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
Why are we counting?
…asks the GWCT website. And it’s a good question which certainly isn’t answered by the following text. GWCT are organising a Big Farmland Bird Count (yes, really) for early February in case we all get bored after we can’t shoot pheasants any longer. What next? The NFU Even Bigger Farmland Bird Count and the CLA…
Peter Kendall again
We’ll miss him when he is gone won’t we? I am grateful to Martin Harper’s blog (always worth reading) for pointing me in the direction of Peter Kendall’s last speech as NFU President at an Oxford Farming Conference. He couldn’t resist having a badly-judged dig at the RSPB, which should bring home the message to…
Arise Sir John
The recently knighted Sir John Randall MP is a birder. Having stepped down from being Deputy Chief Whip he is now enjoying the freedom of the backbenches and the freedom to speak up for nature (note this speech he made in the Christmas adjournment debate from 1:40pm onwards where he touches on various subjects including…
Offputting offsetting
Our main wildlife conservation organisations seem to have swallowed the idea of biodiversity offsetting and are all at pains to point out that it might work (RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and the Woodland Trust (which isn’t really a main wildlife conservation organisation (but let’s just pretend it is)). It is perhaps a mean thought to imagine…