Huh. I thought Choss was supposed to be such a keen environmentalist.

King Charles’s private country estate at Sandringham in Norfolk has been linked to the deaths and disappearances of a string of legally protected birds over the past two decades, a Guardian investigation has found.

The cases include the alleged poisoning, shooting and disappearance of some of the UK’s rarest birds of prey. One of the cases involved the mysterious loss of eastern England’s last breeding female montagu’s harrier, a critically endangered species whose future in the UK is now looking bleak.

The Guardian has identified 18 cases since 2003 involving suspected wildlife offences or the alleged misuse of poisons, linked to the royal estate and neighbouring farmland owned by the king.

But that’s all right, he sells Duchy Organic Shortbread, so it all balances out.

Many of the cases are detailed by official regulators in internal documents that have been released under freedom of information legislation.

The documents reveal how the police and enforcement officials have regularly investigated the Windsors’ private estate, which spans about 8,100 hectares (20,000 acres) of parkland, farmland and forestry. The latest investigation ended earlier this year.

The documents also reveal how the estate appears on occasion to have hindered official investigations. In 2016, Natural England, the conservation regulator, recorded that it was unable to investigate the suspicious deaths of up to 40 wood pigeons on the estate as it appeared the area had been “cleaned up” early one morning.

Shhhh. Have a cup of tea and an organic shortbread.

The disclosures could be particularly uncomfortable for the king since the late Queen Elizabeth II had been patron of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) since 1952. Prince Philip was patron of the British Trust for Ornithology until his death in April 2021.

Oh come on. That’s a whole different thing. It’s not about giving a shit about birds, it’s about PR.