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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tideliner" data-source="post: 1411600" data-attributes="member: 49435">The picture about hen harriers , shooting interests and moorland is not so black and white as it might apear.  I cant condone the shooting of any raptor let alone hen harriers and any one who does so deserves the to feel the full weight of the law. However it’s a fact that the future of our moor land is closely linked to grouse shooting interests. The management of a grouse moor is so beneficial to so many other birds and many surveys have found  that the majority of grouse moors have higher densities and variety of species than unmanaged non shooting moor lands. Grouse shooting costs a hell of a lot of money and that money is ploughed into the moor management primarily to produce more grouse , but the side effect is to provide prime upland bird habitat which understandable the hen harrier wants to share. In  small numbers the harriers have little impact on the grouse numbers , but as their numbers increase then they start to have a negative impact. As the grouse numbers decline so the money to plough back into the moor drops until a point is reached where the grouse shooting is no longer financially viable. The moor is ether neglected or turned over to high stocking level sheep farming , and the bird life further declines.  It’s a sad fact that bird rich moor land needs grouse shooting to maintain it as prime habitat.On another point hen harriers have attempted to nest in east Anglia in recent years , but have come into conflict with marsh harriers and their nests have failed.</blockquote>

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