THANKYOU LEGAL JUSTICE - THEIR LAST POST FOR 2022

 Good morning! Good news on which to end 2022 - our petition to limit the shooting season for Woodcock passed 100,000 signatures yesterday evening so this issue should receive a debate in the Westminster parliament in 2023.  Also some updates on other issues.

 

Woodcock petition: our petition gained its 100,000th signature ahead of 9pm yesterday evening - thank you! 

 

Thank you to everyone who has signed and who has promoted the petition on social media and by other means. It has been a joint effort and we are grateful to a wide mix of people including birders, shooters and conservationists for getting this petition over the line well ahead of the 6-month deadline. It should now be debated in Westminster Hall.  We have already persuaded Defra to consider changes to the shooting season and to consult with the other UK administrations on this matter. 

 

This subject was not on the political agenda before we, with your help, put it there. Thank you!

 

The petition remains active until 25 January so if you can find some other people to sign it, please do! Here is the link to the petition - click here.

 

 

Gamebirds and avian flu: we wrote to Defra asking them what they are going to do about the issue of catching up of gamebirds such as Pheasants. 'Catching up' is where released gamebirds are enticed back into captivity at the end of the shooting season (from now to the end of January) to form breeding stock for next year's releases. This is a controversial issue at a time of high levels of avian flu in wild bird populations and in commercial poultry flocks. Defra's reply was uncommunicative and rather sullen - click here. It's almost as though the regulators hadn't given this matter any thought and don't want people talking about the issue. We will follow this up but our guess is that Defra will not regulate the shooting industry - they hardly ever do!

 

Lead levels in game meat: you'll hear quite a lot from us over the next few months about lead levels in game meat - we've been buying game meat from a variety of sources and those samples are being analysed for their lead content now.  We'll bring you the news when we get it. But, by the way, despite our contacting them 10 days ago, the National Game Dealers Association website still maintains that their members are selling lead-free game meat - this simply isn't true - click here.

 

Northern Ireland: we are still waiting, with fingers crossed, for the results of our judicial review into a proposed Badger cull in Northern Ireland. We hope we'll have news, and we hope it will be good news, soon. Also in Northern Ireland, the general licences which permit killing of a variety of birds expire today and we expect new licences, and better licences, to come into existence tomorrow. However, we've been expecting these to appear for a while now and our experience of the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs is that they are usually late with their promises. We'll let you know what happens.

 

Sewage challenge: our biggest disappointment of 2022 was not getting permission for judicial review of Ofwat's failure to regulate sewage discharges. We are appealing that decision and received some information on that appeal just yesterday. What we don't yet know is when the appeal will be heard - we'll let you know when we know. But we have started further work on this important environmental issue in any case.

 

Birdwatch magazine Birders' Choice Awards: we've been nominated twice in the annual Birdwatch Magazine Birders' Choice Awards. First as Conservation Hero of the year and for the Campaign of the Year for our Woodcock petition and the work around it. You can also vote for the Guano Award for environmental harm - Chris Loder MP, 'Dorset is not the place for eagles to be reintroduced', must be a strong contender.  You can vote in all or some of the categories, and you certainly don't have to be a birder, but polling ends today so you'll have to be quick - click here.

 

If you like what we do and would like to make a general donation which will be used across our range of work, then please consider donating through PayPal, bank transfer or a cheque in the post - see details here.

 

That's it for now. Thank you so much for your support throughout 2022.We couldn't do any of this without you. A Happy New Year from Wild Justice!   

 

Thank you,

 

LAST TRIP OF THE YEAR

The morning of 29th December was cold but warming up PM to shorts weather. We went to El  Hondo to check out Snipe - Agachadiza Comun and to have a good look for a Jack Snipe - Agachadiza Chica. We checked out the photographs taken on Nikon P900 and now we would certainly be able to ID the smaller one. We didn’t get one but we have seen them before.

Water levels were high with little mud. A Robin - Petirrojo perched but not long enough for the photographer but it continued singing. White Wags - Lavandera Blanca are always around and one perched in the right place. Purple Gallinules/Swaphens - were plentiful

A Red-knobed Coot - Focha Moruna swam close and we have the photograph. One distant Common Sandpiper - Andarrios Chico

A White Wagtail posed for us on the boardwalk.

We took the long way home and were delighted to see five Booted Eagles - Aguila Calzada circling. 
This was our last trip out for 2022 and it has been a good one. I am still looking for those wintering Trumpeter Finches - Camachuela Trompetero though. Any sighting would be good. 

Three of the five Booted Eagles.

A Wasp helping us drink our post birding beer!

Best wishes for 2023.

DEAD PHEASANTS DUMPED AGAIN

 DEAD PHEASANTS FOUND DUMPED IN A RIVER IN NORTH YORKSHIRE 

A member of the public out for a Christmas Day walk yesterday on the edge of the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in North Yorkshire found a mass of dead pheasants floating in the River Derwent by the Howsham Bridge. Presumably these are pheasants that have been shot and then dumped. It […]

FROM ME. THE REMAINDER CAN BE READ ON RAPTOR PERSECUTION UK.

BOXING DAY HUNTERS AND MORE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY BY THE FOX KILLERS

 BOXING DAY HUNT NEWS FROM THE ‘SABS’

(GO TO THEIR WEBSITE FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHS)

Here is the latest news from the HSA.

On the biggest day of the hunting year, sabs have been out in force across the country, saving foxes and hares from the criminal hunters.

This, despite the fact that tooled-up hunters in the southwest spent Christmas night attacking sab vehicles in an orchestrated, pre-emptive strike. Several cars and Land Rovers belonging to Weymouth Animal Rights (WAR) and North Dorset Hunt Sabs had their tyres slashed, with hunters even breaking into a sab’s garage to carry out an attack. Needless to say, these cowardly actions failed to deter hunt saboteurs.

Also in the south west, Devon County Hunt Sabs faced down sustained violence from the Eggesford Hunt, with one sab being struck with a riding crop and another being hospitalised after they were knocked flying by terrierman’s quadbike.

Elsewhere in the country, sabs intervened at dozens of hunts, using time-honoured tactics to ensure that our wildlife can run free.

Away from the killing fields, the Countryside Alliance’s top brass had clearly been at the stirrup cup early and badly fluffed their lines on hunting’s big day!

While their hapless Chief Executive, Tim Bonner, was describing the Hunting Act as “a bad law passed for bad reasons”, his organisation’s Chair – ex-Policing Minister Nick Herbert – was praising it as “perfectly effective” legislation. Make your mind up!

A HSA spokesperson commented, “Fox hunters are going to increasingly extreme lengths to avoid scrutiny by hunt sabs. Whether it is vandalising our vehicles on Christmas night or getting the Defence Secretary to intervene on their behalf – as Ben Wallace did with the Royal Artillery Hunt just the other day – there is nothing they won’t do to carry on hunting.”

Please donate here to Weymouth Animal Rights and here to North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs to get them back on the road.

LOST RAINFORESTS OF BRITAIN

When The Lost Rainforests of Britain campaign began in March 2021, Guy Shrubsole knew that Britain had once been home to large expanses of temperate rainforest and set out on a journey to bring these unique habitats back. This began with a public call to action to help map Britain’s lost rainforests. Over the past year and a half, members of the public have sent in hundreds of submissions, with photos and details of where they think they have found fragments of temperate rainforest. We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has got involved with this campaign and sent in a submission (all of the photos submitted can be found here). Your submissions help to demonstrate to Government that there is public interest in protecting and restoring temperate rainforest and that it should be considered a priority habitat. The updated map can be seen below: Over the past year and a half there has been an amazing amount of public support and interest in Britain’s temperate rainforest, and we hope this continues to grow and that more people get the chance to visit one of our beautiful rainforests. Earlier this year, we published a map of temperate rainforest revealing the extent of Britain’s surviving fragments of temperate rainforest and the rainforest zone, by combining datasets on rainfall, ancient woodlands and species records. The map of public submissions complements this by showing real life examples and photos submitted by the British public. We would like to thank Fern Owen for inputting the submissions into the map over the past few months. Finally, we are closing the submission form and won’t be adding further entries to the map going forward, but do continue to share and tag us at @LostRainforests on Twitter and Instagram in any rainforest photos you post!

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A WHIMBREL BEFORE CHRISTMAS - WHAT JOY

 It’s a regular occurrence on some mornings for some to walk along from Zenia Beach towards the south for a couple of miles and back A. It’s an amble for me searching the water and the shoreline rocks. There is not usually that much that pops up.

This morning fishing Cormorants - Cormorán Grande and I watched one having caught a fish, position it while ducking under with it and swallow head first. Black Redstarts - Colirrojo Tizon were around and then I got really lucky. It was feeding off the rocks and then I had to choose. It was not that easy in the low winter sun but a neat light median crown stripe was visible. Checking the books I still needed to be sure and then it flew calling as it went. It has got to be a Whimbrel - Zarapito Trinador and not the bigger Curlew - Zarapito Real. The call confirmed it. I watched it for over 20 minutes and with the closest views ever. Made my morning and Michelle saw it too.Merry Christmas to everyone.

HEN HARRIERS AGAIN

 

IT IS NOT ALRIGHT FOR HEN HARRIERS. THE SHOOTERS TALLY STANDS AT 77 KILLED OR MISSING ON OR NEAR TOO MOORLAND CROUSE SHOOTS

AND NOW FROM RAPTOR PERSECUTION

For anyone who still wants to pretend that the grouse shooting industry isn’t responsible for the systematic extermination of hen harriers on grouse moors across the UK, here’s the latest catalogue of crime that suggests otherwise. [This male hen harrier died in 2019 after his leg was almost severed in an illegally set trap that […]

Read more of this post

http://raptorpersecutionuk.org/2022/12/15/77-hen-harriers-confirmed-missing-or-illegally-killed-in-uk-since-2018-most-of-them-on-or-close-to-grouse-moors/

FOX HUNTERS BY A DIFFERENT NAME

 NOTE FROM ME; it is all about those hunters again and their re-branding. As the below article explains - nothing as changed!

Here is the latest news from the HSA.

Remember the Hans Christian Andersen folk tale where a couple of swindlers pose as weavers to supply lavish clothes to the Emperor that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent?

Now hold that thought and consider the formation of the new British Hound Sports Association, the organisation that has supposedly replaced the wholly discredited Hunting Office.

Over the last few years, hunting has been constantly on the back foot, a succession of incidents and convictions making headline news, from the infamous #smokescreen webinars right up to the recent Ollie Finnegan trial based on the seizure of his phone which contained highly incriminating evidence, corroborated by sab video footage. The Hunting Office – responsible for overseeing this absolute car crash of bad PR – had to go.

This led to the formation of the British Hounds Sports Association, a ‘new’ organisation which would apparently lead the way forward for hunting in the UK, a new force fighting for all of those involved in this minority pastime.

Except of course nothing has changed.

Do the elitist fox hunters behind this rebranding expect the wider hunting community to be stupid enough not to notice and buy – yes, there’s payment involved – into this?

The simple fact is, it doesn’t matter how many new clothes they dress it up in, hunting will never change. Fox hunts are criminal gangs who terrorise our wildlife under a thin veil of legitimacy. That veil has well and truly slipped.

A HSA spokesperson commented, 

“We strongly urge all hunt supporters to join the British Hound Sports Association. The Hunting Office did an outstanding job of destroying hunting, so it’s great to hear that the BHSA is a new organisation in name only. We very much hope that hunt supporters will continue to throw good money after bad by joining this inept organisation, which is peddling the same nonsense, written by the same people, from the same premises, as the disgraced Hunting Office. It is great to see that the much-vaunted re-launch of hunting is in such poor hands, and we look forward to many more self-inflicted PR disasters to come from the Hunting Office BHSA.”

The post The BHSA: The Emperor’s New Clothes appeared first on Hunt Saboteurs Association.

NOT BIRDING BUT PEOPLE

 

My note from me.

.It’s over. This World Cup Tournament to be embalmed in the pages of history. There has been hype and there are exceptional human beings who have thrilled us, exhilarated us and confounded us with their skill. I applaud Messi and Mbappe. We have every right to admire them. There are other skillful players out there too. This tournament was great because it was about the game, the football, the teams that made it there but above all of that it was the people who made it for me. The fans of all color and gaudy costumes, painted faces and the singing and dancing. People coming together. Yes, they were entertained by the best.

The final ceremony where Messi was shrouded in that gown by ‘the two most important people’ to make him look one of them! He soon got shed of it because he was then the important one and not them. Power to the little man. I loved that bit. It was the peoples’ tournament and will remain so. It is the fans that make it and not the trademarks of football clubs. Let’s support out local leagues and go to watch your hometown team

The next paras I have taken from Archie Bland of the Guardian

The trap of this World Cup, as Barney Ronay observed, is the way Fifa and Qatar have so ruthlessly co-opted everything beautiful about the game in the service of a “$7bn sporting extravaganza”, a tournament that is built on “a global labour market that drives migrant workers into lucrative near-captivity; a system Qatar did not create, which it has simply embodied with manic hypercompetence”.

Messi and Mbappé, he notes, are both “paid ambassadors of Qatar Sports Investments via dizzying contracts with Paris Saint-Germain”. This tournament’s success is “the real thing: end-to-end fully encrypted sportswashing. It is an incredible feat of will.”

Earlier in the tournament, chief executive Nasser al-Khater’s responded to a question about the death of a migrant worker by saying: “death is a part of life … we have a successful World Cup, and this is something you want to talk about right now?” The relative weight he attributed to those two priorities was borne out by this remarkable match’s ability to mute every other concern. It was grim, but not that surprising, to see Elon Musk and Jared Kushner cheerlessly watching on.

Messi floats above that reality, but his greatness does change it. One of the defining images of this tournament came in his walk to bring the trophy to his teammates, with Fifa President Gianni Infantino and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, at his side (pictured above). He began to move away, but there they still were in the background – clinging to his coattails, trailing in his wake.

RAZORBILLS ON TORREVIEJA

Out again on Friday 16th as we heard there were Razorbills - Alca Comun in the marina at Torrevieja and a Lesser-crested Tern had been photographed too. We didn’t see it but were able to identify where it had been seen. On the seaward side of the breakwater we had great views of Razorbills and Michelle took photos to prove it. She also watched a Sandwich Tern - Charran Patinegro and I had to make do with an Audouin’s Gull/Gaviota.

Michelle’s birds of the day were the Razorbills and that was a first for her in Spain. On the road to San Miguel she spotted, what could only be, a male Hen Harrier - Aguilucho Pálido and that would have been by species of the day. I will have to scan that bit of countryside again as we have seen harriers there before.  

Just a note: I have researched this tern - Thalasseus bengalen and in Spanish ‘golondrina de mar de cresta menor’ and this is where Sibley & bird.org are really useful. On migration it can be seen in coastal areas and it has bred in Delta de Ebro and Albufera. 

Happy birding and seasons greetings to all birders. 

Warwickshire Hunt Ltd has been issued with a Community Protection Notice

Warwickshire Rural Crime Team

5 mins•

Today we have served a Community Protection Notice to

Warwickshire Hunt Limited.

We've issued this because we gave Warwickshire Hunt a

warning notice in May 2022 about antisocial use of the

county road network. We continue to see unreasonable

and dangerous use of the roads.

This notice imposed conditions to address this behaviour

under the scope of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and

Policing Act 2014.

The conditions require Warwickshire Hunt to give us

advance notice of events, and details of the times and

locations of road crossing points. There are also

requirements to inform us about who will control dogs

during the event, and for the organisation to notify

participants about their responsibilities around crossing

roads at designated points. Breaching the conditions will

amount to a criminal offence.

This is a three-year notice, and the organisation has the

right of appeal within 21 days.

We have issued this notice because we're committed to

keeping the Warwickshire road network safe. We want to

prevent criminal behaviour that impacts our communities

using our roads safely.

We encourage anyone who witnesses or is impacted by

antisocial use of our roads to contact us so that we can respond.

This move comes after the hunt repeatedly ignored a warning that had been issued to them in May of this year.

My own comment is not just ‘wow’ but also exasperation as the continuing arrogance and scant regard for others. A very well done from Warwickshire Rural Crime Team - ‘policing for us’ and thank you.

There are far too many of us taking the planet’s resources

 

The email was in my inbox this morning and I am staggered to realise the enormity of our problem. The following below is copied from Mike Baillie of AVAAZ. I haven’t included their photograph of death of a  group of Giraffe dead on the ground. Take a look at their website and see for yourself.

Humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction.

As the human population tops 8 billion, the rest of life is being decimated. We've destroyed two-thirds of the rainforests, half the coral reefs, and a million species are now facing oblivion.

For the future of life on Earth, the next 2 days are absolutely critical.

Right now, governments and scientists are in final negotiations for a new global deal to stop the destruction of nature -- but there's real danger it will be weak and full of holes.

We literally have a few days to ensure leaders follow the science and give us a treaty that is ambitious enough to be a turning point for life on Earth. Our team is on the ground, going all out -- but your urgent support now could supercharge their crucial work!

If 40,000 make a small donation, we can shake the halls of power, at the talks and beyond, with the voices of Indigenous people, scientists, and millions of citizens. We'll face down the polluters and poachers, pushing leaders to do what the planet is screaming for.

I promise you this: we'll fight with every fibre of our being.

Because Earth can't wait anymore. For the bees, birds, bears, and every strand in the fragile web of life, join this deafening roar for the planet -- donate what you can now:

THE FIELDS AROUND EL HONDO, ALICANTE, SPAIN

We didn’t expect a mega morning and what we got  had to be enough. We always look for flooded fields and between the roundabout and Palm Farm there it was in the process of being flooded. So get out there and take a look.

It appears that the message had not got around with a number of Glossy Ibis - Morito Comun, some Cattle Egrets - Garcilla Bueyera and, of course White Wags - Lavandera Blanca and disappointingly no waders.

Then two Cranes - Grulla Comuntook off and flew towards Dolores.

A quick look at Santa Aguada where there was water in the lagoon and on the scrapes. Sadly no margins and no waders. The good news is that the wooden building is going to be put to good use. There will be a FB page for it and events are planned. I will stay in contact.

Two light morph Booted Eagles - Aguila Calzada and a couple of Buzzards - Busardo Ratonero were the only raptors. In fact the skies were as quiet as a disused airfield. But it was good to be out there.

ANOTHER UPDATE FROM THE HUNT SABS

 THIS SHOWS THE ARROGANCE OF FOX HUNTERS?

The stage was set: yet another huntsman in a long line of sheepish-looking bumpkins arrived at court to answer charges of illegal hunting. Journalists were prepped for a drawn-out trial, but suddenly the phrase “pleaded guilty” rippled through social media networks.

Eyebrows were raised across the board. While normally hunters would swear blind that they weren’t breaking the law until the very last gasp, against all odds the huntsman of one of the most famous hunts in the country – the Quorn of Leicestershire – held his hands up and admitted his guilt.

The reason swiftly became apparent. The evidence was stacked against him not only with hunt sabs filming his activity but by his own hand in years’ worth of messages containing admissions of guilt, stored on his own mobile phone which had been seized by police earlier in the year.

It seems the Quorn’s Mr Finnegan had not been paying attention to the infamous Hunting Office webinars, where ex-police office and hunt master Paul Jelley had advised hunters to carry burner phones for the purpose of concealing criminality:

So something for you hunt staff and terriermen, trail layers and everybody to consider, if you’re recording evidence for the Hunting Act, trail laying, whatever, don’t use the same phones or anything you’ve been using for social media and bragging about what you’ve been doing out hunting.”

Confronted by the stark reality that a huntsman had been hoisted by his own petard, the Hunting Office – now rebranded to the blander ‘British Hound Sports Association’ – were pressed for comment. Of course, to do anything other than to accept the court’s decision would have been monumentally self-defeating for the hunting bigwigs, so the second line of defence was wheeled out.

The BHSA stated to the press, “this matter has been referred to the Hound Sports Regulatory Authority” (HSRA). But what does this actually mean?

The HSRA are a body dreamt up in the wake of the webinars scandal: a desperate attempt to portray some sort of regulation of the terminally soiled world of hunting. The only hint as to the makeup of this body has been that they are formed from the old Hunting Office.

That would famously be the Hunting Office who were responsible for exposing the entire industry of hunting as one of corruption and ritualised animal abuse. The laughing sneer of Lord Mancroft as he advised to make sure that hunt followers weren’t recording while saying, “Isn’t it marvellous that they haven’t seen us because we’ve just caught a fox behind them” still echoes.

The formation of the HSRA was announced on 10th June 2022 and has had numerous instances of abuse ‘referred’ to it. However, at no point has the membership of this body been disclosed. The reason being, of course, either that the HSRA is made up of the same guilty hunters that the Hunting Office was, or even that it simply does not exist at all.

Unbelievably, less than twenty-four hours after his conviction for a “pattern of offending over a period of time” Finnegan had donned his red coat and was back out hunting foxes again in Cheshire. So much for being referred to the ‘Authority’: in any other industry an immediate suspension would have followed.

A HSA spokesperson commented, “It is clear that when hunters say that an incident is being referred to a body staffed by their own kind, they are of course just “marking their own homework”. No group of habitual lawbreakers such as fox hunters, can ever be trusted to monitor their own activity.

The only answer to this continued rural anarchy is a simple and straightforward outright ban on hunts and hunting kennels. They have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted, and now this abused trust needs to be withdrawn completely.”

SOMETIMES THERE IS JUSTICE! THIS IS ONE MORE FROM THE HUNT SABS

 

Here is the latest news from the HSA. (5TH DEC)

Ollie Finnegan – ex-huntsman of Leicestershire’s Quorn Hunt – pleaded guilty to Hunting Act offenses today. The evidence consisted of dozens of WhatsApp messages found on Finnegan’s phone after it was seized by Police.

Sabs from Herefordshire and Three Counties were due to be witnesses in the case though, in the event, Finnegan’s guilty plea meant a trial did not take place.

While most of the messages have not been released, magistrates said they demonstrated a “pattern of offending over a period of time.”

Those in the public domain are absolutely damning about fox hunting in 2022. In one exchange, Finnegan openly discusses illegal hunting with a hunter from Gloucestershire’s Ledbury Hunt. In other messages, Finnegan discusses hunting with his bosses at the Quorn Hunt.

As with the Hunting Office webinars before them, these WhatsApp messages show the routine nature of the criminality at the heart of the hunting community.

UPDATE ON MYSTERY CATERPILLAR

In addition to my post of 5th December. You never know what can be found if you are out there. We are birders but I find it odd, (even peculiar!) not to pay attention to the small stuff. Some days have been quiet birding days but the butterflies (Mariposas) have made that day a beautiful and a much better one.

We asked around for conformation of what this caterpillar could be. It is a Lasiocampo Serrula. The location for our photos were on the edge of a lagoon at San Pedro del Pinatar on the border of Murcia with Alicante. A little research shows it can be found in Southern England and Wales. With one location identified at Dungeness. A brown moth with a white mark on each wing. Birds are a full time interest for many of us and moths and butterflies and everything else that is small and flies is sometimes too much to take in! Anyway it is all out there.

Birds of Spain gave us a warning that there site was for birds only. They might have got the hump because we put three photos on and that might have been one too many. Fair enough but we only asked and said you can delete it if you wish. Some people are so ‘precious’ and a warning about not being curious - was that necessary. After all the small stuff are all part of the birding food chain. Perhaps the keyboard warrior was having an off-day? 

This probably will not be my last post for 2022 but if it is do what you can for wildlife. These two birds made me smile a lot. One amazing first with Bryan up Monnegre was the Orphean Warbler which was delightful and just recently the Grey Phalarope at La Mata. All I need is the Rednecked one to fly in.