Bob writes: I have a life long passion for the outdoors through rock climbing and fell running. A cancer scare in my thirties made me appreciate many things I simply hadn’t noticed before, from the smallest plants to the gap in the sky from a missing raptor. It’s all worth fighting for and that’s what…
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
BTO press release
Tawny Owl. Photo: Howard Stockdale BTO Twenty minutes once during your week is all it will take to find out just how Britain’s Tawny Owls are faring. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is asking members of the public to listen out for Tawny Owls to help build a picture of what is happening to…
Back in court a week today
Comments Off on Back in court a week today
We’re back in court a week today (on 17 January) for the last, the third, day of our judicial review hearing in front of Ms Justice Lang. The hearing is in the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand and is open to the public. For the first two days we were in Court 18…
Guest blog – Lynx and young people by Chris Baker
Chris began teaching science in London ten years ago and has since worked at British international schools in Vietnam and China. He is currently Head of Science at the British School of Bucharest. He has written two previous guest blogs here; Natural History GCSE – still a bad idea, 8 November 2018; Natural History in…
At last!
Hooray! I’ve finally caught up with my local male Hen Harrier at Stanwick Lakes. Not even a tiny step for mankind, one giant leap for one bloke. Such a lot of fuss over a bird will seem pretty odd to many normal people, but perhaps less odd to many regular readers of this blog. Why…
Waitrose lack of response
Email sent to Waitrose early this morning. It’s Dr Avery not Mr Avery. I first contacted you about this matter on 26 November – I have not had any substantive response except that you are thinking about it. I know I am not alone in having contacted you. You have been ‘thinking about it’ for…
Scottish Wildlife Crime report for 2017
I welcome the reduction in offences but it is disappointing that wildlife crime and raptor persecution continue to threaten Scotland’s natural heritage and damage the reputation of our country. Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform This review of wildlife crime cases is worth a look as it puts the…
I was robbed!
There has been a male Hen Harrier seen regularly at my local patch of Stanwick Lakes since well before Christmas. Quite a lot of people have seen it, quite a lot of us have not, and I’d really like to see it. I’d like to see it because it is always good to see a…
Not much happening…
Photo: Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons The UK has ground to a halt in a post-referendum, pre-meaningful vote, bad-tempered muddle. Please send guest blogs immediately – guidelines here.
Letchworth
There were nearly 60 people in the audience of the Hitchin and Letchworth RSPB group on Friday evening – and they were a very friendly and jolly lot. And some of them went away with signed copies of my books too. It’s often the questions that are the most interesting thing for me – because…