To make sense of the figures for 2023 UK Hen Harrier numbers, released today by RSPB, they need to be seen in context. There are five important contextual considerations. There are pretty good estimates of how many pairs of Hen Harriers could exist in different parts of the UK in the absence of illegal persecution…
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RSPB press release – UK Hen Harrier survey results
Hen Harrier survey results 2023: Numbers improve, but much more to be done Numbers of one of the UK’s rarest birds of prey, the Hen Harrier, are increasing across the UK, but their future still hangs in the balance according to a new survey. Results of the 2023 Hen Harrier survey have been released, which…
Guest blog – The Midhope track by Bob Berzins
Bob Berzins is a campaigner and activist. His previous guests blogs here all focus on the management, or mismanagement, of upland areas such as the Peak District, Walshaw Moor and the North York Moors. See also his novel Snared. In 2014 and 2015 two surfaced tracks were constructed on the grouse moors of the north…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 34 by Christopher Goddard
Christopher Goddard is a cartographer and writer whose hand-drawn guidebooks and maps cover the West Yorkshire landscape in intimate detail. Born in Sheffield, he has lived in Hebden Bridge for nearly 20 years and explored most corners of the area’s moors and woods. There is more information at christophergoddard.net . Turbine 34: White Swamp…
Sunday book review – Cairn by Kathleen Jamie
Kathleen Jamie is Scotland’s National Poet or Makar, and this book is a collection of personal notes, prose poems, micro-essays and fragments. The idea is that they are arranged here like the stones of a cairn. I was slightly nervous that this might be too ‘literary’ for me – but it wasn’t. Here are…