I’ve had a couple of fairly long drives through the countryside in the last week. There are some quite good-looking crops in these parts – unfortunately some of them are crops of black grass. Considering the awful autumn, wet winter and soggy spring it’s surprising that some of the fields are looking so good. Many…
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
The quiet man of Defra?
What is the point of the Liberal Democrats exactly? And what is the point of David Heath? Who is David Heath, you might ask? David Heath is the single Lib Dem Minister in Defra and he is the middle-ranking Minister between the boss-man Owen Paterson (excellent at giving out prizes to pork pie people we…
Defra – drowning not waving
There are 653 days until the next General Election and since a week is a long time in politics this a very long time to go. However, most people will probably already have made up their minds on this coalition government and it will take distinct jolts , changes or events (dear boy) to alter…
Sunday Book Review – Britain’s Freshwater Fishes by Mark Everard
We talk about fishermen (and rarely of fisherwomen) but we don’t talk about fish-watchers as we will talk about bird-watchers, do we? Why is that? There isn’t a Royal Society for the Protection Fish nor a Fishlife nor a Fish Conservation. Yes there are organisations which do some good work for our fishy friends…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill – the simple-minded
It’s the weekend of the Game Fair, so spare a thought for all those people walking around in tweed in this hot weather – although you’d, maybe, think they had more sense. There will be a lot of talk about lead ammunition – it’s a big thing this Game Fair. The shooting organisations are belatedly…