Allow regular raptor monitors to do their usual spring checks

Allowing one or two individuals to walk into hill and mountain ground to check on the nesting success of these important and rare bird species. Raptor conservation groups have individuals who in past springs and summers have done two or three visits to known nesting sites, and this visiting should be allowed, with proper distancing in the unlikely event of any chance meeting with other people.

Volunteer monitors every year walk into the uplands in spring and summer to check on the breeding success of these rare and important bird species. Without these checks, rogue keepers and estates will slay the birds, and undo many years of conservation work.

Allowing one or two individuals to walk into hill and mountain ground where they are unlikely to meet any other persons, has a negligible risk of virus spread. Counts of chicks fledged are important to understanding whether species are declining or succeeding.

If the police were to try to do these checks on rural law-breakers instead of the usual monitors doing the checking, it would be a waste of valuable police time.