On the spur of the moment, I headed off to see those Nottinghamshire Bee-eaters again yesterday evening. At first it seemed the spur of the wrong moment – the journey was slow and included some diversions and delays. And then on arrival I had a brief, against the sun, distant silhouette view of one bird….
Year: 2017
Soaked to UK extinction?
The latest UK survey of Capercaillie, carried out last winter, estimates there to be only 1114 individuals – six years ago the estimate was higher at 1285 individuals. We can regard this as a more-or-less stable population, given the inherent difficulties of counting this species. The press release from RSPB, SNH and Cairngorms National…
Updates
I’m told the National Trust has had to pull out of receiving the Peak District petition today – that’s quite last minute! But these things happen and I guess it’s for a good, although I’m told unspecified, reason. The reason that I guess it’s a good reason is that backing out of anything at the…
Peak signatures
Congratulations to local campaigners in the Peak District who, today, hand in an almost 5000-strong petition to the National Trust asking that they do not replace their exiting shooting tenant on their 8000ha estate around Kinder Scout and Bleaklow but instead move quickly forward with the NT’s own High Peak vision for rewilding and better…
Labour MP appears to welcome Hen Harrier decline
Labour MP Kate Hoey, former Chair of the Countryside Alliance, appears to be happy about the decline in numbers of Hen Harriers in her native Northern Ireland and seems to think that it results in more Curlews and Ring Ousels. The usual line from the shooting community is to shed crocodile tears when Hen Harriers…