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Bearded Vulture, 2 Red Kites, Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, 6 Common Buzzards, 4 Kestrels and 2 Sparrowhawks from the garden today on the edge of the @peakdistrict and an Osprey I missed. Some thoughts for #HenHarrierDay 1/
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I live in the Dark Peak which is the one of the worst places for wildlife crime, things are improving and we have had breeding success for Goshawks and Peregrines locally this year but also confirmed incidents of shot Short-eared Owl and Common Buzzard 2/
Although there is criminality operating here and elsewhere, demonising everyone involved is unfair and counterproductive to trying to work towards more biodiverse upland environments. If criminality was totally ubquitous I would now not have a garden list of 11 raptors 6/
Things have changed massively in the last 100 years when that raptor tally would be unthinkable but gone down and now possibly up in the last 30 years 3/
I can see a driven grouse moor and sometimes grouse from my desk, it isn't a great environment for biodiversity but neither are the sheep walks nor the plantations, I think we can do better than DGS but it is by far the only poorly performing land-use 4/
Stopping wildlife crime should be a priority, I would back licensing DGS if it can be done without the current negative suite of environment externalities 5/
I would rather land owned by utilities and the NT was not used for grouse shooting fullstop but I accept the risks associated with land-use change on private estates, none of us want to see DGS moors become plantations, I hope that licensing can be made to work 8/
We can work towards a #WilderPeak but it needs to be viable for the people that live and work here. I have seen considerable success and change in attitudes even in the three years I have been here 8/
I would like to see ELMs deliver for hill farmers so we can have more diverse upland environments, we have to pay for change and make it viable 7/
Getting there will require some compromises, distasteful for some but a prerequisite for change and which may be followed by more change. I'm quietly optimistic. Ends.
