Delayed report, winter 2023, Nottingham UK.
Received anonymously via email:
“Just as the new year started we heard rumours of a scumbag shooting birds at the edge of a nature reserve. We decided to go check it out and we found one of the most grotesque scenes we could’ve ever imagined. All around the nature reserve, signs of trapping and shooting were littered around the hedges. When we found the hunter’s base, decorated with a very weird mannequin dressed in an all red Santa costume we already knew we were dealing with some deranged individual, but it became all too apparent when we found a decoy magpie inside a Larsen trap, in January, with snow all over the floor. The bird had no shelter, the water tray was completely frozen and the only perch that allowed the magpie to rest sat on top of a pile of half rotten, fully frozen bodies -presumably what the hunter was expecting the magpie to eat – that was then covered on the birds shit.
The disregard for the bird was tangible, so we decided to take them with us and destroy the trap. The magpie was taken to a rehab centre where they grew their fly feathers back before being released again. Fly free friend.
ALF”
