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 – Short walks along streets that flood (and roads not taken) by Jenny Shepherd

Mark Comments Off on Guest blog – Short walks along streets that flood (and roads not taken) by Jenny Shepherd

Ban the Burn rep to the Stronger Together to Stop Calderdale WIndfarm campaign group. On behalf of the group, named creator of the Parliamentary Petition, Ban WIndfarms on Protected Peatland in England – click here . Tend to carry a Grandmothers Against Bullshit placard – covers so much in so few words. Short walks along…

Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 57 by Nick MacKinnon

Mark Comments Off on Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 57 by Nick MacKinnon

Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…

Sunday book review – The Restless Coast by Roger Morgan-Grenville

Mark Comments Off on Sunday book review – The Restless Coast by Roger Morgan-Grenville

  This is a good read and goes straight into my list of contenders to be this blog’s book of the year.  The format involves the author walking stretches of the coast of Britain investigating the places, talking to the people and trying to figure out what he makes of the issues that affect these…

Sunday book review (by Ian Carter) of Donald Watson (ed Roger Crofts)

Mark Comments Off on Sunday book review (by Ian Carter) of Donald Watson (ed Roger Crofts)

Reviewed by Ian Carter Donald Watson is someone with whom I’ve built a connection of sorts, though we never met. I have ended up living in Galloway not many miles from the village where he spent much of his life painting the birds and the landscapes that he loved, and making his ground-breaking studies of…

Sunday book review – Wild Galloway by Ian Carter

Mark Comments Off on Sunday book review – Wild Galloway by Ian Carter

Those who enjoy Ian Carter’s writing, and very many of us do, will enjoy this latest work about his new home in Galloway. Ian encounters new species, new names and introduces us to his new surroundings. The author’s move from Devon was motivated partly by a yearning for wildness and from his fairly remote new…

A book but not a review – Donald Watson (edited by Roger Crofts)

Mark Comments Off on A book but not a review – Donald Watson (edited by Roger Crofts)

This book is by friends, colleagues and family of Donald Watson, the artist and writer who passed away in 2005.  I can’t review it as I wrote a glowing Foreword for the book itself and was delighted and felt honoured to be asked. This book of nine chapters, by seven authors, brought a person I…

Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 42 by Nick MacKinnon

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Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…

RSPB press release – Stone-curlews

Mark Comments Off on RSPB press release – Stone-curlews

Projects working with farmers to bring endangered bird back from the brink celebrate over double the number of Stone-curlew thanks to 40 years of effort Two projects working to benefit Stone-curlew, a threatened and unique looking bird, are celebrating their 40th anniversaries, with the population now having more than doubled in size since a nationwide population…

RSPB makes big move at Geltsdale

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The RSPB is extending its ownership of land at Geltsdale in Cumbria and appealing for donations to secure the deal – click here. This is very good news. The emphasis of the RSPB text is on habitat restoration and the graphic produced is excellent – although the day I ever see all those species at…