On 01 September we reported the shocking news that shooting lobbyists BASC (the British Association for Shooting and Conservation) were “raffling ducks and geese to be shot on National Nature Reserve”. In the post we stated that BASC were holding a raffle to “win two days’ guided wildfowling for you and a friend at Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve.”
That news alone was surprising, but as it turns out, there is far more to this disgraceful story than a raffle. National Nature Reserves (NNRs) in England are managed by Natural England or other Approved Bodies, and Natural England, “the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England. We help to protect and restore our natural world”, has its fingerprints all over it…
Lindisfarne NNR
According to Natural England, NNRs “were established to protect some of our most important habitats, species and geology, and to provide ‘outdoor laboratories’ for research. Most NNRs offer great opportunities to schools, specialist interest groups and the public to experience wildlife at first hand and to learn more about nature conservation.”
One of 224 National Nature Reserves, Lindisfarne NNR, a 3,541-hectare (8,750-acre) Ramsar site (ie a wetland of international significance), is “renowned for its remarkable birdlife and breathtaking landscapes”. Six internationally important species of wildfowl and wading birds winter here, including Amber Listed Pale-bellied Brent Geese (Branta bernicla hrota, Lindisfarne is by far the UK’s most important regular wintering site), the Amber Listed Pink-footed Geese, and the Amber Listed (Eurasian) Wigeon.
With Natural England’s own emphasis on the value to ‘nature conservation’ of NNRs, we wanted to know why the shooting of ducks and geese was being allowed here, especially on a site so important to species of conservation concern…
Dead Mallard. Image Urbancow on Canva. Used under licence.
Lindisfarne NNR – wardened by a shooter
We wrote to the managers of Lindisfarne NNR on 21 August (so 11 days before publishing our post) to find out.
We asked why wildfowling was permitted, how it was managed, and how many individuals of which species are killed on the reserve.
Today, we received a reply from Andrew Denton. He explained that
“A wildfowl permitting scheme is in place to regulate wildfowling. Natural England have a contractual relationship with BASC which administers the wildfowl permit scheme on behalf of Natural England. As part of this arrangement BASC employs a warden who is responsible for ensuring those with permits operate within the terms and conditions of those permits. Natural England is involved in the recruitment of that warden to ensure that the person appointed has both the ecological knowledge and expertise to undertake this role effectively, as well as understanding the good management of wildfowling. The Wildfowl warden works throughout the whole season during shooting hours morning and evening, including those nights with a full moon.”
If we’ve read that right (and we’re sure we have), a member of a shooting lobby group ‘wardens’ shooters on a National Nature Reserve!
Mr Denton goes on to say that
“The wildfowl warden will carry out regular bag checks to ensure that wildfowlers are complying with this and will be present on site, having a watching brief over the wildfowling areas.”
How much of a ‘watching brief’ will the BASC warden have? A spread of downloadable pdfs on the BASC website under ‘Lindisfarne wildfowling permit scheme’ explains just how “on site” the BASC warden really is. The ‘season summary’ for 2024/2025 says that “132 permits were issued for the 2024-25 season, with 489 visits made to Lindisfarne for the purpose of wildfowling, 346 of which were monitored by the wildfowling warden”.
Which means that almost a third of visits by shooters to Lindisfarne weren’t ‘monitored’ at all.
And how incidentally does this ‘system’ ensure that no Pale-bellied Brent Geese were killed? The ‘warden’ will have a look in ‘the bag’ of shooters to check! According to BASC, 100 bag checks were made over the winter in total. Two things leap to mind. Given shooting’s long history of entitlement and shielding of the criminal ‘rotten apples’ within its midst, does anyone back here in the real world honestly believe that a fellow shooter would report a fellow shooter for killing a ‘non-permitted’ species? And how the hell would that return a dead goose to life, anyway…
Wigeon and Pink-footed Geese
Answering which species and how many are being killed at Lindisfarne, Mr Denton writes that:
“The species permitted to be shot come from the nationally approved list of quarry species and don’t contain any species of conservation concern. The main quarry is Wigeon and Pink-footed Geese…The numbers over the last couple of seasons are: 606 in 2023/24 and 440 in 2024/25 with a 5-year mean of 562 birds shot across the season.”
Assuming that shooters properly recorded what they killed (and neither we nor the partly absent warden has any way of knowing), four hundred and forty birds were killed for ‘sport’ on this National Nature Reserve last winter, of which 293 were Wigeon, 52 were Pink-footed Geese, and 73 were Common Teal. Six species were killed in total.
Almost unbelievably, ‘punt gunning’ (mounting a very large gun onto a punt and getting as close to flocks of ducks on the water as possible – how on earth is this still legal?) took place at Lindisfarne NNR on four occasions last winter. BASC notes without comment that “3 shots fired from 4 visits” and that 96 Wigeon and 1 Teal were killed. (Thanks to a supporter we can also add a link to Berwickshire & Northumberland Marine Nature Partnership – A collaboration of more than twenty Scottish and English nature organisations responsible for managing our local inshore waters. The Partnership has a page on ‘Waterfowling and Punt Gunning’ which notes that the ‘activity’ (as they term it) takes place on “Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve. Wildflowling also takes place on a small area of the Tweed estuary”, and that potential issues include “Visual or noise disturbance to protected SPA birds” – it doesn’t mention that this ‘disturbance’ may mean birds being blasted with lead shot…).
That’s hundreds of birds seeking a refuge on the English coast shot dead. Hundreds of birds coming to Lindisfarne to “feed on the extremely rich supply of marine creatures and vegetation living in and on the mud” shot dead. Hundreds of birds that so-called ‘wildfowlers’ have done nothing to ’conserve’ shot dead.
Imagine the horror of visiting an NNR to enjoy the wildlife, the spectacle of flocks of ducks and geese, and hearing gunshots, seeing birds falling from the sky – or even witnessing shooters punting out to the birds you’re watching and blasting dead more than thirty of them…
Not of concern?
Leaving aside that there is actually a ‘nationally approved list of quarry species’ (a vile term to ringfence certain bird species solely for the benefit of shooters), Mr Denton’s statement above that “the species permitted to be shot…don’t contain any species of conservation concern”, would appear to directly ignore Birds of Conservation Concern which is “compiled by a coalition of the UK’s leading bird conservation and monitoring organisations” and is published by the British Trust for Ornithology.
While the BTO states that the number of Pinkfeet and Wigeon wintering in the UK has increased, we fail to understand how both the Amber Listed Pink-footed Geese, and the Amber Listed (Eurasian) Wigeon can be described as not being ‘species of conservation concern’.
Besides which, even if numbers are rising that shouldn’t translate into a rather smug attitude of ‘job done’. We know we’re in a biodiversity crisis. Wetlands across the range of both species are being reclaimed, lost to climate change, or increasingly disturbed by people. Prime habitats like Lindisfarne will become ever more important to migratory water birds like ducks and geese, and will (assuming they are still out there to be attracted) attract even more individual birds.
Which is surely why Lindisfarne was set up? It’s a nature reserve which – again, surely – is designed and maintained to give safety to as many individual birds as possible? Licencing bloody shooters to kill any of them on a reserve like this is an abhorrence…
Pink-footed Geese. Image Andrew Howe on Canva. Used under licence
“A valid use of our wildfowl populations”
Does Lindisfarne NNR reflect Natural England’s approach across the board to its most important reserves, we wondered?
The answer is an all too familiar one, sadly, and one we easily predicted. This is the authority that authorises the scientifically invalid killing of badgers to control a disease of cattle transmitted by cattle, of course, and which set up the brood meddling of Hen Harriers to appease moorland landowners operating grouse shoots (who continued to kill Hen Harriers regardless).
A page titled “Natural England’s approach to assessing and responding to wildfowling notices on Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and European sites” leads to a spread of links which shows that Natural England has an offensively utilitarian view of wild ducks and geese. It’s a view that could have been written by an organisation like WAGBI (the Wildfowlers’ Association of Great Britain and Ireland, the organisation that BASC grew out of) more than a century ago:
“Natural England recognises that responsible and sustainable wildfowling along our protected coastlines is a valid use of our wildfowl populations. We understand that wildfowling clubs are about more than the activity of wildfowling, but often being integral to the conservation of wildfowl sites through wardening, land management and pest control.”
In that one paragraph we are told that killing Amber Listed ducks and geese on National Nature Reserves isn’t morally offensive or unjustifiable in any way whatsoever. It is instead a ‘valid use of wildfowl populations’, and that members of ‘wildfowling clubs’ are integral to the conservation of those sites and are somehow fit people to undertake what is called ‘pest control’ on an NNR!
A ‘valid use’ of wild birds? What a hideous phrase. And somehow even worse coming from an organisation that is supposed “to protect and restore our natural world”.
It’s 2025. Natural England wants us to believe that ‘conservation is killing’, and that it’s the people who own guns that are ‘integral’ to ‘managing’ sites largely funded by the taxpayer and which are visited by millions of people looking to enjoy ‘nature’ and wildlife every year.
Don’t those cold, dead words perfectly sum up how our government and statutory nature authority views shooting birds in England. Next time you go to a National Nature Reserve remember them…