Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
BSBI – Vulnerable aquatic plant found in Hampshire
Vulnerable aquatic plant found in Hampshire Opposite-leaved Pondweed has been discovered at a site in the lower reaches of the River Ems in Hampshire. This is the first record for the Ems catchment area since 1887: the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Tristan Norton, a local Government ecologist who is also the Botanical Society of…
Sunday book review – Wild Pavements by Amanda Tuke
This is a book about urban wildlife and although the author says that she majors on plants and knows less about other groups she is very clearly competent across a wide range. She is based in London and each of the eight two-chapter sections of the book sees her turning her back on St. Pauls…
Greg and Janis Thoren to Receive Illinois Leopold Conservation Award
Greg and Janis Thoren are the recipients of the 2026 Illinois Leopold Conservation Award®. The award honors farmers and forestland owners who go above and beyond in the management of soil health, water quality, and wildlife habitat on working land. The Thorens, who raise crops and cattle near Stockton in Jo Daviess County, will receive…
Calderdale Planning Authority challenges windfarm developer’s “misleading statements” and inadequate statutory consultation plans
Calderdale Council Planning Department has called for big changes to statutory community consultation plans for the contentious Walshaw Moor windfarm proposal. The Critical National Priority project is currently in its third version. The latest scaled-down revision was made in response to highly critical feedback from the Planning Inspectorate last October. The scheme’s ”proposed investment into…
BSBI – Ancient clubmosses rediscovered in Dunbartonshire
Ancient clubmosses rediscovered in Dunbartonshire A botanist has rediscovered four species of clubmoss – ancient plants whose ancestors fossilised millions of years ago to form Scotland’s coal forests – in Dunbartonshire. One of them, the Marsh Clubmoss, is a real rarity which hasn’t been seen in the area since 1854. Matt Harding, Scotland Officer for…
RSPB slams Labour government and supports OEP (Mark Avery wonders what the Greens would do)
Following the UK Government’s response – click here – to the OEP’s report on Protected Sites in England – click here, Gemma Cantelo, head of policy and advocacy for RSPB England, said: “Despite countless wake-up calls the UK Government still believes a business-as-usual approach will stop nature disappearing over a cliff edge. The OEP could…
RSPB – 726,000 songbirds illegally killed in Cyprus last autumn as enforcement gaps exposed
An estimated 726,000 migrating songbirds were illegally trapped and killed on the island of Cyprus last autumn, a new report from BirdLife Cyprus has revealed. Species including Blackcaps, Redstarts, Whitethroats and Willow Warblers were found to have been caught using mist nets and limesticks within the survey area, which includes land around British military bases….
BTO Conference
The annual BTO conference took place in Northampton on Saturday – and it was all very good. The venue was good, the food was good, the venue was close to the railway and bus stations and the talks were good and were enjoyed by a good audience of 300 or so. I mean it about…
Sunday book review – Where to Watch Wildlife in Britain by Low-carbon Transport by Megan Shersby, Heather Devey, Rebecca Gibson and Dan Rouse
This book has a laudable aim, to wit to nudge us to travel less in cars, but it’s quite a big ambition in a country with poor public transport, and for a leisure activity where some of the best places are out of town and somewhat remote. But here you will find a variety of…