.

As regular readers will know, Robert Bucknell is Britain's leading expert on foxes and foxshooting. His book Foxing with Lamp & Rifle is widely regarded as 'the foxshooter's bible', and he writes a monthly column on the subject in Sporting Shooter magazine.

In the video, Robert and I travel to mid-Wales for advice on rifles and calibres from top rifleshooting instructor Andrew Venables, and I try out different shotgun loads on a steel silhouette fox target. I also get a practical lesson in zeroing from Andrew, and learn some of the elements of accurate rifleshooting.

Robert and other experts describe their favourite kit and methods - rifles and scopes, lamps and calls. And we go out foxing with experts such as Mike Powell and Roy Lupton, by day and by night.

For a bargain £19.95 inc. p&p, it's a real foxshooting masterclass. Everyone with an interest in foxing, from the novice to the most experienced foxshooter, will find this DVD fascinating and informative viewing. And of course, it's the perfect Christmas gift for anyone with an interest in foxshooting.

Order your copy online at the Sporting Shooter bookshop.

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If there's a Russell in your hedgerow...

2010-11-29T23:19:00.001Z

...don't be alarmed now, he'll just be catching the coneys.

On Friday I went ferreting on Romney Marsh with Russell Summers, a colourful character who, it would seem, is a bit of a legend in Kent - both for his ferreting skills and his unique way with words.

Born and "dragged up" (as he tells it) in London, he couldn't wait to get out to the countryside, where he's developed a passion for rabbiting, with ferrets, nets and dogs. He doesn't like to use a gun, he told me, certainly not around his ferrets or dogs. Besides, having seen him work with his long nets, I can't imagine he'd have much need for a gun. Not much gets past him!

He has adopted the new quick-set type of long-net, which is carried in a wire-framed basket with a shoulder strap. It was impressive to see Russell peg down one end of the net, then walk backwards pausing only briefly to plant each pole; a 100-yard net was set in little over a minute.

Then it's in with the ferrets. Russell doesn't muck about with two or three ferrets - he was using 11 on Friday, all bred by himself (he's very proud of his pure-bred strain of wild polecats, but that's another story).

On this crisp, sunny morning the rabbits weren't hanging about to argue with that lot - they bolted well from the first hole, and soon we had a dozen or so in the bag.

Later in the day we moved to a long run of old hedgerow, where the rabbits were less cooperative. Despite the large team (a "business") of ferrets, they were hole-hopping rather than following the plan and bolting into the nets. That's where we really could have done with a decent dog or two.

Still, there was plenty of Mark Gilchrist's game pie, and a Thermos of hot soup, to cheer us up. And even the most tardy ferret was retrieved well before sunset.

Thanks to Mark Gilchrist, his friend Cai, plus Russell and his colleagues, for a very successful and informative day. I'll be writing a feature about it for our next issue.

Meanwhile, here's the song I alluded to in the headline. Enjoy...

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They've all gone badger bonkers

2010-11-21T23:44:00.005Z

It's badger madness in the media. As the deadlines for consultations approach in England and Wales, everyone from Brian May and George Monbiot to the Badger Trust and the RSPCA is offering their opinion - and doing their best to whip up a storm of indignation at the impending 'senseless slaughter' (May) by 'bloody-minded dolts' (Monbiot).

As you try to make sense of all the hysterical outpourings, here are a few simple facts to keep in mind:

There is no such thing as "badger baiting." People do not catch badgers and set up organised fights, in the manner of cockfighting or dogfighting (which do exist). It's a fiction put about by animal rights groups to smear anyone in favour of culling.
'Perturbation' is what happens when you make a half-hearted, incompetent effort to cull badgers. That is what was proved by the RBCT, nothing more or less. It tells us nothing about what might happen if a cull is planned and executed properly.
The ISG report is fundamentally flawed, because it is based on a false assumption: that the source of TB infection in cattle is split precisely into thirds: 1/3 from cattle movement, 1/3 from cattle-to-cattle within the herd, and 1/3 from badgers. This is demonstrably false, and contradicts studies carried out before, during and after the ISG's work.
An infected badger becomes a 'super excreter', spewing millions of bacteria everywhere it goes, particularly in its urine. The disease works very differently in cattle, which do not produce infective material in anything like the same way - in fact it is virtually impossible to detect the disease in the urine, snot, etc of infected cattle (otherwise we wouldn't need to use such unsatisfactory tests to detect it).
Vaccination of badgers is not a viable solution, for many reasons - in particular, it's pointless vaccinating already infected badgers, which in TB hotspots are the majority.

We almost beat bovine TB back in the 80s, with a robust policy of cattle testing and gassing badgers. Even the 'clean ring' policy held things in check. But as the political climate turned, badger protectionism grew - and bTB spiralled out of control.

This is not rocket science. We could wipe out bTB in a few years if government had the cojones to go back to gassing setts of infected badgers, together with a strict and effective policy of cattle testing and movement control. Sadly, thanks to the efforts of May, Monbiot, RSPCA and the rest, that will be politically impossible - we will end up with a half-arsed policy, condemning thousands of cattle, and badgers, to an unpleasant death for years to come. And they claim to be the ones who care about animal welfare!

Interesting video here...

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Falconry is officially 'a living cultural heritage'

2010-11-19T14:47:00.003Z

At a Meeting of the Parties to the 2003 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Nairobi this week, UNESCO has officially designated Falconry on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The submission was made by Abu Dhabi on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the Syrian Arab Republic. It is expected that Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Slovakia will be added shortly.

In its evaluation, the UNESCO Committee declared that Falconry, recognised by its community members as part of their cultural heritage, is a social tradition respecting nature and the environment, passed on from generation to generation, and providing them with a sense of belonging, continuity and identity.

Dr Nick Fox, who helped prepare the submission, said: “This is a milestone in the history of world falconry. I hope that one day soon the British government will also sign the Convention instead of waiting in the wings while our own rich British falconry cultural identity fades away. Despite Britain’s tardiness in cultural affairs, falconry is flourishing here. Up to 25,000 people keep birds of prey and find falconry a way to provide hands on contact with the natural world.”

Well done falconry! Now, who's next? Wildfowlers? Ferreters? Hunting perhaps? Many of our traditional countryside activities deserve this sort of recognition, but we've not been very good at promoting ourselves as a 'living heritage'.

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Gamekeeper at work image wins landscape photography prize

2010-11-19T13:58:00.003Z

A stunning picture of a gamekeeper burning heather on a Yorkshire grouse moor has won one of the top prizes in the Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards 2010.

Jon Brook’s image 'Heather burning on the Lancashire/Yorkshire Border' was taken of the keeper controlling the last burn of the day on the Fourstones Estate. The sunset behind the flames and the smoke lends the picture an otherworldly atmosphere.

The image was chosen by the judges of the Take-a-view Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards as the best image in the Living the View category. The category is one of four main categories in the award and is specifically for landscape photography that features people as part of an interesting landscape composition. Other images in this category included kite surfers in the waves in Norfolk, sheep farmers in snow, Bee Keeping in North Yorkshire and cricket on the beach in Kent.

This image along with the rest of the winning and shortlisted images from the awards is published in a beautiful coffee table book, which celebrates the beauty of the United Kingdom, from shore to mountain, called Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 4 (AA Publishing £25). The image will also be part of an exhibition, running at the National Theatre in London from 22 November to 16 January before it departs on a nationwide tour.

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Purdey Awards recognise shooting's finest conservation successes

2010-11-19T09:17:00.003Z

The Duke of Norfolk's Peppering Shoot, a glittering conservation
success story, and winner of the 2010 Purdey Award. The shoot
has successfully restored wild grey partridges on the South Downs

Conservation success stories on game shoots large and small were recognised last night at the Purdey Awards, held in the historic Long Room at Purdeys' shop in London.

The Gold Award went to the Duke of Norfolk, for an astonishingly successful six year project to restory wild grey partridges on the South Downs near Arundel. Starting with just a handful of birds threatened with extinction, the Duke and his team have successfully built up a robust population of over 2,000. Many songbirds and other species have also benefited from the conservation work carried out on the Peppering Shoot over the past six years, contributing to a major improvement in the biodiversity of the area.

Ten further awards were presented across the evening, including the Purdey Silver Award, and £2000, to brothers Andrew and William Pitts from Northamptonshire for exemplary shoot and game management.

There were two Purdey Bronze Awards presented and £500 each, to Alan Wilson of Warrington, and Chris Spence of Calbourne, Isle of Wight. They were both recognised for their outstanding conservation led shoots with a strong community spirit.

Two Special Awards of £1000 were also announced. The first was to Colin Blanchard and Malcolm Riding, from the Northern School of Game and Wildlife in Cumbria, and to Graham Downing, and the Alde and Ord Wildfowlers Association in Suffolk.

The Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation have their origins in the Laurent Perrier Wild Game and Conservation Awards, which were run annually by Laurent Perrier Champagne (UK) Ltd from 1986 until 1998. James Purdey & Sons took over their sponsorship in 1999, but Laurent Perrier have maintained their support.

THE WINNERS…

The Peppering Shoot, Arundel, West Sussex
The Purdey Shield, the Gold Award and
£5,000 + Jeroboam Laurent-Perrier Champagne
The Duke of Norfolk was awarded the coveted Purdey Gold Award through his ambition, vision, and determination to succeed over six years with his project to restore coveys of all wild grey partridge to his corner of the South Downs

The Duke’s stated aim with the project is to show what can be done in a traditional wild partridge area, and to encourage other landowners and shooting tenants to bolt on their own wild partridge shoots with the objective of creating a nationally important wild partridge area on the South Downs. This will not only bring huge conservation benefits for wildlife, but also demonstrate how shooting and conservation work together to improve the countryside.

Mears Ashby Grange, Northamptonshire
The Purdey Silver Award
£2,000 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

Andrew and William Pitts farm 680 acres in Northamptonshire, in three units, on which they specialise in producing seed quality wheat. One of these, Grange Farm at Mears Ashby, accommodates their shoot, where they carry out all keepering and conservation work themselves.

The project proves that it can be economically viable to farm in an environmentally friendly way, while also having an excellent wild bird shoot.

The Pitts brothers are true enthusiasts equally passionate about their farming, their conservation work and their shoot. They actively promote good PR with farm open days in order to meet and talk with a wide variety of organisations such as the RSPB and CPRE. Pupils from their local primary school are regular visitors to Grange Farm as it is approved by the OFSTED Community Cohesion Link scheme.

Rixton Firs Shoot, Warrington, Cheshire
The Purdey Bronze Award
£500 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

Rixton Firs is a remarkable twenty year project which has turned 54 acres of swampy Cheshire woodland into what was later described as a wildlife wonderland enabling with a delightful small shoot and a strong local community spirit.

The project was started 20 years ago in a wood intended for pigeon shooting. Since then members of the syndicate, led by Alan Wilson, have turned Rixton Firs from a dense sterile wood into a productive small shoot embracing many excellent conservation measures to improve game and wildfowl habitats. This has hugely improved the environment of an area which previously hosted very little wildlife at all.

New Barn Shoot, Calbourne, Isle of Wight
The Purdey Bronze Award
£500 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

Chris Spence was commended for his beautifully positioned, well managed, community spirited, 500 acre shoot at New Barn Farm, Calbourne, on the Isle of Wight. Mr. Spence has been actively and energetically engaged in conservation-led improvements since 1996.

The judges applauded Mr Spence’s ongoing efforts, in creating an excellent shoot with an abundance of wildlife and the much improved biodiversity.

Newton Rigg, Penrith, Cumbria
Purdey Special Award
£1,000 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

Colin Blanchard and Malcolm Riding were recognised for their leadership in achieving consistent high standards for the University of Carlisle’s Northern School of Game and Wildlife at Newton Rigg in Cumbria. The game management courses are run by Malcolm and Colin and the fine reputation of the college, which was built up by its many students who learned the essentials of their craft at Newton Rigg, speaks for itself. The judges were greatly impressed by the thoroughness of the courses and the quality of training provided.

Aldeburgh Town Ponds, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
Purdey Special Award
£1,000 + Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

Graham Downing, Secretary of the Alde and Ore Association (and association members), were commended for their work in the restoration of the Aldeburgh Town Ponds in Suffolk, owned by Aldeburgh Town Council.

The Alde and Ore Wildfowlers Association managed successfully to negotiate a ten year lease of the shooting rights over an area of old ponds and reed beds against competition from both the RSPB and the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. With the assurance of a ten year lease under their belts they were able to restore the ponds from their derelict and overgrown state changing what had become an eyesore into an attractive civic amenity. The ponds now attract a wide variety of migratory duck, providing the members with a few days duck flighting each winter.

Plumpton College, East Sussex
Purdey- Highly Commended
Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

The Plumpton College shoot was recognised for the students’ efforts in achieving a high standard of game and habitat management, and under the supervision of tuition team Neil Bianchi and his son Jamie, for the efficient running of syndicate shoot days.

The college shoot is run over 500 acres of the college’s 2000 acre arable and livestock farm at the foot of the South Downs escarpment. The game management team have also recently restored three ponds to encourage wild duck, and cleared two streams. Plumpton college focuses largely on land based courses, including game and shoot management.

Cauldshiel, East Lothian
Purdey-Highly Commended
Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

Keith Maxwell, owner of The Cauldshiel Farm shoot, was commended for his sound shoot management and conservation efforts, not only providing friends and family with three high quality shoot days a season, but with a great sense of achievement for their improvements to the overall biodiversity of the farm.

Cauldshiel was cited as being a well run non commercial shoot with strong local community involvement. It was highlighted that over the past 25 years, Mr Maxwell has undertaken extensive planting programmes to create new hedges and woodland, and dug new ponds which are successfully attracting duck. All these well proven conservation measures are encouraged by the desire to improve the shoot, and have succeeded in endowing Cauldshiel with much greater biodiversity than was the case a quarter of a century ago.

Ben Rinnes, Aberlour, Morayshire
Purdey-Finalist Certificate
Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

Dick Bartlett, shoot tenant of Ben Rinnes, Glenrinne and Drummuir Estates, in Aberlour, Morayshire, was recognised for his dedication to the conservation of the local area.

Nine years ago, Dick Bartlett set up the British Moorlands project in order to tend to a number of previously unmanaged moors, amongst them - Ben Rinnes, Glenrinnes and Drummuir Estates. Through the creation of ponds, management of wetlands and targeted predator control, Bartlett has managed to run successful shooting days across the estates, and has future plans to extend his British Moorlands project to other areas where grouse production has become impossible over the last four decades.

Criftins Farm Shoot, Ellesmerem Shropshire
Purdey-Finalist Certificate
Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

Mr. and Mrs. Bevan, who run the Criftins Farm Shoot, were rewarded for the high standards they had achieved in running their exemplary farm shoot.

David Bevan, a former FWAG (Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group) award winner was commended for his well established and well run farm shoot. David and Ann Bevan took on the full time running of the shoot in 2008 after they had discontinued dairying. They have exciting plans to develop their shoot further, with increasing emphasis on game and wildlife habitat management and conservation.

Westcroft, Whitehaven, Cumbria
Purdey-Finalist Certificate
Magnum Laurent-Perrier Champagne

Gordon Thomson, owner of the Westcroft Shoot, was rewarded for successfully increasing the number of hand reared and wild game birds across fifty two acres and for his work over several years in developing a high quality small shoot.

In the past eight years Gordon has planted in excess of 3000 trees, created three ponds and successfully bred wild grey partridge into the area.

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Another cunning stunt from the RSPB

2010-11-18T11:03:00.001Z

The RSPB have issued yet another anti-shooting press release - cunningly embargoed to shit on any positive coverage arising from tonight's Purdey Awards ceremony, which will showcase some of the finest examples of real, practical conservation work carried out on game shoots nationwide.

There is no valid reason for the embargo in this release - no event, no new information. It's purely a device to manipulate the timing of media coverage.

This is a coincidence too far (remember their equally well timed press releases for the CLA Game Fair, etc?).

There is no longer any doubt in my mind. The RSPB intend to destroy shooting. It's war.

UPDATE: I had an email from Grahame Madge, RSPB media officer, saying that the timing of the release was coincidental. My reply follows...

From: Madge, Grahame

Sent: 19 November 2010 11:21
To: Marchington, James
Subject: Hen harrier release

Hi James, your suggestion that the RSPB issued the hen harrier press release to spoil tonight’s award ceremony does not fairly represent the situation. This coincidence is purely accidental. The Society does not want to see an end to shooting or to condemn all parts of the industry. In fact, we are always keen to work with those actively involved in conservation. However, we recognise that a few bad apples are tarnishing the shooting industry’s reputation. In the past, I have gone to considerable effort to praise those keepers who, for example, work alongside the recently reintroduced red kite. I hope to find further examples of good practice in future.

However, we will also continue to publicise illegal acts committed by the industry. Regrettably, there is a steady stream of persecution incidents continually coming to light to keep me busy.

Have a nice evening

Regards Grahame

From: Marchington, James
Sent: 19 November 2010 11:56
To: Madge, Grahame
Subject: RE: Hen harrier release

Hi Grahame,

Thanks for your email - I appreciate you taking the trouble to respond.

It's a complex issue, and I appreciate that RSPB does, on occasion, cooperate with shooting estates. The overall impression, however, is one of a sustained campaign of attrition, with shooting attacked on a number of fronts (general licences, lead shot, the emotively labelled "persecution", etc). The 'bad apples' message is lost on the general public, who would quite understandably infer from yesterday's release that shooting generally is responsible for wholesale slaughter of harriers and other birds of prey, and that shooting per se is a major threat to conservation.

If the RSPB is genuine about not wanting to see an end to shooting, and wanting to work with shooting estates, then it has a huge credibility gap to overcome. Its current communication and lobbying policies are driving a massive wedge between itself and shooters who are actively engaged in conservation work. Take for example your own words "we will also continue to publicise illegal acts committed by the industry"; these acts are not committed by "the industry", they are committed by criminals who are roundly condemned by "the industry" (it isn't one), a point that seems lost on the RSPB.

I hope one day we might see you issuing a press release about how Mark Avery presented the Purdey Awards and praised the splendid conservation work done by xyz shooting estate, but I fear that day is a long way off and we are currently heading in the opposite direction.

Best wishes,

James

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Keeper fined for using poison

2010-11-18T10:37:00.000Z

Lewis Whitham, 20, a gamekeeper on the Hopetoun Estate in South Lanarkshire, has been fined £800 (reduced from £1,000) after pleading guilty at Lanark Sheriff Court to planting a poisoned rabbit carcass.

Good. Poison is not only abhorrent to me personally, the use of it by any gamekeeper, anywhere, is enormously damaging to shooting.

Let's hope that a proper convinction and fine will encourage a few dinosaurs in the keepering world to reconsider their use of methods that belong in a museum with the man-traps and spring-guns.

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At last, people who know what they're talking about

2010-11-17T22:59:00.003Z

I spent a fascinating day at a symposium entitled 'Wildlife management and zoonotic infections', organised by the Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management, at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

How refreshing to listen to people who a) Know what they're talking about, and b) Approach the subject objectively rather than spouting the first emotive nonsense that enters their heads.

Speakers included Dr Harriet Auty from Glasgow Veterinary School, Vic Simpson FRCVS, Dr Andy Paterson from DEFRA's wildlife health team, Dr Anna Meredith, head of the exotic animal & wildlife service at Royal Dick, Edinburgh, John Chitty MRCVS, Dr John Gallagher, Christianne Glossop the Chief Veterinary Officer for Wales, Lord Mancroft, and Stephen Lomax, barrister and MRCVS. An impressive line-up indeed - and in addition we heard from Jonathan Reynolds and Mike Swan of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust.

There was so much to absorb that I'm still taking it all in. There are several speakers who raised issues that I want to follow up and cover in depth, but there just wasn't time in this packed day to grab anyone for even a quick interview.

As a taster, though, here are a few of the scribbled notes I made during the day:

Echinococcosis - carried by foxes, infects humans, incubation period 5-15yrs, mortality >90%, now in Belgium and heading our way at 3km/year.
Toxicara - low risk to public, but doesn't half sell a lot of worming products!
Hedgehogs - numbers down 44% in the last 25 years and no-one has a clue why.
"There is no welfare issue in death"
Defra is currently working on a Risk Assessment for wild deer - what's that all about?
Wildlife 'hospitals' - no regulation, poor records, serious welfare questions. "Less about animal welfare and more about making people feel good". Great fundraising tool.
Most common admission to wildlife hospitals is the feral pigeon. 2nd is hedgehog.
Most injured wildlife should be culled on the spot. Rehabilitation rates appallingly low.
When does a wildlife 'hospital' become a 'sanctuary'; legally, is it a zoo?
ISG report on Bovine TB is 'the dodgy dossier'. Based on fundamentally flawed assumption. Figures actually prove majority of cattle infections come from badgers.
In Wales, it is possible to get your TB reactor cattle illegally 'laundered', at a price.
Brian May shook Christianne Glossop's hand and said he was a scientist!!! Offered to tell her how to solve the TB problem.
Important to respond to TWO badger consultations - DEFRA and Wales.
RSPB can't fund a full time warden for xyz reserve but staff on hand 24/7 when the peregrines hatch on the cathedral; how much funding does each generate?
Natural England head of biodiversity says major benefit of reintroductions is 'engaging the public'. Driving past dormouse wood makes him feel great. Oh FFS!
What's all this about 'semi-official' reintroductons of beavers in England??? Technically captive but there have been 'escapes' - illegal if deliberate. What about diseases carried by those beavers (the diseases aren't captive).
There is no such thing as 'Badger Baiting'. It's a fiction perpetuated by LACS, RSPCA to support their badger campaigning.
RSPCA: "Prosecution is Education".
Britain's rarest mammal: the black rat. Why no reintroduction programme?
Scandinavian research tested badgers' reaction to terriers in sett (heart rate, cortisol levels, etc). Result: not bothered in the slightest - less reaction than when play-fighting.

See - I said it was fascinating didn't I! Expect to see some of those develeloped into stories on here or in the magazine in due course.

On thing that did cross my mind: with people of this standard readily available, why does the BBC call on bunny-huggers like Brian May when they want to inform their viewers about wildlife issues? There really is no excuse. It's either incredibly incompetent journalism, dumbing down to the level of lowest common denominator, or a deliberate attempt to mislead. Whichever it is, it's time the BBC Trust intervened. Licence fee payers deserve better.

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Sheep eat hen harriers

2010-11-17T22:19:00.002Z

An amazing admission by RSPB Scotland is reported on the Raptor Politics blog. On Orkney, between 1973 and the 1990s, the number of breeding female hen harriers crashed from 100 to just 3. That's right, a 97% drop. And not a gamekeeper in sight.

The crash is attributed to grazing by sheep - numbers doubled during the 1980s in response to CAP subsidies. Now the CAP subsidies have been reformed, sheep numbers have fallen again, and harriers are recovering.

Of course the RSPB still manage to get in the obligatory broadside: "Illegal disturbance and killing continues to be the main barrier to this beautiful bird returning to many parts of the country where it should be commonplace."

Nothing to do with excessive numbers of deer, sheep, etc then. Or militant do-gooders stravaiging all over the place during the breeding season. It's all the fault of those ghastly posh people and their wicked gamekeepers (cue green smoke, audience hisses).

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Is there a handbook of how to campaign to ban something you don't like?

2010-11-17T21:13:00.001Z

Consider this quote:

Dr David Fabry, who led the research, said: "We really do not know exactly how much xxxxx you need to be exposed to in order to be at increased risk. But we do know that the threshold for damage is very low. Really, the safe level of exposure is no exposure."

Was he talking about lead shot in game? He could have been - we've heard almost those exact same words spouted against lead shot by the WWT, RSPB and other anti-shooting groups, even though by the best scientific estimates you'd have to eat game for breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week for there to be any detectable effect.

No, in this case, Dr Fabry was attacking smoking, on grounds that the splendid Moose takes issue with. I wonder if these people have a handbook full of useful pseudo-scientific phrases that sound scary but actually mean nothing at all.

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HRH The Duke of Edinburgh opens BASC's new media centre building

2010-11-12T18:39:00.004Z

I was at BASC HQ in Wrexham today to see HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, the organisation's patron, open their fabulous new communications centre. More info in the BASC press release here...

His Royal Highness unveiled a commemorative plaque, toured the communications centre and was served a lunch of venison stew prepared by restaurateur, broadcaster and BASC council member Mike Robinson. Staff, guests, council members and their families enjoyed the same meal.

BASC's political, press, publications, fundraising, policy, membership and marketing, design and web teams are based in the new centre, which features a state of the art editing suite and television facilities, radio booth and design studio.

John Swift, BASC's chief executive, said: "BASC is delighted that The Duke of Edinburgh has agreed that his name can be used for the new communications centre. The centre provides BASC with the latest communications technology for the promotion and defence of sporting shooting in the 21st Century."

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Michaela Strachan 'wasn't hard-core enough' for Countryfile

2010-11-10T13:40:00.006Z

There's a fascinating employment tribunal case going on, which gives a little insight into the way the BBC approaches its coverage of what it calls "rural affairs".

Shooters often complain that the BBC has an anti-shooting bias - and their coverage of the recent Exmoor Emperor story might add weight to that argument. But how does the organisation go about its rural coverage, and is there any hope of getting more favourable (or at least less unfavourable) mentions of shooting on the telly, radio, BBC websites and the rest?

The case centres around Michaela Strachan and Miriam O'Reilly, who were 'let go' when Countryfile moved to its prime-time evening slot in April 2009. They claim it was due to ageism and sexism. The BBC argues not. Their head of rural affairs, Andrew Thorman, gives a host of other reasons - including, for instance, that Strachan was "a vegetarian, and wasn't happy to do hard-core stories in meat production."

All good knockabout stuff, and more entertaining than much of the BBC's output. But I'm looking beyond the soundbites, to try and learn what on earth the BBC is trying to do with its 'rural' coverage, and how it makes the decisions that can seem, to us at least, stark raving bonkers.

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Portrait of a huntress wins major photographic prize

2010-11-10T10:02:00.002Z

This stunning image of a 14 year old girl on horseback with a buck she hunted, by David Chancellor, has won the Taylor Wessing prize. Chancellor won £12,000 for the picture, described by Sandy Nairne, director of the National Portrait Gallery and chairman of the judges, "a powerful and beautiful portrait, a worthy winner amidst a strong international submission". More at the Guardian website here...

Lead ban isn't working

2010-11-09T11:07:00.013Z

Shooters are ignoring the lead ban and shooting ducks with lead shot, according to a study funded by Defra and carried out by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust.

Researchers found that 70% of ducks purchased from English game dealers, butchers and supermarkets had been shot illegally with lead. The study concluded that amongst those supplying game dealers and retail outlets, compliance with the law on lead shot is poor.

The WWT press release says that although their survey showed relatively good understanding of the spirit* of the law, up to 45% of respondents admitted to not always complying. "Survey responses included the belief that lead poisoning was not a sufficient problem to justify the regulations, and there were perceived issues** surrounding availability, cost and efficiency of the alternatives to lead, together with a lack of enforcement of the regulations."

[* Note 'spirit'. I'll bet that understanding of the practical details is much lower - hence the 45%, some of whom may be saying 'I've probably broken it because I don't really understand what it says'.

** Despite what's being claimed on other blogs, 'perceived issues' is not the same thing as someone saying 'I break the law cos I'm unlikely to get caught'. This is not the same 45% explaining 'why' they broke the law. And what's with "up to 45%". Was it 45 % or wasn't it? 2% falls within "up to 45%".]

The WWT calls on the government "to take urgent action to ensure that the risk of lead poisoning in waterbirds is substantially reduced by ensuring that lead gunshot is no longer used over wetlands or for shooting waterfowl and that the UK honours its international commitments."

Antis, from LACS to RSPB, will love it - I suspect the sirens are already sounding at BASC HQ. Oh look, Avery is jumping up and down with excitement already.

One interesting claim made in Avery's blog post: he says, "Defra has just withdrawn its secretarial support from the Lead Ammunition Group." (On checking I discover that this too is misleading - they simply can't spare anyone over the next couple of months, but there will be Defra staff available in time for the next scheduled meeting).

Oh how they're loving it... WWT themselves misleadingly tweeted:

It doesn't of course - it confirms that lead shot is still rather effective at bringing them down.

All in all, pretend outrage at poor compliance with a stupid and poorly communicated law which is misdirected at the species being shot rather than the type of land where the shot will fall. Further proof of the RSPB's anti-shooting agenda.

And no, that doesn't mean I condone lawbreaking. Responsible shooters should always comply with the letter of the law, no matter how silly it is - but that needn't stop us campaigning to get it changed.

New film on the 'King of the Norfolk Poachers'

2010-11-04T10:07:00.004Z

A new documentary DVD sets out to reveal the truth behind the classic book on poaching 'I Walked by Night'. There are pre-Christmas screenings at Kings Lynn (14 Nov) and Norwich (5 Dec), and a screening at Bungay on 23 March. Trailer below, more info here.

Thieves targeting ferrets now?

2010-11-03T09:23:00.000Z

Anyone who lives in the countryside knows about the crimewave that dare not speak its name. If it ain't nailed to the floor, it goes. The police don't want to know, even when you can tell them precisely where the missing goods are located. Try tackling the problem yourself and barns mysteriously catch fire.

I suppose its the ferreting season coming up - but I've recently heard of a handful of cases around the country where ferrets have gone missing. In each case, it wasn't just the ferrets that went, but various items of ferreting kit too. One poor old chap lost his favourite ferreting spade, which he'd had since he was a boy.

I don't suppose there's much an individual can do, other than take some obvious precautions - locking up the gear if possible, perhaps moving the hutch out of sight from casual visitors, and rigging up a security light or two to discourage thieves from snooping around.

...or maybe you could catch up a few of these and keep them around the place - skunks! Apparently there are some living wild in Britain, and this one was spotted near Kidderminster. If you're about to press 'play' be warned, the chap who found it was so surprised that he said some rather rude words. You might want to mute your speakers for the sake of any children present!

526 cartridges, 477 pigeons

2010-11-01T17:00:00.002Z

Last week I was out again with ace pigeonshooter Andy Crow. As luck would have it, the weather was superb, and he had picked a great spot - a field of soya bean stubble with plenty of food laying on the ground. The birds piled in all day long, and by the end of the day the tally was an astonishing 477 birds for 526 cartridges - Andy's biggest day ever by a margin of 73. That kills-to-cartridges ratio is phenomenal, especially at pigeons, where every bird is different.

Those numbers may sound excessive, but you have to remember that this isn't sport, it's pest control - every one of those birds is pulling the farmers' seed out of the ground, day in day out (see photo below). Control is vital to prevent serious crop losses.

More on Andy and his techniques in forthcoming issues of the magazine.

Milking it: the Emperor lives on

2010-11-01T14:10:00.000Z

The tale of the Exmoor Emperor rolls on - but now the newspapers are beginning to smell a rat.

For the Daily Mail at least, that rat is Johnny Kingdom, former poacher and gravedigger who has reinvented himself as the avuncular nature-loving wildlife cameraman with a penchant for Realtree and wide-brimmed hats.

According to the Mail, he's now milking the Emperor story for all it's worth, which by now must be considerably more than any trophy fee that he might have fetched, if he was even shot, which is beginning to look less and less likely.

Even Richard Austin, purveyor of mawkish animal images to the media, who has done more than his fair share in stirring up this non-story, is now wondering about the coincidences - apparently the same 'nature lover' called him 12 years ago, to the day, about the supposed death of another 'much loved' stag.

All this hasn't stopped MP David Crausby tabling an Early Day Motion (and 9 other bandwagon-jumpers, so far, from signing it): "That this House condemns the shooting of the stag known as the Exmoor Emperor; believes that this beautiful animal, standing nearly nine feet tall should have been spared to live out his life as a magnificent example of the Giant Red Stag, the biggest wild land animal in the UK; and calls on the Government to protect special individual animals from this kind of senseless destruction."

Don't we Brits just love a good animal story? The Exmoor Emperor will take its place alongside the Tamworth Two, the Beast of Exmoor and other popular legends. I just hope that in the process, it doesn't undermine the serious business of managing our deer populations responsibly.

Shot a fox

2010-10-31T13:45:00.000Z

Nobody told the fox that the hour had changed, so he was following his usual routine and appeared about 6.50 GMT. The plan was to call him in across the field to my front, and I was all set up to take a good steady shot. I called a couple of times, and saw nothing - then suddenly there he was, almost at my feet, looking up as if to say "what's a dying rabbit doing up there?" I adjusted my position as quietly as possible, and took the shot as he stared up at me, trying to work it all out. At such close range the .17HMR knocked him flat with no trouble. He was a biggish adult dog, not one of this year's cubs, and in excellent condition.

Biodiversity and terrorism

2010-10-28T13:38:00.002+01:00

Delingpole puts it so well: Biodiversity, "a noble-seeming concept has been subverted by the watermelons of the green movement in exactly the same way as “Climate change” has and with precisely the same aims: to extend the powers of government; to raise taxes; to weaken the capitalist system; to curtail personal freedom; to redistribute income; to bring ever-closer the advent of an eco-fascist New World Order."

Precisely. Just as we hear shouts of "terrorism" and "paedophiles" each time there's a new attack on personal freedom, so "biodiversity" is invoked by those who really mean "we're taking over your land". Folks like the RSPB start by saying wildlife belongs to "the nation", and five minutes later are claiming it for themselves - they're the experts after all? - and demanding wider and wider powers from government to help them do it. Wake up people, there's a revolution going on!

Update: Taking the argument to its logical conclusion, the League Against Cruel Sports are now arguing that shooters are getting a "free lunch" out of the nation's wildlife, and should be stopped.

Is the RSPCA bullying vets?

2010-10-27T12:02:00.000+01:00

Here's an alarming report (on a transparently anti-RSPCA blog) suggesting that the RSPCA is deliberately intimidating vets who dare to stand up as expert witnesses against them in court cases. I hope it's not true, but on past performance I have to say it sounds very much in character with this organisation, which seems to have forgotten its primary purpose of looking after animals and now prefers to march around in uniforms intimidating people.

Who shot the Exmoor Emperor?

2010-10-26T13:57:00.016+01:00

Every now and then, a shooting-related story hits all the right buttons and explodes across the media - the shooting of Emperor, the huge red stag on Exmoor, is such a tale. The papers are full of the story, told in breathless, horrified tones. The Daily Mirror tops the lot, with the headline "Britain's biggest wild animal, the legendary 9ft red deer known as Emperor, is shot dead by vile trophy hunters" - illustrated with a photo of a man with an over-and-under shotgun!

So what really happened? And is it cause for alarm? The facts are sketchy, to say the least. It seems likely (but not certain) that this particular stag, familiar to local residents and wildlife enthusiasts, has been shot. Reading between the lines, it would appear the stag was shot legally, perhaps by a paying guest stalker, perhaps a visiting 'trophy hunter'. The decision to shoot that animal at that time may or may not have been a good one in terms of herd management; I don't suppose we'll ever know, and in any case deer 'experts' could debate that one for weeks.

The story seems to have reached the papers via Richard Austin, a wildlife photographer who photographed the stag earlier this month [following the TV news later, I learnt he is a staffer on the Western Morning News, and enjoys wildlife photography in his spare time]. He was contacted by a 'local naturalist' who had come across a 'a group of stalkers' standing over the carcass (who nevertheless weren't the ones that shot it). They watched as the carcass was removed. [Actually that doesn't quite ring true does it? I suspect the 'naturalist' heard shots, went to see what it was all about, and came across the stalkers in the process of gralloching and recovering the carcass].

Richard Austin then provided the story and his photos to a local paper [or as seems more likely, rushed back to the office with his scoop], which contacted Peter Donnelly, "a Dulverton based deer management expert with a lifetime’s experience" [we now know that Austin and Donnelly knew each other from previous stories on this particular stag]. Donnelly clearly has a bee in his bonnet about the deer seasons, because he took the opportunity to have a proper rant: "It’s a disgrace that this magnificent animal has been shot at this time because it could be that he didn’t get a chance to rut properly this year - therefore his genes have not been passed on this time round. The poor things should be left alone during the rut - not harried from pillar to post."

This story then got picked up by the national press, radio and TV, as these things do. Most of the journalists have taken the whole thing at face value, and rehashed the story with their own paper's spin on it. A few have bothered to look for further quotes and information to pad out their story, mostly completely failing to understand what they're told and writing utter rot as a result.

The whole thing has dragged out the usual hysterical comments such as: "Don't you just love the way these sad pathetic creatures who call themselves hunters, take guns, because it makes them feel like big men, they then hide in the bushes until defenceless creatures wander along so they can blast away at them."

Before long antis like the League Against Cruel Sports will jump on the bandwagon and demand an end to this 'sick sport' which 'has no place in the 21st century' and should 'be consigned to the dustbin of history along with cockfighting, bullfighting and badger-baiting' and the cycle will be complete. Then the papers will find something else to be outraged about - the antics of a footballer perhaps - and we can all get back to business as usual, except that Richard Austin's wildlife photography business will have received a welcome boost. [I think I was being unkind to him; watching him interviewed on TV, I don't think he did it for the money or the notoriety - he genuinely seems to care about the deer, perhaps in a slightly romanticised way, and it's the other players in the story who have hammed it up for the cameras].

So it goes.

UPDATE: I hear Mike Yardley did a good job of explaining the need for deer management on the Jeremy Vine radio show. It should be available to listen to on the BBC iPlayer shortly here. Mike's bit comes just past the halfway mark.

UPDATE: Excellent piece published on the Guardian website of all places, by BASC's Glynn Evans, here.

UPDATE: I've added some notes in square brackets as more information comes to light. Now, 24 hours later, the news is full of airport security, the Indonesian tsunami, an air-sea rescue off the Scillies, etc, etc. The Emperor is forgotten, save for a few follow-up pieces that will appear over the next few days. As a passing comment, once again I was impressed with the speed and professionalism of BASC's response - they're getting good at responding to media stories like this. Jamie Stewart, in partcular, strikes just the right note - knowledgeable, caring, and most importantly not an 'arrogant posh bloke' of the type that was a gift to the antis at the time of the Hunting Bill.

I hope, in time, BASC and perhaps others will become more proactive - one thing this incident showed is that the media loves a good animal story, regardless of the facts. It shouldn't be impossible to start creating the odd 'Hunters save Bambi', 'Pigeon shooters foil bank robbers', etc.

Oh, and if you don't mind a bit of swearing, you may like this robust take on the story by Bill O'Rites...

UPDATE: Locals "smell a rat" - according to this story in the Guardian, the stag may still be alive and kicking. Either way, it was/is a long way from living up to the claim of "biggest land mammal in the UK". Meanwhile, North Devon's hotels and B&Bs are enjoying a welcome boost from journalists and tv crews sent to find "Who shot Emperor". I took a call from a Guardian journalist this morning, asking me to explain "what people get from deer stalking". I dread to think what he'll write!

Talking of the Guardian, for a worryingly strange view of hunters and hunting, Ruaridh Nicoll takes some beating. " I am not against shooting, even if I have lost my hunger for it," he says, then goes on to explain it's the motivation of hunters that worries him: "The instinct that makes a man kill a creature like the Emperor, I have always believed, rises from inadequacy." He goes on to retell the apocryphal tale of the American hunter in Africa who would shoot an animal, have his wife lie on it and have sex with her - a story that sounds less likely every time I hear it. I have no time for people who have no idea why people shoot, and fill that vacuum with twisted ideas dreamed up inside their own heads.

UPDATE: Bloody hell - Chris Packham defending shooting on Autumnwatch - whatever next?! Audio here:

A great day's pigeon shooting

2010-10-23T17:35:00.000+01:00

For our Christmas issue's pigeon shooting feature, I went out yesterday with Andy Crow, a farm manager on the Kent/Surrey border. His job leaves him plenty of spare time through the winter to shoot pigeons - which is a good thing because if he didn't, there wouldn't be much oilseed rape come harvest time.

We set up on a field of fodder maize stubble in the early mist. Andy doesn't believe in tucking his hide away in a hedge under a tree - he planted this one smack bang in the middle of the field. Using hazel branches cut from the wood, he disguised it as a bush.

Then he rigged up his decoy pattern, using his home made cradles and about a dozen dead birds from the chiller - no plastic decoys for him.

Add a whirly, connect it up, and retire back to our 'bush hide' to await developments. In no time at all, the mist had lifted to reveal a lovely blue sky - and the birds were piling in.

Having taken a few 'in the hide' photos, I switched to trying to capture the moment a pigeon was hit - not an easy task! I was pleased with this one...

And this one is interesting - zoom in and you can see the pattern just ahead of the bird. A fraction of a second later the two had collided, and the bird was dead in mid air.

Andy kindly handed me his gun for a while and, after a few embarrassing misses, I managed to kill 14 or 15 birds, including a couple of nice long shots. When we cleared up at the end of the day, the total was 147. Out of the 'brick' of 250 cartridges we had 53 left, which gives a pretty impressive ratio of 3 birds for every 4 shots.

It was a very enjoyable day, and Andy was great company. I hope to be going out with him again soon - and you can read all about our trip, together with his methods and tips, in the Christmas issue.

Into the lions' den

2010-10-21T21:03:00.000+01:00

I've been drawing fire over at the Raptor Politics blog (scroll down to the comments section) - a habitat frequented by what might be described as the Provisional Wing of the RSPB.

Mention the word "gamekeeper" and these people start frothing at the mouth. In their minds, keepers are responsible for anything that goes wrong with any bird of prey anywhere. Even the ones eaten by eagle owls on the RSPB's own CCTV!

Now, we all know there are some unreconstructed old buggers who do still think anything with a hooked beak is "vermin". I've met one or two. Literally one or two, in 30 years of working in shooting journalism. And yes, some grouse moor owners are greedy wossnames who care only about how many millions their moor will fetch when it's sold - and they're not a great example of shooting's contribution to conservation.

But this lot, encouraged by years of campaigning by the likes of the RSPB, think every keeper, every shooting estate, is slaughtering birds of prey on an industrial scale. And they're blind to the huge environmental benefits of shooting across the UK.

I was encouraged by the comments of one Mike Groves, who says he is working with "several law abiding estates in the East of Scotland monitoring Merlin, Short-eared Owl and a wealth of other raptors. I am welcomed onto these estates and keepers are keen to pass on raptor sightings." All good stuff; it's interesting that it took some time before he felt able to stick his head above the parapet on a birding blog, such is the resistance to anything positive about keepers among these people.

Most of all, though, the whole experience left me thinking, surely we should have created a better overall impression than this? And are we (via our organisations or individually) doing enough even now to turn the tide?

Animal Aid urges malicious complaints

2010-10-21T20:35:00.000+01:00

A new guide published by animal rights extremists Animal Aid urges members of the public to make malicious complaints to police about legitimate shooting activities.

How to Oppose Shooting, a Practical Guide [pdf] is lauded as "probably the most comprehensive practical guide to ‘gamebird’ shooting and the problems it presents to people living in the vicinity of shoots" on the group's website.

It downloads as a turgid 41-page A4 document which comprehensively describes some forms of shooting in the UK, and summarises the law surrounding them. The choice of photographs is misrepresentative and emotive - unhealthy-looking birds in cramped cages. Slipped into the innocuous descriptive passages are suggestions that people might find the shoot worrying, and should call the police - advice designed to engineer a potentially dangerous confrontation between shooters and armed police.

The 'guide' goes on to suggest that people who are anti-shooting should stir up trouble for shoots by snitching to the VAT office, regardless of whether there is any reason to suspect wrongdoing. At the end of the document are standardised letters where a troublemaker can simply fill in the name of a shoot and post it off.

Sadly for the antis, most readers will have fallen asleep with boredom by the time they reach that bit. Pretty much the sort of thing we've come to expect from Kit Davidson and his chums, then - boring, devious, ineffective and malicious in its intent.

It does, however, provide a useful insight into the way these people think, and the chinks in our armour that they think they've spotted.

Seal 'corkscrew' deaths update

2010-10-19T17:53:00.001+01:00

The Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews has released its preliminary findings of investigations into the causes of the recent spate of 'corkscrew' injuries to seals. There's a detailed pdf you can download here.

I'm not going to get all smug and say 'I told you so', but their findings point to some sort of ducted propeller system on ships operating in shallow coastal waters. They say they have eliminated most other possibilities include the effects of fisheries, deliberate killing, the effects of illegal traps and predation by killer whales or sharks.

I suppose the challenge now is to find the ship(s) responsible and get some sort of guard fitted pronto.

UPDATE: Despite a TV documentary suggesting it's Greenland sharks, the shark scientists themselves say it's ducted propellers - see here. It's beginning to look as if it's ultimately the stampede for useless windfarms that has caused these seal deaths. The eco-loonys have a lot to answer for, but it will be years before we understand the full extent of the damage they are doing.

Ireland bans poisons

2010-10-19T17:14:00.001+01:00

Credit where it's due, I saw this story on the Raptor Politics blog. Ireland has banned poisons for pest control, other than the regular rat and mouse baits. Story in the Irish Independent here.

Not surprisingly this is being hailed as a victory, not just for Ireland's birds of prey but also for Scotland - much of the poison used illegally in Scotland comes across the water. Raptor Politics is hopeful that supplies will eventually dry up, although I somehow doubt it will have any noticeable effect in the foreseeable future. Apart from anything else, anyone keen to kill birds of prey illegally will find a way.

The price of being labelled non-native is... death

2010-10-18T18:28:00.000+01:00

The RSPB can be very unsentimental at times. Next year it plans to spend £1.7million killing rats for being non-native and threatening biodiversity on a remote Pacific island. The rats, you see, were brought there by sailors (well their ancestors were) so they've no right to be there. And they are eating 25,000 seabird chicks "alive" annually (perhaps they could be forgiven if they euthanased their prey humanely first). The rats' nefarious behaviour (eating to stay alive) is threatening the Henderson petrel, found nowhere else in the world. So they must die. Every last one of them.

It's ok cos they're just rats, and it's a long way away. Just try the same argument with eagle owls in the uk and you get a very different response, as Mark Avery discovered recently. One rule for the cute 'n cuddly...

Meanwhile, back home, Scottish gamekeepers are getting a kicking in the Guardian today, after a "study" by bird of prey experts estimates that only 1% of the "naturally occurring number" of hen harriers are breeding successfully on the UK's grouse moors. It's all based on a figure plucked out of the air for how many harriers "should" be living on Britain's grouse moors. Strangely, no figure is given for the number of harriers, etc, etc, that "should" be living on the RSPB's reserves.

Oh, and entirely coincidentally, these revelations appear just as Scottish ministers are considering proposals for "licensing grouse moors" and making owners liable for "persecution" of birds of prey by gamekeepers. Cos that would help wouldn't it? I cannot believe the RSPB honestly think the measures they're suggesting will "save" a single bird of prey.

Still, that's not the point. All this spin and lobbying has little to do with harriers, and a lot to do with gaining power over more and more money and land. And of course they get the full support of a significant number of Scots who would like to see foreign landowners exterminated, like non-native rats.

Still ferreting at 90

2010-10-18T08:32:00.003+01:00

Great film this - hope I'm still ferreting at 90 years old!

And if you like that one, check out Tamar Tale from the same filmmaker.

I have seen the future...

2010-10-17T22:09:00.001+01:00

...at least, I've seen the products that are going to get shooters excited in the near future - and there's some seriously good stuff coming our way.

I've been at the Tackle & Guns Show at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire, where the gun trade shows off its wares to gun shops and retailers. The stuff on show here will be in the shops soon - some of it in time for Christmas.

I'm not generally one to get all hot under the collar about some shiny new bit of kit. I'm more likely to be enthused by some old trick with a hazel stick and a piece of string.

But how could you not be excited about a new hand-held thermal imager from Thomas Jacks? This is the stuff of science fiction and SAS novels - but now an estate with £5,000 to spend can have a gadget which will show up a warm body on a cold hill (fox, poacher, you name it), without any need for lights or lasers. Indeed, if you can scrape together a cool £15,000 you can have a super-duper version which until recently would have been the envy of our special forces (nowadays they have even better stuff - we'll have to wait a bit longer for that!).

And that's not all. Deben were showing a range of new generation lamping gear, based on LED technology. Combined with their superb lithium ion batteries, these lamps really are going to change night-time rabbiting and foxing for good.

Then there's the brilliant Nitewatch range of watches, and their clever glow rings. Plus Fjallraven will be offering a range of hunting clothing in the UK. I'm quite a fan of their gear, even though it's 'old' technology (polyester/cotton and wax, rather than some fancy modern fabric). Fact is, it's hardwearing, it works, and it's comfortable in all kinds of situations.

Other highlights? Well, there's a few things I'm not allowed to mention, but I can tell you about this clever Blaser F3 try-gun, which Rupert Haynes was showing on the Open Season stand. It's the modern version of the old try-gun you might have seen at a shooting school - but this one has all the measurements built-in - so once your instructor has got the fit right, you can just read off the measurements; no need to get the measuring sticks out. A brilliant bit of kit which will make gun-fitting quicker, easier and more accurate.

Countryside Alliance Crew

2010-10-16T23:17:00.002+01:00

To quote Jeremy Clarkson, I went on the internet and I found this...

I don't suppose the Countryside Alliance are thrilled at the use of their name - and the Crew themselves say plainly "the CAC have bugger all to do with the Countryside Alliance". Still, it gave me a laugh. This one's worth a listen too:

Winterising the ferrets

2010-10-16T15:05:00.002+01:00

I've been adding some insulation to the ferrets' hutch, in preparation for the colder weather. I haven't tried this stuff before, but it looks good - it's sold as loft insulation, and it consists of a kind of bubble wrap with plasticised foil on both sides. I've put a double layer around the ferrets' sleeping box, and also wrapped it round the water bottles in an attempt to stop them freezing.

It seems like amazing stuff - should come in handy for all sorts of other things too, like a groundsheet in a tent, and a reflector for photography. There's still plenty left on the £10 roll I bought, so I'll give it a try. The only likely problem I can see is if it doesn't stand up well to the weather. It feels robust enough, but plastic can degrade quickly in sunlight. We'll see.

Watch out, Avery's aiming at pheasants

2010-10-11T09:40:00.001+01:00

It pays to keep an eye on the blog of RSPB conservation director Mark Avery. When he innocently muses about some aspect of shooting, it probably means "Oo, I've just thought of another way to attack shooters."

Back in July 2009 he blogged about his rising concern about lead residues in game meat. By October that year, he was stirring up seven shades of you-know-what by writing to Defra, with a particularly weaselly letter - resulting in the formation of the Lead Ammunition Group.

Now he's running a new one up the flagpole: pheasants as a 'non-native' species. "I wonder how much the increase in some predator numbers is fuelled by this meat bonanza?" he asks disingenuously, taking a swipe at "big-shoot days where huge numbers of pheasants are released" while he's at it. (Actually the GWCT already has the answers to most of his questions).

I find the whole native/non-native species argument a ridiculous nonsense anyway. Who's to say which species 'deserve' to be here in the UK, based on whose assessment of which politically-correct moment in history we had the 'perfect' balance of wildlife? And how can this possibly be relevant to a landscape shaped by man since history began? Far too often the definition of 'native' or 'non-native' seems designed to support one organisation's point of view - the latest row over eagle owls is a case in point.

But leaving all that aside, what really bothers me is what devious new attack on shooting Avery is cooking up.

Another Commonwealth gold for our shooters

2010-10-10T22:08:00.000+01:00

England's shooters are really doing rather well in Delhi. Following our earlier successes, now Aaron Heading has taken gold in the men's single trap. Report in the Telegraph here.

A scientist told me, so it must be true

2010-10-10T22:01:00.000+01:00

'Science' is pulled out with a flourish like a trump card by people telling me things I find hard to believe. Like killing badgers won't help beat TB. Or spiralling raptor numbers are no threat to anything. Or we're all doomed, the planet is going to burst into flames and it's all my fault because I eat meat.

But if the scientists say so, I suppose it must be true.

Except, it seems that the 'consensus' on Global Warming is no such thing. One of America's leading physicists has resigned, calling the whole thing a scam. He goes further. It is, he says: "the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist".

Someone should tell the RSPB. They've done very nicely thank you out of the climate change scam for years. If it's all about to come unravelled, they should start looking for another bandwagon.

Can I have my vote back please?

2010-10-08T17:06:00.001+01:00

Oh dear! It seems my local MP Dominic Raab and his chums are the driving force behind the Conservatives Against Fox Hunting group (whose website's main argument against repealing the Act seems to be that it would bring back hare coursing). Local Conservative Association chairman Chris Platt and his wife Lorraine apparently founded the group. Worse still, at the party conference Dominic shared a platform with Douglas Batchelor of the League Against Cruel Sports. To think I voted for Raab because he said he supported shooting!

In fact, I dug out the email conversation from January. I wrote to Raab saying:

"...I wonder if you could take a moment to clarify your position on shooting and other "field sports". As a lifelong shooter, and someone who earns a living editing a shooting magazine, I would hate to vote for an anti!"

And he replied:

"Thanks for your email. I support shooting sports conducted according to the relevant codes of practice. The Party has given various disciplines of the sport backing in recent years, including setting out plans to amend the law to ensure that all competitive target pistol shooters can train and compete in this country.

I hope that gives you the reassurance you are looking for!

Best wishes,

Dominic"

...which doesn't sound to me like "I'm a huge fan of the League Against Cruel Sports and plan to support their campaign to retain the Hunting Act." But then I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to politics.

Well done Abbey & Anita!

2010-10-08T12:40:00.004+01:00

England's Abbey Burton and Anita North have won silver in the women's trap pairs at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi; they were two points behind the Australian pair, and one ahead of the Canadians.

Full marks to the Daily Mail for reporting their success, and resisting any temptation to take a snide dig at shooting - except they illustrated the piece on their website with a photo of a .22LR target rifle, captioned "Happiness is a warm gun"! Someone in their picture department needs to brush up on their shooting knowledge. (They updated the page later with a photo of the winning trapshooters)

Do you think the TV coverage of shooting at the Commonwealth Games has been rubbish? If so, you're not alone - and Nicky from Oxford Gun has set up a Facebook group called Fair coverage for Clay Shooting on TV to campaign for an improvement. She wants shooters to follow her lead and email the BBC and ITV to demand proper coverage for shooting. "Quite frankly I don't care that swimmers have got diarrhoea issues," she writes. "You may have issues with Clay Shooting as a sport but there are thousands of people out there who would like to know their progress."

Hear hear!

Grouse shooter likes hen harriers shock horror!

2010-10-07T17:39:00.000+01:00

Of course it will be dismissed as lies, conspiracy and goodness knows what else by the raptor nutters, but gallowayfarm - a blog I always enjoy - has a post about the hen harriers sharing his patch. He's happy to let them take a grouse or three; not so accommodating with the crows and foxes.

How to catch a hare

2010-10-06T12:50:00.001+01:00

Here's a little gem from a recent visit to foxshooter Robert Bucknell - he describes an old poachers' way of catching a hare, with just your coat and a stick. Just click the play button to listen...

How to catch a hare by jamesmarchington

England's shooters win Commonwealth gold

2010-10-06T10:21:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Steve Scott and Stevan Walton, gold medallists in the men's Double Trap pairs at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. James Huckle and Kenny Parr took silver in the men's pairs 10m air rifle, and Huckle went on to win bronze in the men's individual air rifle event. The Daily Telegraph reports here.

Moral dilemma

2010-10-05T21:49:00.002+01:00

Chad Love, over at the strangely titled Mallard of Discontent blog, tells the story of a badly injured doe, with two fawns, that visited his feeder. Should he put the doe out of her misery, condemning the fawns to certain death? Or should he prolong her agony, in the hope the fawns might survive to adulthood?

Should we, as shooters, ever intervene in such things just because we can, because we think we know best - or should we 'leave nature alone' to conclude matters in her own, cruel, way? Since it's often man that created the problem in some way (traffic accidents and the like are an obvious example), is it our duty to try to set things right? Can we ever know what 'right' really is? Wildlife filmmakers and war reporters sometimes face similar impossible decisions.

Difficult choices, but choices that stalkers, keepers and shooters face all the time. And sometimes the outcome is very different to what we might have predicted - read Chad's story and you'll see what I mean.

Fox killing on the BBC

2010-10-05T14:21:00.001+01:00

Refreshing to see Countryfile taking a pragmatic look at foxes in town and country. Perhaps they've been reading Robert Bucknell's excellent piece in our October issue. Catch the Countryfile programme on iPlayer here for the next few days - drag the playhead to 09:50 to jump straight in to the fox segment.

Minister recognises shooting's contribution to conservation

2010-10-05T12:49:00.002+01:00

Defra minister Jim Paice and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chairman of the all-party
parliamentary group for shooting and conservation, at the Rural Reception. Photo: BASC

“What you represent here is the Big Society in action. We don’t go out in the countryside just to pull the trigger or float a fly; we are out there day in, day out working for conservation.”

So says Jim Paice, Defra minister, speaking at the Conservative party conference. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for shooting and conservation, added that everyone who shoots or fishes should encourage others to come out into the countryside to find out the real story of what goes on.

At a time when the likes of the RSPB are spending untold thousands of pounds on ~~lobbying~~ bleating about the terrible damage spending cuts could do to the environment, it's good to see ministers recognise that shooters and anglers are getting on with the job, spending their own hard-earned cash doing practical conservation work - and BASC are doing a great job of promoting the fact.

Zoom Q3HD - I want one!

2010-10-04T15:50:00.006+01:00

Is this the journo-gadget I've been waiting for? I've tried all kinds of handheld gadgets for interviewing. You can have super audio quality from something like the Marantz PMD620, or ease of use from the Flip series, or reasonable video with the Sanyo Xacti series. In the last post, I had a lot of fun with the Sony Bloggie.

But all of the cameras suffer from audio that is, frankly, awful. And to my mind, the audio quality is at least as important as the video, often more important - especially for use on the web. I was tempted when I saw the Zoom Q3 - but, honestly, 640 x 480 video?

Now I see Zoom have come up with the Zoom Q3HD - basically a quality audio recorder with a respectable HD video camera built in. It sounds like the ideal combination - the sort of thing I could slip in a pocket and go round a game fair or a shoot, interviewing and blogging to my heart's content.

I haven't seen a price yet, but the Q3 was a very reasonable £160 or so. If the Q3HD is in the same area, I'll be sorely tempted.

UPDATE: Zoom UK Distribution tell me the Q3HD should arrive in the UK some time in November, and the price will be around £200-£230.

Exploding rabbits, and a revolutionary new trap

2010-09-28T22:10:00.002+01:00

What a day I've had at Barbury Shooting School, just south of the M4 motorway near Swindon!

It was a twin launch - for Barbury's new simulated game days, and for Firebird 'reactive targets'. We sampled both, and were mightily impressed.

Barbury is a lovely ground with a smart timber lodge and a great variety of interesting layouts. Nice friendly people, and they served up one of the best bacon rolls you could wish for! They have recently started offering simulated game days, run on one of two estates a short drive away. It's a brilliant way for a team of guns to enjoy a day out, with all the trappings of a formal game shoot and with some really testing targets.

I'd heard a lot about the Firebird targets, and even seen some of the video clips - but nothing prepares you for the thrill of shooting a clay that explodes with a flash-bang and a big puff of white smoke. It's like dusting your first ever clay pigeon all over again.

It's almost as much fun for the spectators - I noticed today that the spectators were more involved, with plenty of cheering and jeering when targets were hit and missed. Could this be what clay shooting needs to make it TV-friendly?

I'm told the exploding targets work with air rifles (not air pistols), rimfires and centrefires as well, which would spice up target practice no end. Much of my childhood was taken up with devising ways to make Airfix aircraft blow apart when hit with my airgun - this is almost too easy!

I had a chat with the inventor John Green - who I first met nearly two decades ago when he launched his radio-controlled aircraft target, the Gnat:

As an added bonus, there were not one but two inventors at Barbury today - the other one a fascinating chap with the unlikely sounding name of Ferris Whidborne, a farmer who wasn't satisfied with the performance of modern clay pigeon traps, so he invented his own.

His trap is a remarkable contraption, looking a bit like a barbecue crossed with a dustbin lid - but boy does it throw clay pigeons! It's astonishingly light, simple, safe and versatile - the trappers at Barbury swear it's as much fun as actually shooting. Hear Ferris himself explain. And no your eyes are not deceiving you - he really is confident enough about his invention to fire a stream of clays over the visiting journalists' cars! The clays sailed easily 100 yards into the ploughed field beyond.

As an aside, this blog post is what you get when you let a shooting journalist loose with a Sony Bloggie, which I blagged from our ad department to try out. A nifty little gadget indeed.

James Marchington's Blog

New blog up and running

Ferret faking it!

Gundogs in slow motion

Ferret birthcam - a web first!

Clay Shooting Classic 2011

A turning point for conservation?

Use and abuse of badgers

Just popping out for a spot of woodland management. I may be some time...

Nice lens, shame about the focus

What a manky fox!

Phwoar, look at the size of that!

Cameras banned from Olympics... no they're not... er...

Three ways to lose your shotgun certificate

Blooded - the movie

Countryside Alliance Race Day

The RSPB, harriers and persecution

Wildlife crime - the police perspective

BASC welcomes "sensible and functional" WANE Bill

Avery's swansong is another 'irresponsible scaremongering' attack on shooting

How not to get shot by the police

Woodspring's Young Shots day

Threats and hate mail for working with shooters

Gamekeeper thrilled to see harriers on his moor

RSPB grudgingly admits: predator control helps threatened birds

JNCC harrier report 'out of date and misleading'

Scotland’s harriers in good conservation statusbut more work needed to resolve conflicts

Shooters donate to help save birds of prey

Harriers: the case for management

Uk gun dealer faces charges in US

'Please don't publish this but...'

Veggie PR fail

Harriers: the saga continues

New airgun law - where did that come from?

Gratuitous cute puppy picture

Rope lead - fail!

Harriers & grouse update

Hen harriers - fear, loathing, and few facts

Archie is found!

Shooting clays - with golf balls!

Shooting mags "worse than porn"

Hunters welcome!

How to catch a mouse - without a trap

Antis chucking in the towel

Where are all the pigeons?

Foxes scrapping in the street

Bracken's first pheasant

A great day's ferreting

Happy Christmas!

Tribute to Michael Cartledge, of the Beretta Gallery London

MPs debate firearms control

Home Affairs Committee report on firearms control

The life of the rabbit, 1945 style

10 ferrets stolen - reward offered

New foxshooting DVD out now

If there's a Russell in your hedgerow...

They've all gone badger bonkers

Falconry is officially 'a living cultural heritage'

Gamekeeper at work image wins landscape photography prize

Purdey Awards recognise shooting's finest conservation successes

Another cunning stunt from the RSPB

Keeper fined for using poison

At last, people who know what they're talking about

Sheep eat hen harriers

Is there a handbook of how to campaign to ban something you don't like?

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh opens BASC's new media centre building

Michaela Strachan 'wasn't hard-core enough' for Countryfile

Portrait of a huntress wins major photographic prize

Lead ban isn't working

New film on the 'King of the Norfolk Poachers'

Thieves targeting ferrets now?

526 cartridges, 477 pigeons

Milking it: the Emperor lives on

Shot a fox

Biodiversity and terrorism

Is the RSPCA bullying vets?

Who shot the Exmoor Emperor?

A great day's pigeon shooting

Into the lions' den

Animal Aid urges malicious complaints

Scotland’s harriers in good conservation status
but more work needed to resolve conflicts