Guest blog – by Birding for All

Accessibility at nature reserves matters, be it for wheelchair-using wildlife enthusiasts; parents trying to introduce their small children to the wonders of nature; or just to make life easier for us all as we age as walking, can, become more of an issue.  Let’s face it none of us know what is around the corner…

Tom Kitchin and Saturday Kitchen Live

I’m quite surprised by how many readers of this blog are (apparently) devotees of Saturday Kitchen Live – personally I’d never heard of it until this weekend. But they had the chef Tom Kitchin (I bet he gets even more remarks about nominative determinism than I do) preparing a grouse, black pudding and something else…

Grouse shooters secret survey with secret funders

The grouse shooting industry’s practice of quoting unpublished and unavailable, ie secret, reports in the media in ways that suit them but cannot be scrutinised by others, let alone evaluated, and certainly not criticised, is becoming a regular feature of the Inglorious 12th. The most recent example has been, and still is, some research by…

Countryside Alliance Awards #ruraloscars

I’ve nominated the Bowland Brewery for the Countryside Alliance Awards – modestly described by the Countryside Alliance as the rural oscars. I am a fairly regular purchaser of Bowland Brewery’s Hen Harrier ale and I like it as a beer and as an idea – my beer drinking gives money to the RSPB’s Hen Harrier work….

Vishal Jadhav – Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher

Vishal writes: This is a male Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher. I always refer to this bird as the Colour Bomb of the Western Ghats. This bird becomes extremely active and vocal during the monsoons when the semi evergreen forests of the Ghats really turn into a dark maze as the cloud cover thickens and the undergrowth…