Genetic modification after Brexit is now being discussed and I’ve just listened to Princess Anne’s opinions on Farming Today. What she said wasn’t very controversial despite all the hyping by the BBC yesterday. The benefits of genetic modification were all hypothetical ones in the future rather than ones that are available now and being held…
Year: 2017
Merlins in the Lammermuirs
In the current issue of British Birds there is a paper on a long-term study of Merlins on grouse moors in the Lammermuirs which makes an interesting read (as do many other pages in the journal). Data were collected over a span of 31 seasons (with that break in data for the Foot-and-Mouth year…
Closing the day after tomorrow
Chris Packham’s e-petition asking for a moratorium on shooting of declining waders to allow some proper research to be done on any potential impacts of shooting is entering its last couple of days. I’d love to see it gain a few more signatures before it closes, even though it has done pretty well, so if…
Bird flu update
It seems as though (touch wood!) the H5N8 bird flu outbreak across Europe is coming towards an end – at least that’s what is being said in France, arguably the country worst hit this winter. In England, Defra has a map of higher-risk and lower-risk areas which looks like it could win a prize for…
An article by me in British Birds
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British Birds kindly asked me to write one of their guest editorials and Driven grouse shooting – where next? has recently been published on their website.