Derek Gow is sometimes described as a force of nature, and this book demonstrates that he most certainly is a force for nature. It’s a good read – very entertaining, very informative and the views of someone who knows what’s what. It is an entertaining book – there are lots of stories about who did…
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
Tim Melling – Yellowhammers
Tim writes: Yellowhammer was one of the first bird songs that I learnt as a child. It is usually rendered “a little bit of bread and no cheese” but only the cheese bit chimes with me. It was Enid Blyton who popularised this rendition of the song in several of her books and poems (eg…
Buccleuch Estate draws attention to missing Hen Harrier on their land
I wouldn’t even have noticed this if it weren’t for the fuss made by Buccleuch Estate. Interesting though…
Jane V. Adams – Hunting for Ivy Bees
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’s…
Up-dates
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‘ticking up’ – going up a lot quicker than it ought to be but the speaker is trying to make it sound small and temporary – usually of something that we want to decline, described by a government minister ‘ramping up’ – going up a lot slower than it ought to be but the speaker…
Badger petition update (1)
We’re still on the second day, in fact we are nowhere near 36 hours into this petition yet, and we are heading towards 20,000 signatures. Thanks to all who have signed. Every Westminster parliamentary constituency has recorded a signature; the last three were South Antrim, Wolverhampton South East and, as usual, Barking. The constituencies with…
Oh no he wasn’t …
There is an old expression about bird records from long ago, ‘What’s hit’s history, what’s missed, mystery‘ but it seems that even when you have a pile of bird bodies some can’t identify their quarry. It was in 1977 that Lady Diana Spencer, then 16, was first introduced to a 29-year-old Prince Charles. Charles was…
Welcome back, Moorland Association
After a break of a couple of months, the Moorland Association Twitter account is back although it isn’t saying very much these days. I do like their profile picture with the abbreviation of their motto; No Harriers Survive
RSPB press release – the eagle, the satellite tag, the lead sheeting and the river
Recovered satellite tag provides answer to what happens when birds of prey ‘disappear’ on Scotland’s grouse moors A satellite tag removed from a ‘disappeared’ golden eagle has been recovered from a Highland river. The discovery sheds new light on the activities that criminals will go to in a bid to cover up the illegal killing…
Tale of a hedge (re-revisited)
In 2014 I wrote a few blogs about a puzzling hedge (see here, here, here) and I revisited it in 2017 (see here). The resolution to the puzzle was that a farmer had driven down the road with his spray still on and had, accidentally, sprayed over a mile of roadside hedge. This happened, probably…