I’ve always counted Twelfth Night as the 6 January but it might really be the 5th. But we should all be taking our Christmas decorations down now, and getting that tree out in the back garden to drop its needles there for a while as we wonder what to do with it (thank heaven for…
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
You are an optimistic lot!
These are your guesses as to the number of signatures that will be attached to our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting when it closes on 21 January. Closest estimate gets a copy of one of my books – if the guess (or brilliantly worked out and thought through estimate) is exactly right then you…
Another chance to vote for the Hen Harrier
This is a slightly odd one! Countryfile magazine has one of those readers’ votes running on subjects such as ‘Nature reserve of the year’, and ‘Pub of the year’ which includes ‘Conservation success of the year’. Now you wouldn’t necessarily expect a species whose English population should be over 300 pairs, but was actually 12…
Another mini-milestone
Our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting has passed another small milestone today when it reached, and passed, 27,399 signatures. Why? Because last year, in a longer period of time (almost twice as long) a similar e-petition reached 22,399 signatures so we have exceeded that by a round 5,000 signatures and the signature count keeps…
Wuthering Moors 52
This is a map of Walshaw Moor which was used in the 2012 case against the estate which was mysteriously dropped by Natural England. You can make out the purple areas, which are made up of lots of purple lines, which the key tells us are artificial watercourses. Many of these would be known to…