Prof Andrew Barker of the Lothian and Borders Raptor Study Group sounds like a bright guy. His whole-page letter in BB hits several nails on their heads. In particular his long experience of chatting to grouse shooting interests lead him, as mine leads me, to the view that attempts at conciliation with grouse shooting interests…
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
Ban driven grouse shooting
All those months after reaching 100,000 signatures in just 20 days in favour of banning driven grouse shooting we get a result from the Petitions Committee. Instead of a Westminster Hall debate (I’m not sure they are happening these days, and it is almost the parliamentary summer holidays), Chris Packham was interviewed by Kerry McCarthy…
Press release – Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust
Public urged to report whale and dolphin sightings in Hebrides The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust is calling on members of the public to record their at-sea excursions and sightings of whales, dolphins, porpoises and endangered basking sharks off Scotland’s west coast to boost monitoring efforts and strengthen understanding of the coronavirus lockdown’s impact on…
News from the shooting bubble
From Twitter: Tim Bonner’s best tweet since his Linnethawk one. Worth a retweet to help spread the message to move away from poisonous lead ammo – some people don’t know whether they are coming or going though ( see BASC spoke with forked tongue?). In other news from the shooting bubble, Duncan Thomas has changed…
Hen Harriers in the news
This long read’ (not too long) in The Herald is well worth a few minutes of your time. It’s a refreshingly sane and well-informed account of illegal persecution of Hen Harriers in Scotland. Let’s hope Roseanna Cunningham has read it (she will have done). The SNP government is dragging its feet on its response to…
Paul Leyland – Syritta pipiens
Social Distancing Week 16. Syritta pipiens. Paul writes: Syritta pipiens is one of the commonest garden hoverflies. It isn’t as obvious as lots of its bigger or more brightly coloured cousins but once you know what to look for spotting it is quite simple. They’re about 7mm long, very narrow bodied with a rounded head…
Sunday book review – Cottongrass Summer by Roy Dennis
This book, out of 40+ I reviewed in 2020, was one of two titles I chose as my wildlife book of the year – I recommend it highly. You can buy this book from Bookshop.org and I have set up a booklist to make that easy through this link https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/MarkAvery Disclosure: I am an…
Guest blog – Rebirth by Danilo Selvaggi
Danilo Selvaggi is Director General of Lipu, Italy’s BirdLife partner, having been in charge of institutional relations. He has a long involvement with environmental politics, communications and cultural ecology, and been an adviser to the Environment Ministry. A graduate in philosophy, he has focused especially on the social and cultural implications of philosophy, especially in…
Independence Day lessons
This video is doing the rounds of social media and brought a smile to my face. An American friend sent it to me. It’s clever and funny, and I suspect it is sufficiently well produced that it will be seen by Republican voters as well as Democrats, and therefore might influence the Presidential election. Using…
Tim Melling – Goshawk
Tim writes: I was out on the Peak District Moors in early March and had a great stroke of luck when this female Goshawk cruised over me. I identified her as a female by her large size, but also by the rather indistinct face pattern and yellow eye. Males are smaller with a noticeably dark…