birdgirl: May 2017

Sunday, 21 May 2017

Vote NO to Conservatives bringing back barbaric hunting with dogs

I am sure you are aware that we have a general election on 6 June 2017. Teresa May has announced that if she forms the next government she will have a free vote on bringing back hunting with dogs. This would make it legal again to not just chase foxes, hare, deer and other animals with packs of dogs until the petrified animals are completely exhausted but to then set packs of dogs onto them, which are trained to rip the live animals apart.

Fox killed by hounds

My message to those MP's who think that hunting with dogs will be supported, think again:

Come Members of Parliament

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside

And it is ragin'.

This is an extract from my July 2015 letter to my Conservative MP, Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg - No more hunting with dogs, which still appies now http://bit.ly/1JaJS25

"Dear Mr Rees-Mogg"

"In relation to our meeting, you told me that you supported foxes being killed by hunting with dogs for the following reasons:

That the Burns Report into hunting with dogs, which came out before the Hunting with Dogs Act was brought in, was inconclusive on the issue of whether when a fox is being chased by dogs it understands fear above a flight or fight instinct. That based on this report, you could not say that chasing a fox with dogs was cruel. I have looked at the report. It found that “death was not always affected by a single bite to the neck or shoulders by the leading hound”, which was not what you thought. It also said that it was satisfied that “this experience seriously compromises the welfare of the fox”. The report also stated that lamping, the use of torches and rifles at night “had the fewer adverse welfare implications”.

You stated that fox numbers had to be kept under control as they killed farmers’ chickens and lambs, saying that there were four methods for killing foxes:

Poison – this was a risky method as other animals might eat the poison and the fox would die slowly in its den.
Trapping – this was a cruel way of killing. I completely agree with you here but why is using traps still legal?
Shooting – that the marksman had to be extremely good to be able to shoot a fast running fox and hit it on target, killing it in one shot. That you needed to be an accurate shot otherwise the fox would die a slow death. However, farmers are able to employ excellent marksmen to kill foxes for them. I think that people should need licences to shoot animals based on shooting ability. Shooting happens at night when foxes are active. Lamping, with the use of a spotlight can be used on a fox, freezing them, so that they can be shot easily. This was demonstrated on a recent BBC programme on foxes. The Burns report said that this was the quickest and most humane method of killing wild animals.
Hunting with dogs – you said that if you disregard the chase, the fox was killed very quickly by the dogs with a bite to the neck and were only ripped apart after they were already dead. You said that this method was quick and always certain. However, prior to the hunting with Dogs Act being passed, scientific research was carried out on dead foxes by vets doing autopsies. This is set out in the following article http://linkis.com/1GUKO with the conclusion being that trauma was found in the animals before death and that the death was not quick. Post-mortems showed no evidence that foxes are killed by a 'quick nip to the back of the neck' and found that in many cases foxes are disemboweled first.

I then asked you if there was a fox in the area of a farm did you think the farmer was entitled to kill the fox straight away or should the farmer wait and see if anything was killed by the fox?

You said that we were talking about a wild animal with wild instincts. If a fox with lambs then it would try to kill the animal as it is wild, it needed food for its cubs and so if a farmer saw a fox in his field, he would have to kill it. You also said that with the rise of free range chickens, these were at higher risk to being killed by foxes. However, the statistics show that only 1% of lambs that died were killed by foxes. Foxes are scavengers and so they are far more likely to take a dead lamb then kill one. Based on the statistics, the risk to lambs from foxes is tiny. In relation to chickens, there is quite a lot that can be done to protect them like high electricity fences buried underground. At most times of year foxes kill at night and so chickens should be locked securely away even if free ranging.

At our meeting, I talked to you about a recent case where 16 fox cubs were being reared by a hunt. I made the point that case proved that rather than having high numbers and needing to be controlled, that there were actually low fox numbers and too few even to be hunted. You said that you would absolutely condemn any hunt rearing cubs for hunting. This is good to know, as it something that seems to have been uncovered quite a few times before. The same article reported that The International Fund for Animal Welfare had discovered that the Royal Beaufort Hunt - used by Prince Charles, his sons and Princess Anne – had been filmed rearing fox cubs for hunting. There have been many cases of this over the years since.

When we discussed whether it was democratic for you to vote for repeal that 80% of your constituents oppose. You said that when you stood for election, you set out a number of policies that you stood for and that people voted for that package and so you had the mandate to vote for the issues that you had told voters about. However, I think that most people who voted for you voted for Conservative Party economic policies, especially on the economy/NHS/Schools etc. I think you would agree (based on what you said at our meeting) that almost no one would have voted for you because of your policy on Hunting with Dogs. As our MP, you represent the all people living in your constituency. 80% of them oppose hunting with dogs and therefore I think that it would be wrong for you to vote for something that 80% of your constituents oppose.

I hope you will reconsider your view based on the scientific evidence and the fact that the most humane way to kill a problematic fox is to shoot it at night using a spotlight.

Yours sincerely

Mya-Rose Craig"

David Cameron MP with a hunt

Fox hunting is something I despise. Jacob Rees-Mogg is in favour of bringing back hunting with dogs and so I went to see him back in 2015, heard his arguments (the same as he raised at the recent Ubley hustings where my mum asked the candidates on my behalf whether they would vote to bring back hunting with dogs), did my research, wrote explaining why his arguments sucked (above) and then did a video message to him two days before a vote was due in the House of Commons (with was withdrawn as the government knew they would lose. I never had a full letter from him in relation to the research on this issue.

The polls shows that 84% of the UK population both in the oppose hunting with dogs of foxes, 88% are against hunting deer adn 91% are against hunting hares. So what about the countryside, well 82% are against in rural areas like where I live and even 72% of actual Tory voters age against. So why would Teresa May prioritse such a vote and say that MP's will have a free vote, with important issues like Brexit to deal with (http://bit.ly/2qa5NUW)? For the same reason that tax has been reduced for the richest in this country (http://bit.ly/2r6TtK4) during times of "austerity". Our Conservative Government have prioritised helping their rich and elite friends and relatives, rather than serving the needs of the majority of the population. Watch this video with the facts http://bit.ly/2rRhwIY.

Mr Rees-Mogg told me that his stance on bringing back hunting with dogs was clear and so by voting for him, people within his constituency were giving him a clear mandate to vote for the return of hunting with dogs. Please do not vote for anyone who pledges to bring back hunting with dogs. If you live in my area, please do not vote for Jacob Rees-Mogg. Please do not give him a mandate by voting for another candidate.

These are my blog posts against hunting with dogs

No More Hunting with Dogs Part 1 http://bit.ly/1f5sIvj
No More Hunting with Dogs Part 2 http://bit.ly/1IAm4H0
No More Hunting with Dogs Part 3 http://bit.ly/1KP3XQf
Meeting with my conservative MP http://bit.ly/1K0ADUZ
Letter to Mr Rees-Mogg MP - http://bit.ly/1JaJS25
To Mr Rees-Mogg - I am fox video http://bit.ly/1I1E0NW

I believe that anyone who supports hunting with dogs has an inner cruelness and nastiness that must not to be acceptable in our civilised society. Cruelty towards animals is only one step away from cruelty toward humans. The inhumanity that the conservative government has shown to the poorest and most disabled people in this country as well as to refugees, to me, shows that clear link.

I know that some people say that they grew up horse riding and hunting with dogs is part of that tradition. I do not accept the argument of 'tradition" on many levels. First, my friends and I have grown up riding on the Mendips, without hunting with dogs. The two do not have to be linked. Secondly, just because something has been done for years, it does not make it alright to continue. My grandfather grew up in rural Bangladesh shooting migratory birds. He did not understand the conservation issues and the birds seemed plentiful back then. Now the birds are almost gone and people in his village understand that they can not carry on shooting birds, otherwise they will disappear completely.

Many people in this country are opposed to bull-fighting in Spain. Those who take part in it, say it is a tradition that they should be allowed to continue. Six million people have signed a petitition to stop the Yulin Dog Meat Festival in China where dogs are beaten, tortured, skinned and also boiled alive as the meat is considered to be tastier if the dog is petrified at the time of death. Should they be allowed to carry on? Just because you have been doing something a long time, doesn't mean you should continue. Otherwise we would never have change; why shouldn't we go back to the Victorian tradition of sending tiny children up chimneys? My brother-in-law is a chimney sweep so maybe he should be allowed to send my 4 year old nephew Lucas up chimneys to do the dirty work for him?

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 15-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She is an Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day, See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her third Camp Avalon camp in 2017. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Black Asian Minority Ethnic people. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.

Monday, 15 May 2017

Being on BBC Radio 4's Tweet of the Day - Wed 17 May 2017

On Wednesday 17th May 2017 at 5.58 am GMT I was on Radio 4 'Tweet of the Day'. Listen to it on IPlayer on http://bbc.in/2r3ZYNc.

I talked about seeing a Black-browed Albatross in Cornwall when I was only 7 years old.

I went into the BBC Bristol studios to talk about seeing a Nuthatch at school when I was 4 years old, when the producer Maggie Ayre asked me if I had seen any rare birds in Britain. Have I seen any rare birds in Britain? Seriously? Which one should I choose, off the cuff, with no time to think? The story of seeing a Black-Browed Albatross immediately came into my head and I recorded it without any time for rehearsals or thought. Hope you like it?

I talked about seeing a Black-browed Albatross at Porthgwarra, Cornwall in July 2009 when I was only 7 years old. I was one of only 14 people who were there sea watching and saw this astonishing bird. It as not a new bird for the UK for either of my parents, but it was the circumstances that made it unforgettable.

We had gone there because my Dad, Chris Craig, thought that the weather looked good for Cory's Shearwater which my Mum and I still needed for a UK life lists and we all needed for our year list. In 2009 we were trying to see as many birds as possible in a year and so getting up at 2.30 am for my Dad to drive us to Porthgwarra in Southern Cornwall so that we were there by 6 am seemed wholly sane. By "looked good" Dad meant that the weather was predicted to be terrible but that the wind would be in the right direction, blowing birds inland.

As we walked up the slope to our vantage point, Dad and a couple of the Cornish birders joked, wouldn't it be fantastic to see a Black-browed Albatross? During the week a fisherman had seen one off the coast of Devon, so it was on everyone's minds.

As we sat trying to sea-watch, I remembered why it was so horrible. It was pouring with rain and it was hard to see anything through our telescopes, let alone tiny specks of birds that hugged the sea line. Every now and then, some one would shout out a bird name and give directions by the 24 hour clock and we all tried to find it. I was freezing cold and not very happy.

I talk about the experience on my "Tweet of the Day" with everyone getting absolutely stonking views of the huge Black-browed Albatross. As soon as it flew on around the headland, everyone jumped up, and we were all dancing around. There was a momentary discussion about whether it was a Yellow-nosed Albatross (that was what the one that Secret World in Somerset suppressed and released from Brean Down without telling anyone).

Black-browed Albatross in the Drake Passage December 2015
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig

Afterwards, Surfbirds removed my year list from their website without checking it out because someone thought I couldn't have seen a Black-browed Albatross. It would have been easy to verify and was really upsetting for me. Why would you do that? Hopefully, young birders are no longer treated like that. Only this week, a twelve year old boy sighted a Black-browed Albatross off Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire. I do wonder if he had been a girl, whether he would have had the same positive response. Probably not.

This is still my best UK birding experience.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Saturday, 13 May 2017

Ringing a Tawny Owl Pulli (Chick) on 11 May 2017

I know that I am really lucky to live in a beautiful place near Chew Valley Lake, South of Bristol, surrounded by nature and wildlife and having parents that are so interested in birds and who have so much to teach me.

My Mum has a lot of passion but my Dad has trained himself in birds to a really high level. He has had a lot of commitment and patience to do that. He has also been putting a lot of time into his bird ringing skills. That means that even though I am a teenager and think I know best about most things, when it comes to birds, I listen when my Dad speaks (or almost always).

A few days ago Dad and I went to check out an owl nest box and found some pull (chicks) inside, which we took photos of. At first it was hard to make out what was inside, but then we realised it was a Tawny Owl pulli.

Last Thursday evening after school, we went back and I got to ring the pulley, my first owl ringed.

I was a little anxious about holding it because of it's sharp talons, but it was quite sleepy and so not a problem to hold or ring. OMG, what an amazing experience! How lucky am I? I feel really blessed.

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig ringing a Tawny Owl Pulli
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Thursday, 11 May 2017

Talk at Bath Spa University, College of Liberal Arts

On the 8th May 2017, I went right from school to speak at Bath Spa University at their College of Liberal Arts, at the end of their Nature and Wellbeing Conference. I talked about Camp Avalon, my Race Equality in Nature Conference and about Black2Nature.

It was really interesting to give a talk to academics who had been talking about the connection of nature with wellbeing but probably from a completely white perspective. Though Dr Samantha Walton who had organised the conference had been talking to us at Black2Nature about the issues and I spoke at a mini-festival called Landscape and Change organised by her in Bristol, so hopefully she had been able to share some of my ideas already.

There were plenty of questions and interest in what I was talking about and I really felt that my talk triggered a real "lightbulb moment" amongst the people listening. There was also time to talk afterwards, which was also really interesting. It was fascinating to talk to Philippa Forsey from Creativity Works in Radstock near Bath, close to where we live. She had met Mum loads of times in her work to do with mental health and had heard Mum mention me (as well as one of her colleagues who had done a serious of creative writing sessions with me and my class at primary school) but thought she was just a proud mum and came over to say how amazing she thought I was and it was lovely that she knew mum too.

Stephen Moss was a lecturer within this department, but was away in Peru, it was a shame not to meet him again. The event really inspired me to get writing even more, so you never know, you might see a book from me one day!

Thanks to Dr Samantha Walton for organising the event and inviting me to speak.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Monday, 8 May 2017

BTO Nest Recording Scheme (NRS) - surveying nests for research

This is the second year I have been taking part in the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) Nest Recording Scheme (NRS), surveying the 35 nest boxes that I am responsible for checking on the shores of Chew Valley Lake. You have to survey the and record what you find in terms of whether the nest boxes are empty, partially lined, fully lined, eggs warm, eggs cold, adult on nest, chicks etc.

As I am also a trainee ringer, I also ring the pulli (the scientific work for chick) but it has to be when they are old enough but not old enough to try and fly out. So long as you follow all the regulations and have someone experienced with you, and are careful, there is virtually no chance of injuring the chicks.

Training to get your full "C" Licence for ringing is pretty tough as you have to know a lot about bird ID before you can even start and then have to learn a lot about bird ringing safety and the technical aspect of extracting birds, ringing them and how to assess details such as age and sex of birds that look the same. If you have a coupe of years to give to it, then it is very worthwhile. I do think that the BTO need to do work to make ringing more inclusive.

These photos are from last night, before going out to see a band in Bristol for my 15th birthday (which was yesterday). The first two photos are a Great Tit pulli (chick) which was pretty early for Great Tit and the last two are of a Dunnock pulli. It's quite delicate work ringing pulli, but great for me with my smaller hands.

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig ringing a Great Tit Pulli at Chew Valley Lake
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig ringing a Dunnock Pulli at Chew Valley Lake
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

This is an early Dunnock Pulli I ringed on 27 April 2017 from one of my nest boxes.

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig ringing a Dunnock Pulli at Chew Valley Lake
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig