Thread by @TLWforCumbria

On a whim, I went looking for wildlife crimes today.

It was an excellent day out.
Starred a few of #thelostwords too.

THREAD

@RuthTingay @ChrisGPackham @DtrCathleen @BerzinsBob @AmyJaneBeer @naturalistdara @MarkAvery @guyshrubsole @RSPBbirders

Heather by @JackieMorrisArt

On Wednesday, grouse moors begin shooting.
Last week, I got an old Wainwright fell guide. I'd noticed this comment today, written back in 1974 when I was a toddler.

I met teachers from Yorkshire waiting for their small bubble to complete their @DofE - complimented them on getting them out on the moors.
They knew about the unsustainable mess 'driven grouse shooting' had got itself into back home. Met their student explorers 10 minutes later.

I'd visited this moor before, but that was before I'd met @IoloWilliams2 and learned what to look out for.

This moor is used by a local college to train young gamekeepers to kill wildlife legally.
Here's their genuine recruitment video. Not a spoof.

The college is in dire straits now and due to shut in a year. Personally, I'm not sure they were keeping up with the times, the new drive for sustainable rural environments & the changing nature of our countryside.
But it's a truly sad outcome for young students in Cumbria.

The state of the college made me concerned about how/if they were keeping things right on the moor.
Gamekeepers use traps to legally kill wildlife but must check them regularly & comply with law.
The old traps looked neglected but...had no mechanisms?
Perhaps they'd given up?

I saw odd fenceposts through my binoculars...surely the pole traps (illegal for over a century) found in Scotland & elsewhere weren't out on a training moor?

As I walked towards them - this. I told you it was fun!

I thought of @cerysmatthews reading 'Adder' by @RobGMacfarlane

I crossed over by a 'missing' trap and called in at 'The Gray Bull' for lunch, as Alfred Wainwright recommended.

Sounds like a pub but is tons of Shap Granite.
The ale was actually from down south.

So that's three things I like from Wolverhampton. @caitlinmoran @MissLizBerry

More posts marked where 'medicated grit' was laid, to keep birds well enough to be shot dead.
(Sounds a bit like being prison doctor on Death Row to me).

But I'd not found illegal traps. This year.
I found some elsewhere last year.
Tell you about them tomorrow.

Oh. Deer!

There's sadly the need for another petition, due to the inaction by government to deal with moorland burning, flood risk & carbon release linked to erosion, bird of prey persecution, poisoning & illegal trapping.

Our missing hen harriers symbolise this:

wildjustice.eaction.org.uk/saveourskydanc…

Lastly, if you think, "surely not in lovely Cumbria! That sort of thing only goes on in Yorkshire, the Peak District, Scotland...doesn't it?"

This is one of the reasons why I care about Cumbrian wildlife crime:

thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/16603412.…