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
A rather dull BBS survey
I was out of the house at 05:40 this morning to do the Late visit to my other BBS square. There were a few drops of rain, hardly any, but the sky was dark enough to make me wonder whether this afternoon’s forecast thunder storms might arrive early – they didn’t, and they still haven’t…
7,500th blog post
This is the 7500th blog to appear on this site since April 2011, but it seems appropriate, because of the date, to go back to the 46th which was posted on 1 June 2011 after visiting the battleground of the Little Bighorn in Montana. Why is it appropriate? Because the battle of the Little Bighorn,…
NEWS: Two rare hen harriers disappear in suspicious circumstances (RSPB press release)
RSPB Scotland is calling on the Scottish Government to move quickly to introduce the licensing of grouse shooting, following the disappearance of two more satellite-tagged hen harriers on moors in the Cairngorms National Park revealed on BBC Scotland’s Landward this evening. As detailed in the programme, Marlin, a young male, fledged from a nest at the National Trust for Scotland’s…
Wild Hacking licensed by SNH for 2020 – last minute decision?
Residents in Moray, close to where captive-bred falcons have been wild-hacked over recent years (under licence from SNH last year) received a letter today (dated yesterday) from the falconers involved informing the residents that ‘falcon training’ would start from approximately late June. The residents had no warning of this from SNH. I followed this up…
Heading to autumn
Comments Off on Heading to autumn
If Spring ends on 19 May, as I think it does for me, then Summer is about to morph into Autumn. I know there is the whole of July and August that many people would regard as Summer, but the birds are telling me that Autumn is fast approaching. Sitting in my garden the other…
Guest blog – I wish I had swatted it by Jonathan Wallace
After studying zoology at university Jonathan was involved in ornithological research and conservation for a number of years in France, Scotland and West Africa. Subsequently he has spent most of his career as an environmental consultant, assisting industry in managing its environmental impacts. Wildlife, particularly insects, remain his first love however and he is a…
BASC not quite facing up to reality
BASC obviously feels that it is in a corner and simply resorts to nastiness. Apparently crowdfunding for a legal case to challenge government’s inaction on environmental protection is ‘extremism’ in BASC’s view. Really? Using the law of the land is extremism? I don’t know whether we in Wild Justice will win or lose, but it’s…
The Red Fox – a species of conservation concern?
It’s easy to find lots of views and images of Red Foxes on the internet: some people love them and others loathe them. But I’m surprised that there isn’t more discussion about their status. I posted this graph (from the recent excellent BBS report) a while ago wondering whether this population trend was real or…
The fox that predated the wrong nest…
I miss You Forgot the Birds – remember them? They were set up by grouse shooters, notably old Harrovian city trader Crispin Odey (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here), to have a go at the RSPB because the RSPB was occasionally mentioning the problems associated with driven grouse shooting. At least…