For Sale!

The gamekeepers champion Ian Botham and front man of campaign group 'You Forgot The Birds' which is funded by the shooting industry, has recently made the ludicrous claim that the RSPB are 'looking the other way' when it comes to Hen Harrier persecution, because they are using the species as a fund raising tool.

Now that's a pretty hard one to swallow, but Botham may well have a point to make there about the RSPB and cash before conservation. Read on....

Before her death in 2001 a kindly lady bequeathed 20 acres of green space in rural Cheshire to the RSPB, her dying wish was that the land should never be built on. The RSPB were fully aware of the wish made by this lifelong environmentalist, but hey....they're now looking to sell the land to housing developers in a blatant money making act of betrayal. The RSPB's director for Northern England claims the development could promote and enhance the biodiversity of the area, despite the land being home to Barn Owls, Lapwings, and Badgers. 

But campaign group You Forgot The Birds are saying the RSPB are putting cash before conservation - well they've got to be correct there now haven't they - and that this kind lady would be horrified about what might happen to the land she entrusted to the RSPB as a lifelong enthusiast for the local environment.

The farmland had been valued in 2001 at £60,000. Today, if planning permission was to be granted, the RSPB stand to make £6m, and the charity is urging the council concerned to allow a housing estate of up to 150 houses to be built. The aforementioned RSPB's director for Northern England came up with another remarkably intelligent remark when he said it was unfortunate her land had to be sold but it would benefit more wildlife, which sounds to me like this guy is in the wrong job and should be made head of RSPB Finances with immediate effect.

The Royal Society For Personal Betrayal. Building homes....but not for nature.    

And Finally.

Photographs Pete Woodruff.

I found the corpse of what I think is a marine mammal at Cockersands last Wednesday 3 April. My identification is that of a Harbour Porpoise, although I welcome anyone who wishes to correct me. 

 Harbour Porpoise. Erik Christensen.

A Message From Above!

I'm struggling for time to do a post about my birding efforts on Monday. Meanwhile, here's the gap filler.... 

Any comments from me below are in bold type, or in blue where I think some notable statements are made within the message which was in my Inbox this morning.   

As this e-petition has received more than 10,000 signatures, the relevant government department - DEFRA - have provided the following response.

The Government is aware of incidences of illegal killing of birds of prey and ministers take the issue very seriously. To address this, senior Government and enforcement officers in the UK identified raptor persecution as a national wildlife crime priority. Raptor persecution is subject to a prevention, intelligence, enforcement and reassurance plan led by a senior police officer through the Raptor Persecution Delivery group. The National Wildlife Crime Unit, which is funded by the Government, monitors and gathers intelligence on illegal activities affecting birds of prey and provides assistance to police forces when required. Shooting makes an important contribution to wildlife control and conservation, biodiversity and to the social, economic and environmental well-being of rural areas, where it can provide a supplement to incomes and jobs. The overall environmental and economic impact of game bird shooting is therefore a positive one and it has been estimated by the industry that £250 million per year is spent on management activities that provide benefits for conservation. When carried out in accordance with the law, shooting for sport is a legitimate activity and our position is that people should be free to undertake lawful activities. There are no current plans to restrict sport shooting in England. This Government encourages all shoot managers and owners to ensure they and their staff are following recommended guidelines and best practice to reduce the chances of a conflict of interest with birds of prey. We acknowledge that crimes against birds of prey are abhorrent but it should be noted though that, despite instances of poisoning and killing of birds of prey, populations of many species, such as the Peregrine Falcon, Red Kite and Buzzard have increased. While a small minority is prepared to kill birds of prey, and where possible these people are brought to justice, this demonstrates that the policies in place to conserve these species are working. This e-petition remains open to signatures and will be considered for debate by the Backbench Business Committee should it pass the 100,000 signature threshold.

A lot to say about all this garbage but I'll keep it brief....

This could well have been written by the Countryside Alliance....But in a nutshell, DEFRA thinks that conservation policies for birds of prey are working well - they appear to have forgotten about the Hen Harrier - and thus they have no intention of restricting sport shooting in England, or doing anything about those in the industry who kill anything which gets in the way of it's success. 

Take a look at the government’s wildlife policies of late....Badgers, Buzzards, Bees, Fracking….Time to start thinking about the elections in 2015 and who your vote goes to.

Thought you may like to see a bird of prey named Bowland Betty, a young satellite-tracked Hen Harrier found shot dead on a North Yorkshire grouse moor in 2012.

All the world loves a trier!

Full of big ideas about getting seven hours in on Tuesday I arrived at Conder Green at 9.30 not knowing that the weather had even bigger ideas than I did....So just watch how rapid this report fizzles out by the time I get to Cockersands about two and a half hours later at around noon.

A Little Egret was on Conder Pool again but I found only 3 Little Grebe on here today. On the circuit I found a Spotted Redshank, a Greenshank, and Kingfisher. On the Lune Estuary the 'early' Whooper Swan seen again, been here since 21 August. Also of note, 2 Greenshank, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 5 Snipe, and a Little Egret. Wader numbers here today were very unimpressive.

Image Martin McKenna 

So now I'm at Cockersands, and having seen c.40 Snipe in the air together as I arrived I also saw a squall heading directly for me over the bay, the dictionary definition of which is....'a sudden violent gust of wind bringing rain, snow, or sleet'....well you can say that again. I find it hard to believe I sat six of these 'squalls' out, as one passed over another one appeared on the horizon, there was to be no way I was leaving the car to end up drowning in one of these, not even for birding, but I sat it out in the hope the latest one was the last. 

Well I did try, but in the end I submitted and went home. I'm thinking of giving up birding to support Manchester United as a full time occupation, which brings me to think....I'm becoming mentally unstable!!

And now, four brilliant non-bird photographs to brighten up and add some colour to Birds2blog....

Hoverfly Martin Jump  

This looks suspiciously like the Helophilus pendulus in our garden a few weeks ago, and attractive looking creature whatever....Thanks Martin.

Badger Paul Foster  

PF gained permissive access to an undisclosed Badger set and took the advantage to the full with some excellent images of these brilliant creatures....Thanks Paul.

Red Squirrel David Cookson  

DC gave the perfect title to this perfect image of the Red Squirrel 'Leap of Faith'....Thanks David.

Brown Hare Brian Rafferty 

Cockersands holds good numbers of the Brown Hare and has done since I first started visiting the area many years ago, but that's not the area BR took this excellent 'mug shot'....Thanks Brian.

Down but not out!

Still down on my birding but definitely not out.

I have been determined to get to Barbondale before April was out for a few weeks now and just managed to do so by getting there yesterday on the last day of the month. It was a fine sunny day but the cold wind took the edge off it.

I found it hard to decide which of two species should top the list of my records but in the end it had to be the three Stonechats I found which were the icing on the cake on an otherwise dull day for results. It's obvious lots of birds haven't yet arrived on territory and were a bit thin here today, however, three Pied Flycatchers were not to be 'sniffed at' seen as a pair and lone singing male which is precisely how I found the three Stonechats to be, though singing male Stonechats are hard to come by and this one was no exception.  

Pied Flycatcher. Brian Rafferty.

On the four hour visit I found just 21 species most notable of which were two Redstarts both male, heard a single Tree Pipit, 8 Wheatear, a Nuthatch, Reed Bunting, Buzzard, a 'good number' of Willow Warbler, and saw 12 Swallows through. Hopefully things at Barbondale - and elsewhere - will pick up in the coming days. On the way here I saw a Badger as a  road casualty at Kirkby Lonsdale....very sad.

 Redstart. Brian Rafferty.

I now had the choice of several places to continue my long awaited 'away day' and decided to take a look down the River Wenning and up the River Lune from Hornby. An interesting visit if only to eventually see at least 80 'hirundines' in the air above, at least 30 of which were Swifts together with estimates of 20 House Martin and 30 Swallow. Other birds of note, two Little Ringed Plover were on a flood in the field by the confluence, 3 Common Sandpiper, a pair of Goosander, Skylark, a Great-spotted Woodpecker, and a Raven overhead, Sand Martin numbers appeared to be in significantly low number.

Summer visitors have still to arrive yet and several records seen today of - for example - Whinchats in the country/county appear to indicate this is now happening.

Many thanks to BR for the excellent photographs posted in haste along with everything else on a computer in Lancaster Library as mine is currently down....I'm beginning to think an evil spirit has taken over my life....OH DEAR !!  

Interesting bits!

Something about a book, something about Badgers, a couple of 'top of the range' photographs, and another photograph of a rarity in the country with some history about the species.

First the book which is about Nest Monitoring....don't forget to read the comments....interesting.

Then perhaps you'd like to help Save the Badger....I did....'cos its morally indefensible, and scientifically claimed to be not going to work, and thats the side I come down on heavily.

And the pics....

Blackcap. Geoff Gradwell

GG doesn't just have the Blackcap visiting his garden lucky him, he also gets an excellent photograph of the bird.

Whitethroat. Phil Slade

And the Whitethroat with thanks to my man from the Fylde.

Stilt Sandpiper. Dan Pancamo 

A Stilt Sandpiper was found at Lodmoor RSPB Reserve in Dorset on Sunday 24 July and still remains there today. The bird is a North American wader which winters in South America, we won't go down the road about 'whats an American wader - which breeds and winters there - doing in Dorset'.

The first record of this species in Britain was of a bird found by two boys in August 1954 at Kilnsea in East Yorkshire, they were staying at the Spurn Bird Observatory and actually saw the bird again the next day. On the 2 September some birders were alerted to the finding and in due course the bird was accepted as being the first British occurrence of the Stilt Sandpiper. This species remains a very rare vagrant to Britain, but an individual visited various sites over a six month period in Cheshire in 1984 and is by far the longest staying Stilt Sandpiper in Britain.