Standing up for Nature
Gordon Yates is a wildlife photographer and many of his superb images of Hen Harriers have graced these pages over the years. Here are two images of a female Otter, photographed on Islay in November, bringing an octopus to her cubs.
A letter to my MP: Dear Mr Pursglove I hope you have had as merry a Christmas as is possible under present circumstances and I wish you a safe 2021. It may seem a little odd to bother you with a missive in this period between Christmas and New Year but I guess you’ll be…
Four weeks today (and tomorrow) the Court of Appeal will be hearing my, and the RSPB’s, appeals against Natural England issuing licences to allow brood meddling of Hen Harriers ie Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 January. This process started as far as I was concerned in January 2018 and we went to court in December…
This is a very good book – and although Chris Packham is a mate of mine, that isn’t why I think it is a very good book. It’s a book about conservation issues now, and it needs to be read widely. But this isn’t a book solely by Chris, it is co-authored with Megan McCubbin…
DREAM OF THE HIGHLAND TIGER Felis silvestris grampia Pete Howard has worked in Nature Conservation for the past 20 years, mainly in species monitoring and protection for the RSPB. He lives in north Cumbria, where he is regional Bird Recorder and Vice Chair of the Cumbria Bird Club. He is also an irredeemable butterfly fanatic….
Alick Simmons is a veterinarian, naturalist and photographer. He lives in Somerset. He has written six previous guest blogs here – click here. His Twitter handle: @alicksimmons I’m a conservation newbie, an ingenu trying to compensate for a terrifying lack of experience. Although I’ve been a wildlife nut since my early teens (and a proud…
Tim writes: Wrynecks used to breed in Britain and in Victorian times were found in every county in England and Wales south of the Humber. But they had dwindled to extinction by the 1970s while a small population temporarily colonised Scotland, which was way outside its original range. But I don’t think it has bred…
As you flick through the 1246 pages of ‘our’ Brexit deal you will hardly have got your eye in when you reach p179, and ‘Title XI, Article 1.1 LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR OPEN AND FAIR COMPETITION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT‘; So, already, we see that environmental protection is subsumed within the apparently bigger matters of trade….
Dominic Dyer stepped down from his part-time role as boss of the Badger Trust a few weeks ago and the Daily Fail may have the reason why – click here. An anonymous prominent farmer is reported as saying his only qualification is that he is a friend of Carrie Symonds. That was brave of the…
When I queued with my mask on, to pick up our turkey (that’s now our Easter turkey), at 09:30 it had rained overnight but was just a bit drizzly but by the time I get home it was tipping down. The sky darkened and by mid afternoon there were floods all around us very locally…