Felix wrote:Hi John,
That's an interesting comment; would you care to elaborate upon your views and what has drawn you to this conclusion?
Having read comments on other websites as well as more lengthy missives in one or two publications I know that you are not alone in your sentiment.
Felix.
Half a century ago I was a member of the then fledgling Young Ornithologists Club. I attended a couple of residential courses at their new headquarters at Sandy. I had ringed enough birds on migration through Dungeness to qualify for my ringing licence. I watched corvids die in agony from mercury seed dressings, I sent the carcasses to the RSPB who were instrumental in getting a ban on the substance. I then joined the army, saw the world and developed an interest in birds without feathers. Later, when I settled back into the countryside I found that the RSPB had changed from being a charity run for the benefit of wild birds and its members to one of political dogma, an avowed hatred of all country sports, a belief that all gamekeepers are criminals. A promoter of the global warming theory and a charity for whom the word pragmatic does not exist.
I could go on about the mismanagement of moorland that the RSPB owns, where there is more wildlife on neighbouring managed grouse moors, because the RSPB will not control predation, nor burn the heather. I can mention the Society's almost rabid promotion of raptors over all other wildlife and farming. I do not condone the shooting or poisoning of any raptor but in certain areas the numbers of red kites and buzzards are causing problems. Over the last few days I have been keeping an eye on a buzzard that has been spending too much time in a oak tree overlooking my chicken run. Bunny huggers will tell you that buzzards only eat carrion - wrong - I have watched them
eat and then kill pheasant poults and having developed a taste for them they will continue to attack the birds as they mature.
What frightens me most about the RSPB is its meddling in legislative matters for they are behind a number of amendments to the Scottish Wildlife & Natural Environment Bill. They would like every shooting estate north of the border to apply for a licence, which could be revoked if a dead raptor were found on their land (have you seen a 100 year old Sparrow Hawk?), what's more they would like the land owner to be vicariously liable for such a dead bird, especially if he is an absentee landlord. The RSPB are supporting attempts by the SSPCA to have their inspectors' powers increased so that they can police "wildlife crime" rather like the increased powers that the RSPCA have wangled in England. Now there is another organisation I despise, if for no more reason than on two occasions when I reported cruelty cases to them they have done nothing - no investigation, no relief for the animals.
One of the reasons I like butterfly conservation people is that they are mostly pragmatic about wildlife. They accept that with encouragement and a little advice shooting estates and farming can help butterflies. On the shoot that borders my garden there is the last of 50 kilos of millet growing amongst the maize for the flocks of finches that it is supporting through the snow, the sainfoin, pharsalia and annual wildflower seed has already been ordered for next year's butterflies, this will be sown on the headlands of the fields of game cover.
When charities are small they can serve both the interest of their purpose and that of their members; when they expand to over half a million members they become corporations with the member's subscriptions feeding the management's greed for power. So for the New Year let's work to keep Butterfly Conservation small, healthy and wealthy.
John
