CSM EDITORIAL
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is responsible for dishing out licences to bird monitors. And such an established body would – one would hope – do some basic due diligence on those licensed operatives doing the counting in their name.
Sadly, for a very long while now, raptor persecution has been the weapon anti grouse shooting animal rights extremists have chosen to claim that gamekeepers are responsible for the loss of all tagged raptors and other birds. This is despite clear evidence that these birds die for all kinds of innocent reasons and for more ironic ones, notably getting slain by the blades of wind turbines so beloved of environmentalist radicals demanding a green energy revolution due to ‘climate emergency’.
It seems that the propagandists are becoming BTO monitors and they’re fiddling the numbers of raptors and other birds when they hand in their counts.
None of this should be surprising. For radicals, the end always justifies the means.
Take the case of reporting of Golden Eagle numbers in the Angus area on the table below:
It is believed there are closer to double figures in the Angus area, not the single golden eagle reported.
A retired local gamekeeper laments, “What’s the best way to promote the myth that the Angus Glens are low in raptors? See none and report less. This area, which is allegedly a persecution hot spot, you would think would be a priority for monitoring but it seems this is not the case as only one eagle nest is being monitored?”
There is little doubt from those on the ground that the propagandists are active in Angus, massaging stats to suit their political agenda.
“It wasn’t too long ago one very experienced monitor, who reported several successful merlin nests in the Angus glens had, unbeknown to him at the time, his figures doctored by the Scottish Raptor Study Group (SRSG), reducing the numbers he had found,” claimed one country worker.
“How honest are these people and how much is their agenda to stop grouse shooting affecting their overall figures regarding raptors? Remember Ian Thomson of the RSPB not so long ago declared there was nothing in these glens but grouse. They were ecological deserts according to him!” declared another.
German scientists reported masses of waders successfully nesting in the glens only to be dismissed as not credible by those (not credible) loudmouths connected to the monitoring and calling for grouse shooting to be banned.
It seems these false figures on raptors are being fiddled in a bid to have the government and public believe the lies and misinformation published by the anti grouse shooting activists who have inveigled their way now into monitoring.
BTO needs to clean its house of these people to protect its integrity as a charity and to demarcate between the Truth and these extremists who do not care for objective science. The BTO’s Registered Charity Numbers are 216652 (for England & Wales) and SC039193 (for Scotland) if you wish to contact the Charity Commission or Fundraising Regulator.
It is surely not beyond the wit of man for august organisations to work with government to establish an independent body to hold and issue monitor licences while providing tracking data free to all sides in terms of access. This way the propagandists can be weeded out and barred from monitoring while policy can be established on the back of sound statistics rather than bogus data massaged to thwack the shooting industry (and associated industries) with.
If any readers have further examples of dodgy monitors, please get in touch.
We all love God’s creatures. It’s a shame there are still shrill pygmies in Britain who weaponise them because they cannot answer back.