FROM WILD JUSTICE— AN AMAZING UPDATE ON EVERYTHING & THE BIRDS OF POOLE HARBOUR

Good morning, Today’s newsletter is an update on what we’ve been up to, including an amazing weekend with the charity Birds of Poole Harbour, and a look back at our stall and show at Wild Summit in Bristol in September. We also bring you a reminder about Defra’s Call for Evidence on gamebird shooting (deadline 1 November!). Wild Justice takes to the waves! Last weekend we hosted two special events in Poole, Dorset where we were privileged to be joined by over 140 Wild Justice friends, donors and supporters. Thanks to our good friends at the charity Birds of Poole Harbour, we enjoyed two bird-watching cruises, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, where guests were able to see the rich biodiversity of this site, including good views of White-tailed Eagles, Spoonbills, Great White Egrets, a late Osprey, Marsh Harriers, a Hobby, Sandwich Terns and Mediterranean Gulls. The opportunity to watch reintroduced White-tailed Eagles was a highlight for many of us, but it was sobering to learn that in the last four years, two of the eagles that were regularly seen around Poole Harbour have since become the victims of illegal persecution – including the first White-tailed Eagle to fledge in Dorset in over 240 years. Both incidents were linked to gamebird shooting. You can read more about these cases here and here. No one has been charged in connection with either of these offences. Photos: Sandwich Tern, White-tailed Eagle and Spoonbills (Credit: Marc Ruddock). The Birds of Poole Harbour team is punching well above its weight, not only directly involved in species reintroductions and monitoring programmes, but also enabling tens of thousands of people, including many local school children, to see some incredible wildlife and stunning habitats around the Harbour. These trips are hugely valuable – allowing people to connect with nature and understand more about our natural world, bird life, the importance of habitat management and protection and species recovery. They’re also terrific fun! We had great chats throughout the afternoon and have since had really lovely feedback from those who managed to come along. We were inundated with applications to join us on the day and only wish we could have managed to take you all on board! We will do it again down the line, so will keep you posted. We’d like to thank Birds of Poole Harbour for having us aboard and the team at Careys Secret Garden for generously hosting us on Saturday night at such a magical venue. Special thanks to sculptor Mark Butler and author Gregory Norminton who presented their evocative Ghost Skydancer piece. The audience was clearly moved. Gamebird shooting: Call for Evidence! Last month Defra announced its Call for Evidence on gamebird shooting, which is due to close on 1 November 2026. This is a really important opportunity for you to voice any issues you’ve experienced relating to Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Red Grouse and Mallard shooting. Alongside scientific evidence, Defra is asking for personal evidence/experience. If you’ve ever had a Pheasant collide with your vehicle, found dumped dead gamebirds, been harassed by gamekeepers or refused access to land, suffered disturbance, found a shot, trapped or poisoned bird of prey, had gamebirds trashing your garden… or any other detrimental impacts, please respond to Defra before the closing date (1 November). Your voice really counts on this and is a real opportunity to drive some significant policy change around gamebird shooting. You can respond using the online form or by email. For more information and the link to the Defra webpage follow this link to our recent blog. If you’ve already responded, we’d like to say a massive thank you! And thanks also to those who have shared their responses with us. The Call for Evidence is getting a lot of interest, including from the brilliant comedian 'Lord' Christian Brighty. Follow this link to YouTube to watch his informative and entertaining piece about Pheasant shooting. You can also find him on Instagram and TikTok. ‘Lord’ Christian Brighty packs in lots of jaw dropping stats, whilst covering the why, who and how we’ve got to where we are with the large-scale releases of these non-native, captively reared gamebirds. Pheasant takeover at Wild Summit In September we returned to the Wild Summit event in Bristol with leaflets, banners and a massive Pheasantasaurus Rex P-Rex was a hit! Our (Jurassic Park-inspired) monster Pheasant really helped to demonstrate the incredible and absurd scale of Pheasant releases in the UK. It also hinted at things to come, with a heads up about our next campaign... watch this space! At Wild Summit, Wild Justice also took to the stage with our show, ‘Fowl Play: The Unpheasant Truth’. With props-a-plenty, superb acting and some eye-watering Pheasant stats, our amazing comedy duo, Rosie Holt (a.k.a. Harriet Langley Swindon) and Henry Morris, drew back the theatrical curtain on the ludicrous reality of Pheasant shooting. Over 200 people squeezed into the hall to watch their theatrics, and the show was the highlight of the day for many visitors, so we’re told. Photos credit: James Benwell Our CEO, Bob Elliot also took to the stage, on the panel for ‘England’s Great Landscapes: the backbone of nature or beyond repair’ which you can watch here. Photo credit: James Benwell Bob highlighted challenges around landscape restoration and protected areas management and mentioned our legal challenge in 2020 that forced Defra to strengthen protection for wildlife and important habitats from the mass releases of non-native gamebirds for recreational shooting (read more about it here). He also highlighted that legislation, effective protected areas designation and good management, is crucial to the rewilding and restoration of our landscapes. Bob highlighted some of Wild Justice’s recent work linked to landscape protection, including our legal case looking at grazing on Dartmoor and our latest Wild Justice report ‘Unprotected Nature’ which you can read here. We’ll be in touch soon to update you on a new legal challenge we’ve been working on. Thank you, Wild Justice (CEO: Bob Elliot. Directors: Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay). This is the 275th Wild Justice newsletter. 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