Last week I was thinking a bit about climate change and birds and thought I’d had a good idea. And I had had a good idea – it’s just that others had had it too and published a paper on it two years ago! The good idea was to look at the ‘envisaged potential’ bird…
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Kittiwakes
Blue Planet blues? Think of the Kittiwake. This really is a ‘sea’ gull – the most marine of all our gulls. It’s a classy looking bird with its black legs and ‘dipped in ink’ wing tips, smooth elegant grey plumage and friendly, intelligent and coquettish look. A strong contender for the Audrey Hepburn of the…
18,847 ahead
Yesterday was the last day of the grouse shooting season for 2017 – Gavin Gamble’s e-petition seeks to make that cessation a permanent one and following yesterday’s thunderclap his e-petition is approaching 19,000 signatures and the list of ’50-signature’ constituencies has reached 64 constituencies (last week – 51). Each of these constituencies has more signatures…
Bye bye Blue Planet
Yesterday evening was the last of the seven episodes of Blue Planet 2 – I’ll miss it next week. This closing episode addressed sideways on, if not completely head on, the fact that we are screwing the planet. It was a brave attempt which was partly successful. ‘There is hope’ appeared to be the message…
Paul Leyland – Bee Wolf
Paul writes: This solitary wasp is a pretty fearsome looking beast, especially if you are a honey bee. Females are estimated to collect over 100 bees, mainly honey bees, during their flight period between July and mid-August. Thirty years ago in the UK the Bee-Wolf (Philanthus triangulum) was restricted to a few locations in…