Dear Andy

Email to Andy Clements, CEO BTO Dear Andy Interesting news about your successor – Juliet will find you a difficult act to follow. And congratulations on your extended term as a Natural England Board member. This email is relevant to both your BTO role and your NE role but it is directed at you solely…

NE, you didn’t

From Natural England, 23 June Dear Dr Avery, Access to information request – Acknowledgement – Request No RFI 5105 Thank you for your request for the information detailed in your email below, which we received on 18 June 2020. We are dealing with your request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Your request is being…

Mr Eustice of DEFRA, not useless at all

I’ve just listened to George Eustice, the Secretary of State for DEFRA, giving an environmental speech and answering a few questions from green NGOs. Mr Eustice is a farmer, a devoted (rather than an opportunist) Brexiteer and a Tory but he is quite an impressive act (which I’ve said before). This may partly come from…

Press release – Ban Bloodsports on Yorkshire’s Moors

Police probe goshawk-killing on Queen’s grouse moor A protected goshawk has been illegally killed on one of North Yorkshire’s most iconic grouse shooting moors owned by Her Majesty The Queen. North Yorkshire Police launched an investigation into the Duchy of Lancaster’s Goathland Estate, nestled in the heart of the North York Moors, after being handed…

Paul Leyland – Marbled White

Paul writes: For the past four months I’ve been looking at insects in and around my garden and reporting what I’ve found. I’ve decided I can now spread my wings a bit so I don’t miss out too much on what is happening elsewhere. One of my favourite wildlife sights in Yorkshire, at this time…

Tim Melling – Blyth’s Reed Warbler

Tim writes: I know it’s not the prettiest of birds but this might be the start of a colonisation of Britain by Blyth’s Reed Warbler.  It was once considered to be an extreme rarity in Britain, only really identifiable in the hand by measurement of its short wing. It was first recorded on Fair Isle…

After…things I would like to be different (7)

A modern Royal Family When you look across the Pond at Trumpland then there is quite a lot to be said for having a hereditary Head of State compared with where they have ended up. And I have quite a lot of time for 90-something year-old women as my own mother and mother-in-law both have…

BTO press release – Juliet Vickery to be new CEO

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has named Professor Juliet Vickery as its new Chief Executive.Juliet, who is currently the RSPB’s Head of International Conservation Science, said that ‘to have been trusted with this position is an enormous privilege and a hugely exciting opportunity.’ Juliet will join BTO in November, working alongside the current Chief…