The news that there may be no hen harriers nesting in England this year is sad but this day, if it has come, was going to come soon. Of course, extinction in England is a bit of an odd thing as England is ‘just’ a line on a map and on other sides of that…
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 toad that croaked
Yesterday was an anniversary – I don’t think many people noticed it. Does it matter that a small, bright, shiny toad was last seen on Earth on 15 May 1989 – does extinction matter? The golden toad was only discovered in the Monte Verde cloud forests of Costa Rica in 1966, by herpetologist Jay Savage…
Marmite revisited
Marmite – you may love it or hate it. Wildlife NGOs – you may love them or hate them. The results of the polls on this website over your favourite and least favourite wildlife NGOs produced a lot of interesting results. I guess it doesn’t really matter that much to Marmite how many people hate…
Oh oh!
I went out for a drive last week and saw a couple of red kites. They are fantastic birds aren’t they? If you remember I set myself the target of seeing red kites on 200 days of 2012 – and enjoying the moment each time. I am falling short so far – I’m heading for…
Bits and bits
Good luck to Jonny Rankin and team in seeing as many species as possible today in Norfolk. Looks like it will be a fine day and so my guess of 121 species looks on the low side. I’ll give Jonny and team £1 for every species above 121 that they see – the money goes…