Regular readers with good memories will remember the Midhope Track. This is what it looks like at the moment (above). The logs from the image below have been added to the plastic track but they are now sinking into the bog. Bob Berzins wrote about this track back in January 2019 and February 2017 (click…
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
Guest blog – Farmed to hell? by Louise Bacon
Farmed to hell? I spend a lot of my time in the farmed environment. I live surrounded by arable, and have to pass through it to get anywhere. At work recently (I work in the Polar Data Centre at British Antarctic Survey) we had a midsummer solstice challenge for running/walking, simply personal achievement, nothing else….. …
Press release – Morecambe Bay Extinction Rebellion group
For Peat’s Sake: What Next? MBXR Press Release A series of XR Webinars and Assemblies addressing peatland management, biodiversity, burning and flooding in Bowland, Pendle, Calderdale and similar uplands. Weds July 8th. 7-8.30pm. Peat:Si Thomas, Peatland Restoration Officer, Cumbria Wildlife Trust. Thurs July 9th 7-8.30pm. FloodingDr Rod Everett. Backsbottom Farm, Roeburndale Sat July 11th. 1.30-4.30pm….
News from Iceland
The sole Fin whaling company in Iceland, Hvalur ehf, has bought half the shares in one of Iceland’s largest waste disposal and recycling companies (Íslenska Gamafelagið). What’s that all about? Diversification? And it was reported yesterday that three shareholders of Hvalur hf are suing the company in order for it (the company) to redeem their…
Petitions Committee doing its job
You may have received an email like this one from the Petitions Committee: You recently signed the petition “Legal rights for ancient trees”: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300050 The Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who oversee the petitions system) have considered the Government’s response to this petition. They felt that the response did not directly address the request…
RSPB position on gamebird shooting
I’d have thought that we must start to hear something about the RSPB’s review of its position on gamebird shooting fairly soon. If RSPB is to announce something at its AGM in October then that is only three months away and that will require RSPB Council signing off any new position at its August and…
Shooting Badgers (3)
The information on Badger culls in the 2014 IEP report were collected by observers. These are people who go out with shooters and watch and record what happens. Now it seems fanciful to me to imagine that shooters behave in exactly the same way when they know someone is monitoring what happens as they do…
Shooting Badgers (2)
The National Farmers’ Union has a petition about food standards: I want the food I eat to be produced to world leading standards. Our Government should ensure that all food eaten in the UK – whether in our homes, schools, hospitals, restaurants or from shops – is produced in a way that matches the high standards…
Shooting Badgers (1)
In the past two years, more than 67,000 Badgers have been killed under a government programme which claims to have as its aim the eradication of bovine Tb in cattle. About two thirds of these Badgers are shot (free shooting, sometimes called controlled shooting) and one third are trapped and then shot. Free shooting is…
Press release – Zero bycatch by Hookpod
CELEBRATING ZERO SEABIRD BYCATCH! “This simple device has now saved the lives of countless numbers of the worlds most beautiful and noble seabirds.” Sir David Attenborough June 2020. Over 300,000 seabirds, 100,000 of which are albatrosses are killed annually in the longline fisheries for tuna around the world. The Hookpod is a new invention which…