Home-Start – have you done due diligence on game meat?

The Grampian Moorland Group is supplying game to local branches of the charity Home-Start. Home-Start is a ‘Family support charity, supporting families with a child under five, that helps parents build better lives for their children.‘. This may be happening elsewhere in the country too, for all I know.  And for all I know great…

Findlay in Number 10

You must read this account of Findlay Wilde’s visit to Downing St to talk to Sir John Randall, the environment advisor to the Number 10 Policy Unit. Findlay is a good advocate and I’m sure that he and John got on well. I was fascinated by some of the remarks that John was happy for…

No comment never looks that good

My question to Defra 0n 21 November: What is the status of the complaint made by the RSPB and Ban the Burn campaigners of Hebden Bridge against the UK government and to the European Commission regarding management practices on grouse moors? When will Defra make a public comment on the case? Defra’s response to me…

Climate and UK birds

The focus on climate change in the SUKB report published today is a very useful stock-check. It has prompted me to go back and look at one of my ‘favourite’ books, published 10 years ago, A Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds by Rhys Green of the RSPB and Brian Huntley, Yvonne Collingham and Stephen…

Impacts of climate change on UK birds

The distribution, numbers and behaviour of birds in the UK are changing because of a changing climate according to a new report. The State of the UK’s Birds 2017 (SUKB) – the one-stop shop for all the latest results from bird surveys and monitoring studies – this year highlights how many of the UK’s species are already…