Grouse shooter likes hen harriers shock horror!

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.