- the abject ‘you forgot the…now what was it?‘ website seems to have folded up, in that it no longer has its plea for a 100 farmers to sign up to a letter slagging off the RSPB – all gone! all gone!
- talking of things that are forgotten…Keith Cowieson completely failed to answer the question about which studies Songbird Survival thinks are scientifically flawed on predators and songbirds – and whether these include the study which they themselves funded?
- bat bridges (of which I had never heard) don’t work – or so it seems
- as I drove across a little bit of Northants, quite a lot of Cambs, and most of Suffolk (with a little excursion into Norfolk) this week I saw two pairs of Buzzards circling over a Northamptonshire wood, a pair of Litttle Egrets sitting by the edge of a field in Cambridgeshitre and hundreds of Avocets on a Suffolk estuary – none of these things would have been as easy to see when I was a lad. Some things are getting better.
- our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting passed 21,800 signatures – 10 days to go!
- last week’s environment question time is now on the web for you to enjoy
- ..and talking of that, I had a very nice email from the UKIP man, William Cash, who said that he is, in fact, in favour of stuffing a few Lynx back in the countryside…
- …although in the excellent BBC Wildlife magazine’s election special, UKIP is quoted as being against Lynx reintroduction – so that’s clear…
- …and what about Pine Martens? Now running around in the West Country?
- And it sounds as though Cranes may be about to breed in the West Country too. I saw Cranes, and even better, heard them trumpetting, at a nature reserve on Tuesday afternoon. Great birds!
- did you listen to this radio programme about Passenger Pigeons, which also featured on Pick of the Week? If you did and would like to know more – try my book, A Message from Martha
- and tomorrow is the BAWC conference – looking forward to it very much, and hope to blog about it some time on Sunday.
4 Replies to “A few things that caught my eye”
Comments are closed.
Have a great BAWC conference, Mark (and everyone else of course). We’re on the right road and we’re motoring.
Des – thank you. I’m sure we will. And thank you for all your Tweeting and ReTweeting.
Almost exactly 6 months ago I wrote (in some detail) about bat bridges and the fact that they don’t work, after one was built near us at the Broadmoor hospital site redevelopment:
”A bridge too far”
Maybe part of the answer is to concentrate on the trees rather than the bats as it sounds as though the “bridge” is only needed because ancient trees have been hacked down as part of the development?
Does it make any difference if the vehicle traffic involved is going fast or slow? There’s a bat colony close to me that’s probably going to be subject to development (sadly probably including loss of quite a lot of very attractive trees) and I wonder if the traffic is easier to avoid if it’s pootling along at 20 mph rather than motorway speeds?