Last month broke all records for unique users (over 38,000 – previous best over 26,000 (January 2016)) and page views (around 115,000 – previous best over 103,000 (August 2015)). Thank you to all the readers who made this the case – whether they were delighted or irritated by the blog’s contents – and all the…
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
Bank Holiday Monday book review – Summer’s Guests by Theunis Piersma
I’ve lived with House Martins in the streets where I live, and sometimes next door, but never on my home, for more than half my life. Their return, ahead of the screaming Swifts, is looked for and appreciated when it happens. And they are there, chirrupping in flight, all summer long and sometimes daring to…
Sunday book review – How did we get into this mess by George Monbiot
George Monbiot writes so well – I envy him. And he knows so much – I envy him! The subtitle to this book is ‘Politics, Equality and Nature’ and it really is that wide-ranging. If you are familiar with George’s Guardian column you will currently be missing it as he is having a break and…
This brought a tear to my eye
Hi Mark, I have just read your recent blog on the Peak District and the National Trust, and I am afraid it has made me cry. I think they are partly tears of sorrow and partly of hope against hope that what you write about could be true. I love the Peak District. It is…
Northants gleanings 2
It’s been good to visit some local sites over the last few days and check up on how spring is progressing. At the airfield on the Beds/Northants border it felt more like winter than spring. But I heard and saw my first UK Whitethroat of 2016 and there were two migrant Wheatears too, so it…