Tosh

I do wonder about vets sometimes. In the Sunday Telegraph a ‘report’ (which has not yet been published) is featured under the sensational headline ‘The extinct species back from the brink and causing mayhem’. Crikey! Which species are these? Well, the article doesn’t give any actual examples of mayhem being caused unless you count the red kite which…

Shooting in the dark

This is probably the last word on this blog on badgers for a while – but who knows? Today the Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman made the long-awaited announcement on badger culling in a House of Commons more interested in what was about to happen across the road in Portcullis House where phone-hacking would be the…

Brocks and Brooks

Twitter is buzzing today with suggestions that the English Government will announce its decision on badger culling tomorrow.  We’ll see – but I’d keep your ears open at around 1230 or so if I were you (unless you are a badger in which case I’d run down a hole, put your paws over your ears…

Butterflies, Sir David, Ingrams, Waitrose and windfalls

I’ve done my bit for Butterfly Conservation this weekend and carried out a Big Butterfly Count in the back garden. This very serious survey was postponed as when the rain fell this morning I nipped in to Waitrose in Rushden to stock up on cheap white wine and found that my local Waitrose store was…

Brooks and badgers

Thinking about next week’s Game Fair at Blenheim, I remember a few years ago sitting next to the Telegraph columnist Charlie Brooks at lunch on the Friday.  Mr Brooks had just recently written a piece slagging off the RSPB so we had a few things to chat about and the conversation roamed over the usual…