The banks of the River Mersey, from Pickerings Pasture to Hale Village, are of particular interest to the Friends of Pickerings Pasture and Hale Duck Decoy. We do our best to help conserve and protect the wild life along the foreshore and on Hale Marsh. Some of our members have been involved in collecting data on the wonderful bird life that visit our area, for decades. We don't want them shot, for sport!

The Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News have printed an article about our concerns, this week. They have also put forward the views of the Halton Wildfowl Association. You can read this article by purchasing a copy of the paper, locally, or by visiting it on the web.

The shooting group pointed out that this area has been used for wildfowling for years (not by their  association though). Pickerings Pasture was a rubbish dump for years but it is now a tranquil and delightful area, for visitors, to walk, relax and enjoy nature. No one would want it to be used as a dump again. Hale Duck Decoy was used for trapping wildfowl, for the table, for about three hundred years but it is now a nature reserve and a sanctuary for wildlife, that many visitors enjoy, on guided walks, each year. It has a new use and an interesting history, though not a past that we would want to return to. Just because something happened in the past, it is no reason for something to continue to happen, in an enlightened and civilised society.

The FoPP try to conserve and protect the wild life along the river and marsh. Shooting groups want to kill birds for sport and recreation. They don't need these birds for food. They can, legally shoot the Common Snipe (as pictured). What would be the point of that? They claim an interest in conservation but the only thing that I'm aware of them conserving is their interest in killing, quite brutally, beautiful wild things.