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When dealing with the press you are always conscious of not sounding like a stuck record. After a while, journalists stop listening. News needs to be new.

This was brought home to me again when publicising our annual Birdcrime report. The figures – 1,206 reports of crimes against wild birds in 2008, 210 reports of birds of prey being shot and destroyed – are new and yet depressingly familiar. The killing, trapping and poisoning goes on year after grisly year. 

I think it bears repeating though, for the stories that lie behind the statistics.

Last May, a volunteer checking a peregrine nest site near Cannock found a male bird caught in a spring-trap. Its leg was shattered and its suffering was no doubt great. It had to be put down. The female was missing presumed dead and two chicks were left abandoned.

In the same month, a white-tailed eagle was found dead in Tayside. Tests found it had been poisoned by a mix of pesticides, including the banned substance carbofuran. It is a nasty way to go. The carbofuran would have jammed up its nervous system and paralyzed its breathing.

Three days later 32 cubes of meat laced with the same deadly cocktail were found on fence posts. They need not have been eaten by birds.

You may have heard these stories before but I do not apologise for telling them again, not least because those responsible do not like people knowing what they are up to. These criminals are arrogant, selfish and cruel and they need to be stopped. Well, here is a promise: We will not shut up about this until they are.

Add your voice to ours. Put your name to our call for an end to the killing. www.rspb.org.uk/birdsofprey

Thousands of cars trickled through the sleepy village of Egleton in Rutland Water at the weekend, which could mean only one thing… The British Bird Watching Fair 2009.

Thousands of visitors, young and old, expert and beginner, came to learn, shop, gather new wildlife sightings and soak up the atmosphere. And, amazingly, the sunshine.

The RSPB, unsurprisingly, has a big presence at the fair every year, but their involvement this year was a bit different.

In addition to people on the exhibition stand giving advice on a range of issues, there was a sea of pink and black t-shirts weaving through the crowds with the slogan ‘wildlife crime fighter’ blazoned across the front. Working with The Wildlife Trusts, the mission for these ‘wildlife superheroes?’ To gather pledges in support of a drive to encourage the government to act against six priority wildlife crime areas.

The illegal killing of birds of prey, crimes against bats, badgers and fresh water pearl mussels, poaching and the illegal trade in endangered species stirred a massive 6,272 people to sign the pledge over just three days.

This kind of mass support shows just how disgusted people are by the wildlife crimes committed at home and abroad, and surely must make our government sit up, take notice and act.

Crime makes the headlines of our newspapers every day.

We love to read about grisly murders, brazen jewel thieves and binge drinking yobs. But it’s not just humans who are the victims of crime - often it is our most beautiful and fascinating wildlife.

The details are often just as sickening as the most gruesome tabloid court reports. Our stunning birds of prey shot, poisoned and caught in cruel traps. Badgers caught, tied down and attacked by dogs for a paying crowd of onlookers. The incredible upstream journey of the wild salmon making its way back to its spawning ground cut short by poachers releasing poison into the water, killing everything in the vicinity.

Unpleasant isn’t it?

But you won’t hear about any of this in the annual crime figures, for the simple reason that it isn’t recorded in the official statistics. Investigation of wildlife crime is patchy, full-time wildlife crime officers are far too few – and there isn’t even a national agreement on what constitutes a wildlife crime.

So that’s why the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts have called for an overhaul of the way crimes against wildlife are dealt with so that the perpetrators can no longer get off scott free.

Public outcry over the poisoning of a golden eagle has already led to a review in Scotland. That recommended proper national standards of investigation and more specialist officers. Why not a similar review for the rest of the UK? 

If you want to add your name to the call for something to be done and you’re coming along to this year’s Birdfair at Rutland Water this weekend then you can sign a petition calling for Government action. Alternatively, you can join Leonardo DiCaprio and more than 140,000 others and sign the RSPB’s Bird of Prey pledge.

There are times when conservation projects produce spectacles that tell a story far better than a shelf load full of press releases, policy documents and wordy reports.

A large part of the work that goes into conservation happens at desks, in front of screens and around meeting tables. But once all the work has been done, everything is in place and all eventualities have been planned for it can pay off in an amazing way.

This week the RSPB were part of a group of partners who released 14 sea eagles into the wild in Fife in Eastern Scotland as part of a reintroduction project. These mighty birds, which have of a wingspan of up to eight feet, had originally come from Norway as chicks and were raised in specially constructed aviaries in Scotland – so you can imagine the enormous amount of careful planning which had gone into the release.

But one look at some of the breathtaking pictures of the release that were captured by the press – see the coverage in the Daily Mail and the Express –  prove just how worthwhile all that work really is.

So what are you having for dinner tonight?

Something adventurous from Jamie Oliver’s latest bestselling cookbook? A quick and easy supermarket frozen meal? Or maybe it’s fish and chips night in your house this evening.

Whatever you’re eating there’s one thing you can be sure of – your meal will have an environmental impact somewhere along the line. This week the government launched a major public debate on the issue when Hilary Benn unveiled a report on food security and the environment.

The report proposes a radical rethink of the way we produce food in the UK and it has grabbed headlines with talk of GM crops, wasted food and supermarket prices. But the other side to the story is the ultimate impact the grub we take for granted has on wildlife.

In highlighting the issues of the debate Hilary Benn has spoken about the impact our current food production has on the birds, fish, mammals and insects which rely on our farmed countryside, rivers and seas. The need to put food on our tables has contributed in the past to a decline in farmland bird species, pesticide pollution in our waterways and the loss of many valuable wildlife habitats.

Defra have made a positive move in the right direction with their work developing indicators for a sustainable food system which look at a range of issues including water use, soil quality, greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity.

The world population is increasing, and so are the pressures on our natural resources. As a society we are beginning to wake up to the fact that producing food without heeding the environmental impacts simply means that our children and grandchildren will be left picking up the pieces in years to come.

We’ve already seen the devastating effects of unsustainable agricultural policies of the past in the decline of farmland birds like the skylark and the grey partridge - so we know how important it is not to make the same mistake again. Farmers are ready to do their bit - but at the end of the day they respond to the signals that consumers send.

So while you’re tucking in to tonight’s dinner why not spare a moment to consider where it all came from?