The first year visiting village X, February 2018 I can only see a few feet ahead of me. A Swaledale trots up, but huffily bleats her complaint when she realises I’m not the farmer. A Red Grouse whirrs “go back, go back” and drops like an arrow at the end of its trajectory and is…
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 – Spotted Flycatcher
Tim writes: have you ever thought what a daft name Spotted Flycatcher is? Even its scientific name Muscicapa striata means striped flycatcher. Well at least this one lives up to its name and has a few pale spots at the back of its head, which they don’t have for long. This is a recently fledged…
Sunday book review – Orchard by Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates
This book is about an orchard and its wildlife. Month by month the two authors describe aspects of the orchard’s year. It sounds a nice place with its ancient trees and rich wildlife. As you travel through the pages then you may well wish you were there – I did. I enjoyed hearing about the…
Tim Melling – Lammergeier
Tim writes: some years ago I served on the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC) which assesses and maintains the official list of British birds. Category A of the British List is for any truly wild bird that arrived in Britain naturally. An immature Lammergeier ranged widely in Devon during May 2016 but this has…
100,000 e-actions – thank you!
See the Wild Justice blog – click here.
Jane V. Adams – The Scabby Plant
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…
French get sniffy about glue
Ah, the EU – remember the EU? All EU member states are breaking EU laws on some environmental issue. But there is vastly more coherence to pretty good standards within the disparate countries from Finland to Portugal and from Ireland to Romania than in the absence of the EU. Just watch what happens in the…
An update on English constituencies and our e-action
Over 92,000 e-actions have been taken since Hen Harrier Day, pressing elected politicians to act on wildlife crime and generally on the ecological problems associated with driven grouse shooting. Thank you – it’s an amazing response and I reckon we can reach 100,000 e-actions in the next four and a half days until the e-action…
A response to our e-action by the new leader of the LibDems, Ed Davey
Ed Davey was elected the leader of the LibDems today after one of the most dragged-out elections of all time (but I did make some money betting on it). He has probably had a lot on his mind in the last couple of weeks and this is the rather limp response he has sent his…
Labour steps up, DEFRA steps away
This evening, Labour Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, is chatting live to Chris Packham on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ChrisGPackham/ and his Twitter feed (@chrisgpackham) at 7pm about the Wild Justice, Hen Harrier Action and RSPB e-action – see here. Good for her and this will be very helpful in raising the issue among Labour supporters. In…