Wildlife campaigners are celebrating the conservation efforts of a leading landowner which have resulted in rare hen harriers roosting on its moor. Adopting nature-friendly moorland management techniques, NG Bailey’s Denton Park Estate, near Ilkley, has reversed declines in birds of prey associated with wildlife persecution by its former grouse shooting tenant. Hen harriers are one…
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
Guest blog – My Decathlon petition by Colin MacLennan
Well hello there, I’m Colin, living in Glasgow, passionate all my life about the outdoors and wildlife, and very grateful to Mark for the opportunity to present here on his Guest Blog. For the last few years I’d been preparing and planning for retirement, and they were good plans. Travel, home and abroad, old favourites…
Bird/poultry flu update and musings
A further dozen cases of bird/poultry flu in ‘wild’ birds have been listed by DEFRA for the week which ended on 29 November (which suggests that the wild bird data are getting seriously out of date on the GOV UK website). This map from APHA shows the poultry farms currently under restrictions: two in Norfolk,…
Guest blog – Shooting Wildlife III by Anna Clayton of Ethical Consumer magazine
Anna Clayton is a writer, researcher and worker director at Ethical Consumer Research Association, and has co-written all three Shooting Wildlife Reports. Ethical Consumer is a member-led, independent co-operative that has over 25 years’ experience of ‘making ethics easy’ – specialising in consumer engagement and best practice in ethical markets. Twitter: @EC_magazine Anna Clayton draws…
Competition launched to honour RSPB Founder Emily Williamson with statue
Emily Williamson, who in 1889 founded the all-female Society for the Protection of Birds (later the RSPB), is to be honoured with a statue at her former home in Fletcher Moss Park in Didsbury, Manchester. Four short-listed maquettes will be unveiled in July 2021, marking the centenary of the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act –…
The sweet taste of success?
The Pink-footed Goose is a somewhat unheralded success story in the UK, with a ten-fold increase in numbers over the past 70 years. And that is of some global significance since around 85% of the world population winters in the UK. Our Pinkfeet are from the Iceland and Greenland breeding populations whereas there are Pinkfeet…
World Land Trust
Reading through the papers ahead of an upcoming World Land Trust trustees’ meeting (online) that I’ll be chairing. I’m just so impressed by what the UK team and our partners across the globe do to conserve nature. All made possible by your donations. Making a regular monthly donation is an easy way to support this…
Press release – Trees for Life
Trees for Life launches court challenge to Scottish Government’s ‘licence to kill’ beaver policy Trees for Life is to challenge the Scottish Government’s nature agency NatureScot in court over its failure to make the killing of Scotland’s wild beavers a genuine last resort when the species needs to be managed. The Highlands-based rewilding charity has launched…
Guest blog – The impact of mothering on Nature writing by Caro Fentiman
Caro Fentiman is a writer and musician living in Northumberland. You can read more of her work at www.carofentiman.com and on instagram @carofentiman The impact of mothering on nature writing Following on from Daphne Pleace’s excellent guest blog on nature writing and gender, I wanted to share some of my own thoughts on nature writing and…
RSPB press release – moorland burning is massive problem
New analysis shows that burning of moorlands is the biggest threat to England’s most important places for wildlife New analysis of Government data by the RSPB shows that the burning of moorlands is the biggest identified threat to England’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). The analysis also shows that no reason has been identified…