DEFRA announced on 21 February 2020 that a review of numbers of gamebirds released and their impacts on protected sites was ‘expected to conclude in March 2020’ and yet we are now near the end of the first week in August. Just saying… Wild Justice will be in court as the Claimant in this matter…
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
GWCT fact-checking website – does it measure up?
The release of the GWCT fact-checking website is interesting. I wonder whether this marks a significant change in direction of GWCT or just a spasm. We’ll see as time passes. But I would give it a cautiously warm welcome at this stage and hope that it might represent a wish of GWCT to retrace their…
Press release from GWCT
Fact-checking website launched to challenge inaccuracies in scientific reporting ‘What the Science Says’ is a new website which sets out to challenge misinformation and misreporting of ecological science. The online resource is the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s (GWCT) response to what many in the scientific community see as increasing inaccuracy in the discussion of…
Cornwall Badger Project vaccination crowdfunder
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This looks like a good project to me, so I have supported it on their crowdfunder – click here.
The nest protectors by Inkcap
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This week’s long article in the ‘always worth a read’ Inkcap is about Hen Harrier protection.
Just call me 202000070343
From the Scottish government: Our Reference: 202000070343Your Reference: Another poisoned eagle Dear Dr Mark Avery, Thank you for your correspondence received on 29/07/2020. Your query will be passed to the relevant area for consideration and has been given a reference number of 202000070343. Please quote this number in all correspondence. The Scottish Government aim to…
In the garden
In the garden this afternoon filming a chat for Hen Harrier Day online on Saturday.
This petition is flying – Decathlon
For more information see the petition itself and this article from The Ferret. To see what Decathlon themselves say, here is their Twitter account on this subject; Decathlon look as though they are generally a force for quite a lot of good in the world – see here – and so I was inclined to…
Pallids in Pas-de-Calais
I’m interested in Pallid Harriers for a number of reasons; they are very beautiful birds, they are expanding their range dramatically westwards in an interesting manner and I have a bet with my friend Ben Koks (which I will be happy to lose) that Pallids aren’t going to have bred in the UK by the…
Let’s hope not
I hope this cartoon by Mr Carbo is unnecessarily pessimistic. It remains to be seen whether the SNP government is prepared to act on wildlife crime and unsustainable moorland management. They have acted on Mountain Hares but if they thought that was enough then they have not read the mood of the Scottish electorate nor…