If you read the papers and believed some of the wildlife-crime reports, you might be under the impression that there is barely a bird-of-prey left on a grouse moor.
Nothing could be further from the truth. A well run grouse moor attracts raptors like bees to a honey pot. When shooting recently, I saw peregrines, harriers, sparrow hawks and a red kite. I missed spotting the eagle.
Landowners should be congratulated for creating a habitat that is ideal for both grouse and raptors at the cost of often hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. However, a balance needs to be met between grouse and the raptors that prey on them for this investment to continue. Without a balance, the raptors will reduce the numbers of grouse to a level that is unsustainable, at which point, the moor will be abandoned, to the detriment of grouse, raptors and the local community.
Protection has been necessary to increase our bird-of prey numbers from, in some cases, almost extinction; now, we need to find a consensus on a suitable balance between grouse and raptors to guarantee a future for all the birds of our man-managed wild moors.
-
Chelsea Flower Show 2025: What else to do in SW3 if you're coming to the world's greatest flower showThere's more to Chelsea than just the Flower Show so we've rounded up some of the best places to eat, stay and shop.
-
Uniquely unique? The Yorkshire grain silos transformed into a home that's a symphony in glass, steel and curvesAmid the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire, on the edge of the Castle Howard Estate, The Silos is a property for which the word 'house' simply doesn't cut it. And that's not the only way in which it's made us throw out the dictionary.
