Despite what many ardent anti-grouse shooting campaigners would have you believe, the UK’s bird of prey population is booming.
This is inconvenient for people like Mark Avery, Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham who depend on widespread doom-mongering in order to make a living and stay relevant.
They doom-monger to manipulate and stir-up people's emotions. They use images to turn people against what they perceive to be elitist landowners. Instead it is the hard-grafting people of these moorland communities, whose livelihoods depend on moorland management, that bear the brunt of this. Yes, there are a very small number of isolated wildlife crimes that take place every year – and these are taken advantage of by people like Avery, despite making up a tiny percentage when compared to population numbers.
The simple fact is that birds of prey are doing fantastically in the UK and their numbers continue to increase year on year. So, rather than listen to Mark Avery and Chris Packham, we instead urge you to listen to the voices of honest conservationist groups and people.
And let's celebrate on the 8th of August.