Shooting and fishing: Skydancers 2011-2015; a more whimsical and cuddly title it is hard to imagine

I think I may have discovered why the RSPB got so worked up about the signed “Loon” cartoons for sale on behalf of the Heather Trust.

The cartoons, you may remember, showed two neighbouring estates. On one side of a fence labelled Geltsdale RSPB were a lot of miserable looking birds and animals. On the other a cheery collection of grouse, pheasants and deer.

The cartoons reflected the result of a 2008 report from Natural England which showed wildlife was rather more plentiful on the moors managed for grouse shooting than on Geltsdale where, in spite of being nice to everything and not shooting the grouse, the RSPB have been unable to breed any hen harriers.

Raptor extremists blame trespassing grouse moor gamekeepers for killing the Geltsdale harriers. The RSPB felt the cartoons were in jolly poor taste and unlikely to improve relations with the shooting world.

Now, as it happens, I could sort of see the RSPB’s point of view. Sort of. The cartoons are pretty Blimpish in tone, if nicely executed. But they were hardly being advertised on Facebook; simply among a relatively small number of heather moorland managers and everyday country folk. The RSPB’s almost hysterical reaction seemed odd. But a few weeks later all became clear.

The Lottery Heritage Fund announced it was giving the RSPB £317,000 for a project called Skydancers 2011-2015; a more whimsical and cuddly title it is hard to imagine.

The cash is to secure the future of the hen harrier as a breeding bird in, admittedly, England where it hardly breeds at all – there are 646 territorial pairs in the UK of which 489 are in Scotland.

So we can see now that putting up for sale cartoons critical of the RSPB’s moorland management on the eve of the LHF funding announcement terrified the hell out of the RSPB.

Anyway, they’ve got the loot. But it does beg the question; why should we be shelling out our lottery cash to an organisation with an income of £120 million a year that can’t breed harriers on its own moor?

But then Skydancer is to “work with local communities to raise awareness of hen harriers...”

The trouble is that suspicious folk will believe this is simply a Lottery-funded propaganda war to convince school children all gamekeepers are poisonous and hell bent on eradicating hen harriers from the moors to preserve their grouse.

It will be interesting to see how they get on with rural schools populated by the sons and daughters of keepers – and if harriers eventually return to Geltsdale.