Hen Harrier Day

I was asked to gift a print of a Hen Harrier to be raffled at a Hen Harrier Day in The Forest of Bowland by Terry Pickford, the organiser of this annual event.

The purpose of the demo is to protest against the persecution of Hen Harriers by the Grouse shooting fraternity. Unfortunately despite all the efforts of Terry and his group, there are now no Hen Harriers in this region. This has nothing to do with natural selection or environmental factors but simply the shooting and poisoning of these beautiful birds by gamekeepers. Some of the accounts of the persecution of individual harriers and collusion between police and landowners sounds like a conspiracy theory but is sadly what happens when pressure groups go up against the establishment. When you know the amount of money at stake, with shooters flying in from abroad and paying mind boggling sums of money for a days shoot, you realise that the welfare of any wildlife is considered irrelevant.

On a more pleasant note, the lady who won my print, herself a very active advocate for raptors,  was absolutely thrilled with the print and contacted me afterwards to thank me. It was most gratifying.