Did you tune in to Caroline Lucas’s conversation with Chris Packham yesterday evening – it was well worth missing the first half of a repeated Antiques Roadshow and the first goalless 30 minutes of the big fooball match too. It was great, and you can catch up here. Here are some highlights: Caroline favours a…
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
Flying a kite in east North Northants
I live in east Northamptonshire at the moment, in a District Council area called East Northants which is the eastern end of Northamptonshire and is one of seven district councils; East Northants, Northampton, Wellingborough, Corby, Kettering, Daventry and South Northants. But soon Northamptonshire is being split into two new local council areas: West Northants and…
Dear Mr Eustice – the burning question
Dear Mr Eustice, how long are you going to delay making the right decision on heather burning on peatlands? You are making this government look foolish and evasive by not acting on this matter, particularly when scores of Conservative MPs in England are telling their constituents that the government will act. Let’s have a quick…
Paul Leyland – Common Darter
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Paul writes: If I’m in a wetland nature reserve in late summer I always look out for Darters sitting like this on a wooden railing. Darters usually hunt from a perch, where they fly off after a passing insect, before returning to the same place. Handrails must be at just the right height to give…
Chris Packham talks to Caroline Lucas MP this evening at 8pm
This evening, at 8pm, Chris Packham talks to Caroline Lucas MP about the Wild Justice, RSPB, Hen Harrier Action e-action which has already been supported by 77,000 people. And no doubt about other things too. Follow the live broadcast on Twitter @Chrisgpackham or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ChrisGPackham/ Future guests will definitely include Bob Elliot of OneKind and…
Sunday book review – Life Changing by Helen Pilcher
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Helen Pilcher writes with wit and clarity about life on Earth. This is a very good book, as was her previous book Bring Back the King (reviewed here). I think this one slightly has the edge but I’m glad to have both on my bookshelves and embedded in my thoughts. When I say that she…
Tim Melling – wrong legs?
Tim writes: I have posted these two photographs as interesting anomalies, because most birdwatchers learn that the easiest way to tell a (non-singing) Chiffchaff from a Willow Warbler is by leg colour. Chiffchaffs have dark legs and Willow Warblers have pale legs. But not always. The top bird here is a Willow Warbler with dark…
10 days to go with the e-action
Over 62,000 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’m sure it has quite a way to go still. 62,000 e-actions in 14 days. 10 days still…
A good standard response from Labour MPs to our e-action
Over 58,000 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’m sure it has quite a way to go still. The Labour Party is slow to send out…
Press release – Langholm Initiative
£500,000 donation keeps race-against-time community buyout bid alive One of Scotland’s largest community buyouts that has appeared at risk in recent weeks has received a major boost thanks to a £0.5 million pledge from the Dunblane-based Carman Family Foundation. The community of the small town of Langholm in Dumfries and Galloway aims to buy 10,500 acres…