– quite some time ago I mentioned a joint statement by the GWCT and the RSPB on the results of the study of raptors gobbling up red grouse which took place at Langholm. I’m grateful to GWCT for putting this report on their website where anyone can now refresh their memories of the results of that important study.
– there was a brimstone in my garden yesterday – unfortunately I missed it. And the male blackcap is still around – does it ever mean to go back to Germany?
– a split log? A letter appeared in the Daily Telegraph last week calling for FC not to be merged with NE (or EA). I see the signatories are mainly forestry organisations but also include the Woodland Trust. That’s a shame.
– there is a pair of released cranes building a nest at Slimbridge – how odd.
– there is a new type of avian ‘flu – time to stop snogging ducks and gulls!
– the Chagos Marine Reserve, the largest marine no-take reserve in the world, has recently had its third birthday. This represents a significant environmental success of the last Labour government and we still wait for anything of similar ambition to emerge from the current government’s dead environmental hand.
– Derek Moore sends this photograph of long-tailed tits feeding on fat smeared onto the bark of a larch tree. And apparently, long-tailed tits are quite closely related to swallows – you live and learn…
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Couldn’t refresh the link but worth noting that the Langholm web site has had to be taken over by Scottish Natural Heritage due to lack of commitment by the staff on the Langholm project. Too much time damaging the SSSI by all accounts!
Mark, why do you consider it odd that cranes are ‘nesting’ at Slimbridge. It seems that most birds ( and nearly all released birds) have an affinity with their birth place – red kites , ospreys being examples. Perhaps in 20 years time scientists will be able to micro chip released birds directing them to an area of the scientist’s choice. Sounds far fetched, but so did tagging nightingales and cuckoos in 1993.
Trevor – I was rather hoping they’d been fooled into thinking that the Somerset Levels were their home.
They are obviously not fooled that easily.