There are many reasons for signing the petition to ban driven grouse shooting – click here – and this study provides two more reasons at different levels. The study looks at Red Grouse carcasses bought on the open market which were intended for human consumption and found that all 78 carcasses contained lead shot and…
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
WWF and the Polar Bears
The recent Guardian story about WWF facilitating the trade in Polar Bear skins – click here – is in many ways, not news. It’s not news because I can’t see anything new in it. The fact that WWF has supported trophy hunting of several species whilst arguing for their conservation, and using images of them…
Guest blog – Newts and Housing by Barry Kemp
I am recently retired but have spent the last 20 years working as an ecologist, primarily in the conservation of our native reptile and amphibian species. During this time I had to deal with many housing developers and the message I and other ecologists were always trying to get across was that our biodiversity was…
RSPB press release – Solar farm benefits for wildlife
Solar farms managed for nature can benefit bird abundance and diversity A new study by the RSPB and the University of Cambridge has shown that solar farms managed for nature could benefit birds and other wildlife. Managed correctly this much-needed renewable energy infrastructure could provide biodiversity benefits in arable-dominated landscapes. With recent debate about the…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 14 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…
Sunday book review – The Birdman of Auschwitz by Nicholas Milton
Nicholas Milton is a productive author and this is the fifth of his books I’ve reviewed here. The Role of Birds in World War One, The Role of Birds in World War Two and The Secret Life of the Adder were published in 2022 and followed Neville Chamberlain’s Legacy in 2019. I’ve rated all of his books highly…
Sunday book review – The Farming for Nature Handbook
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This book is published in Ireland but it looks to me that there is much of value and interest in it to many farmers in the UK. This impression is reinforced by favourable comments from some Brits including the suggestion from Martin Lines, CEO of Nature Friendly Farming UK, that all farmers should have this…
Guest blog – North Island by David Higgins
David Higgins works in conservation. He has lived and worked in the Falkland Islands, St Helena Island, India, The Skerries, the Yorkshire Dales, the North Pennines and now the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. He loves islands especially seabird colonies, where he enjoys his main passion of wildlife photography. Filmed at 120 frames per second I…
Press release – Twice as Wild by SCOTLAND: The Big Picture
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Twice as wild: woodland on Mull peninsula doubles in 30 years One of Scotland’s pioneering rewilding sites has seen a near doubling of its native woodlands over the past 30 years. At Tireragan, on the southwestern tip of Mull, woodland cover has grown from 56 hectares in 1994, to 93 hectares in 2024, thanks to…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 36 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…