From the end of August, Land Rovers load up with tweed-clad shooters, who go off to large estates and compete to fill the biggest “bag” of game birds, often shooting dozens at a time – a practice which has long appalled bird conservationists.
Soon, the years-long campaign to stop the poisoning of birds of prey, as well as the release of tens of millions of pheasants into the countryside, could be victorious as a result of government plans for a new licensing scheme for shoots.
