Mark writes: I’ll be doing the Big Garden Birdwatch on Sunday – probably while listening to Desert Island Discs, drinking tea and eating a Digestive Biscuit or two. The garden has been quite bird-filled recently with occasional Reed Buntings as well as the more usual Starlings, Blue and Great Tits, Robin, Blackbirds, House Sparrows,…
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
Just tell us how it could work
There are, it seems, several strong proponents for a Hen Harrier brood management scheme, which seem to number the GWCT, BASC, the Moorland Association, the National Gamekeepers Organisation and the Hawk and Owl Trust. There are some people who are dead against the very idea of a brood management scheme, although not, as best I…
Defra – what are you for? 3
Defra – where’s the report of the Lead Ammunition Group, please? The group will be convened for an initial 12-month period…. It’s only been going for five years. Hello? Is there anybody there? Hello??? How long does it take to write ‘We’re heading for a lead-free future as quickly as possible’?
Hawk and Owl losing trust
The Hawk and Owl Trust has failed dismally to explain their position as far as I am concerned. This statement appeared on the Hawk and Owl website which I now intend to analyse: Philip Merricks, Chairman Hawk and Owl Trust 20 Jan 2015 ‘You will be aware that the RSPB formally announced last year that,…
Managing expectations
Let’s take a step back and look at the idea of a brood management scheme for Hen Harriers. The idea of ‘doing something’ to Hen Harrier eggs, chicks and/or adults, to reduce their impacts on driven grouse shooting has been kicking around for years. If the shooting industry had not been so intransigent, and if…