Gah!

Last month it was revealed that Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) had granted a licence for some folk in certain areas of Perthshire to cull 300 Ravens over a 5 year period, as an experiment to see whether said experiment would have a positive effect on breeding wader numbers. Astonishing to many though this was, even more bizarre was the fact that SNH hadn't breathed a word of it to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) or Raptor Persecution UK. These two organisations already have good sets of data for the area, and would've pointed out that it might be an excellent idea to rethink things a bit. This latter fact alone prompted me to sign a petition against the cull.

For a bit more background, see here and here.

Yesterday, I was yet further amazed when the story popped up on BBC Scotland's evening news bulletin... well, sort of...

because that's obviously not a Raven, it's a Rook. If only the Beeb had someone who could check all their wildlife reporting for accuracy, like maybe a Natural History Unit? Oh, wait a minute...