Josh Styles has been captivated by plants since the age of 6, which has carried over to now in his mid twenties and his love for plants has allowed him to get quite a bit done. Through university, he managed to balance three jobs and other volunteer commitments with his undergraduate ecology degree, and still…
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
Sunday book review – Where to Watch Birds in East Anglia by David Callahan
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This book does what it says on the cover: it is a guide to birdwatching sites in three East Anglian counties. It is thus a potentially useful book rather than a work of literature. So, how useful is it? Very! The long list of sites is the right list and the information about each site…
Sunday book review – Bear Markets and Beyond by Dhruti Shah and Dominic Bailey
Like me, you may have an idea of what Bear Markets and Bull Markets are (but this book will allow you to check whether you are right or not) but how about Bunny Markets, Deer Markets and Bulldog Markets? And when you walk through the financial jungle do you know your Civets from your Pacific…
The Nature Chronicles Prize
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Opening for entries in mid 2021 this new, biennial prize for contemporary nature writing has a first prize of £10,000, with 5 runners up each receiving £1000. Twitter @NaturePrize Facebook
Sunday book review – The History of the World in 100 Animals by Simon Barnes
This is a wonderful book, for three reasons. First, its 450+ pages are full of Simon Barnes’s wonderful writing and here he is on his very best form. Second, it is about the wonderful diversity of life on Earth and there is no richer subject about which to write. And third, the book is well…
Tim Melling – Fox
Tim writes: I see Foxes regularly on my garden trail cam but I have never managed a photograph in my garden as they are very shy, and strictly nocturnal. This nervousness is probably because of years of persecution in my rural Pennine area. But in urban areas there seem to be fewer people wishing them…
Jane V. Adams – At least Nature has benefited…
Jane is a naturalist, photographer and nature writer living in Dorset. Her work has appeared in books, anthologies and blogs for charities such as The Wildlife Trusts and the International Bee Research Association. When she’s not exploring Dorset’s lanes and countryside she can be found lying on her stomach watching insects in her garden. Jane…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Bird/poultry flu update
Cases of bird/poultry flu in wildish birds are filling in the gaps on the map and creeping further north – to very near the Scottish Border in both Cumbria and Nortumberland. An excellent report in the Guardian makes slightly scary reading with Mute Swans spinning in cicles and bleeding from their nostrils. The quote from…
Ban on lead ammunition in EU wetlands may apply to UK too…
Raptor-killing, poison-shooting, bog-burning, hare-killing driven grouse shooting is not having a great week. The day before yesterday, the EU (remember the EU?) Parliament voted to ban the use of lead ammunition in wetlands where ‘wetlands’ include peatlands such as blanket bogs where much (by no means all) driven grouse shooting occurs in the UK. Now,…