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| RSPB LIVERPOOL'S HEN HARRIER CHAMPIONS |
A momentous weekend is over and all the RSPB Liverpool group members
should be proud of the Harrier twelve who stood, shouted and were counted
supporting the Hen Harrier day in the peak district.
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| At the Palace |
I
should say weekend really, as it’s the second Hen harrier day and it's evolving. It actually started on Saturday at 6.30pm - Hen Harrier Eve, in the high peak room of Buxton's Palace Hotel. 300
tickets were sold, 290 turned up and I was one of them.
There
followed 2 hrs of speeches, conversation, videos and Chris Packham
roaring. Mark Avery presented and introduced the evening.
First up was Susan Cross and Gordon MacLellan, who gave us
a snippet from an Arthurian story of Sir
Gawain and the green knight, Gawain set out in search of the green knight at the green chapel, and
his journey took him to the Peak District - to put the local home of the
Hen Harrier in context.(I admit a little complicated to follow at times, Olde English speak)
By the way I found a section
in the pearl poet's account of St Gawain's journey a little closer to home,
didn’t speak well of our patch!
“till
he neared the neighborhood of North Wales,
held
all the isles of Anglesey on his left
and
reached the river where its headlands rose
high
near Holyhead, and held on across
through
the Forest of Wirral. Few or none lived there
whom God could love,
or a good-hearted man.
And he
asked often, of all whom he met
if they
could give him news of a green knight
or how
he could get to the Green Chapel.
Followed by a speech from Mike Clarke, RSPB CEO, supporting
the Hen harrier day (he came on Sunday as well with quite a few staff) enforcing the RSPB’s determination to fight
Hen Harrier persecution and remarking on
it’s battles with the’ You forgot the birds’ group ,batting against criticism, slurs and lies. His presence was applauded as
the RSPB have been seen by some as sitting on the fence a little.
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| Mark Cocker |
Mark Cocker, Buxton-born author, then stood up and gave a very interesting talk on birds of prey and are relationships with them.
Culturally respected, symbols of prestige, worship, strength and loyalty. For example in history eagles and vultures
were revered by the ancient civilisations such as the Egyptians and Syrians, to
the American emblem, St Johns eagle on the pulpit of your local church, native
American headdresses, to the more sinister luftwaffe symbol. And now demonised,
nuisance to grouse moor owners, killers of ...mmmh (http://markcocker.com/birds-and-people/4577013576)
Next up Mark cocker again , this time in conversation with Turner Prize winner 2004 Jeremy Deller.
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| World famous - A good day for cyclists |
Remember
‘A good day for cyclists’ the enormous ringtail Hen Harrier mural, clutching a
blood-red Range Rover in its talons. Deller a
cyclist in London, fed up of being barged off roads by so called 'Chelsea
Tractors, so he had a wee dig at the Range Rover driving fraternity. The hen harrier?
Something to do with a certain member of
royalty and Chelsea tractor driver who allegedly shot 2 Hen Harriers over the Sandringham Estate, Norfolk in
2007.
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| Monarchs of the Glen -Jeremy Deller |
Another controversial image by Deller which includes a Hen
Harrier entitled Monarchs of the Glen (Richard
Benyon MP has an unexpected meeting on his grouse moor with some raptors)
Jeremy
then indulged in a spot of fundraising, selling signed stamps for the audience
to purchase- raised nearly 650 quid for
Birders against Wildlife Crime!!
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| Findley Wilde shows off his Deller print |
Findley Wilde followed with his video ‘mash-up’ showing the
construction of his stone effect grouse butt which was on stage and reappeared
in the quarry the following day. Findley is certainly going to be one to watch!
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| Chris Packham |
Last on was Chris Packham - the Lion of Goyt.
Another
rousing, inspirational speech, starting with how he got into birds when young
and linked this into the millions of birds that have disappeared from our
countryside since then.
He
referenced the usefulness of social media - google and twitter. 118 million
pages on the recent killing of ’Cecil the lion’ one of Zimbabwe's most
loved reserve lions. Hen harrier day 2015 had 239, 000 pages but it will grow and hen
harriers will become a focus for that.
Quotes
“People are tired of animal life being wasted
and particularly when that life is becoming increasingly rare”
“‘Killing
hen harriers is illegal. We are not here to voice our opinion; we are here to
ask for the law of the land to be upheld so that this persecution stops”
“The
type of shooting practised here developed in Edwardian times and they still
want to do that”.
“Shooting
for conservation is an oxymoronic lie”
“Just
like the hen harrier, Cecil was a symbol of something far greater, Cecil became
a symbol of the fact the world has become intolerant of this sort of wastage of
our wildlife”
“We're not going away because we're right”
“Lets
cut the crap, shall we; those birds were shot, poisoned and trapped”
“I came here last year as a man, this year I came here with
the rage of a lion, if you kill 5 more, you’re taking on a tyrannosaur”
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| Crowds gather at the quarry |
Next day I was in the Goyt Valley with the rest of the team. Sunday morning 9th August with, I guess 500 other folk.
We weren’t really alone in our quest though, there were others as Hen Harrier events up and
down the country. Down south in Dorset at the RSPB reserve at Arne 130
people attended their event. At RSPB Saltholme in Cleveland, 70 attended and were treated to a
talk by David Lindo
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| Tayside team |
At Loch
Turret Andrea Hudspeth (Our Terry was there) reported ‘Hen Harrier Day Tayside went off
without a hitch and was attended by around 70 harrier fans from far and wide
across Scotland. Despite the wet weather, our spirits were not dampened.’
In Dunsop Bridge, Forest of
Bowland 90 or so people came
to the day. Interesting- Terry Pickford believes the
supporters mood is changing wanting more radical action, catalysed after the disappearance
of the 5 male hen harriers, and may now be willing next year to disrupt a grouse shoot!
It was a warm sunny day, and rather
than the sodden 570, we were more likely
to be sunburnt and sadly cursed by
biting insects that devoured those unfortunate party members in shorts!
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| Along the River Goyt, packhorse bridge |
The Goyt valley walk
along the river is beautiful, however further up the slopes a large area of
burnt, cut moorland was clearly visible, an ugly patchwork, on a spectacular
vista, a pertinent reminder of another reason why we were there - the
damage that is inflicted on our natural environment in the name of management.
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| Scarred moorland above Goyt quarry |
We came with our friends, our colleagues, our
families, our banners and even our dogs (poodles were popular!) and most
importantly our hearts and voices.
And we listened and applauded
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| We owed Henry a group hug, what a star |
RSPB's Jeff Knott.
“The more you try to silence
us, the louder our voice will become, we will not rest until hen harriers fly
free over England’s uplands again, and we will never ever give up”
Mark Avery
“2000 pairs of these birds missing from our
land this is awful- the more that the public know about driven grouse shooting,
the more the public will question it’s
very existence.
Jo Smith , CEO Derbyshire Wildlife Trust
“We want to see these magnificent
birds back here in their rightful home, dancing in the sky”
Chris Packham
Hen Harrier day review
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| That bloke Packham gets in on the act |
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| Mark Avery and our mate Tim Melling |
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| Colin Wells from RSPB Burton Mere & RSPB Liverpool members |
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| Mike Clarke and RSPB team |
Tomorrow is penned the glorious 12th, and according to the weather forecast for
Derbyshire it promises to be that. However I don’t see it being a delightful or enjoyable day for the birds
that are about to be slaughtered in their thousands. There is no glory or honour in what these
people do.
As a wildlife lover
and birdwatcher I cannot fathom how you can feel pleasure by killing hundreds
of innocent, unthreatening creatures in the name of sport, oh what fun.
Latest news from RSPB Scotland reports that Annie one of the Langholme Harriers met her end, she certainly got her gun
"Post-mortem confirms hen harrier found dead on grouse moor was shot, we're appealing for info:
Our day has gone, but
the fight continues, we will not stand idly by, our song is true and we’ll win
through.
Laura
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| At the tea rooms, cat and fiddle, celebratory tea and cake - of course! |
