Congratulations! And well done, Les Wallace! You have triggered a response from Defra. More on this tomorrow. Night night all!
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
Edging closer to 10,000 signatures
Les Wallace’s epetition calling for an economic study of grouse shooting is close to 9,500 signatures. When, I think we can say ‘when’ not ‘if’ now, it gets to 10,000 signatures then it will trigger an inadequate response from Defra. I’ll look forward to reading that in due course. The map of signatures shows the…
Gilruth/Gregory – mostly ignored but an RSPB response.
Following this morning’s blog about the depths to which GWCT have slipped, I can’t find much coverage of the said press release (hardly surprising is it?). Have you spotted any? There is this one article which more or less republished the original press release and a feisty quote from Martin Harper… This is another sadly…
Inside Out and Upside Down
The BBC are going to feature a scheme which feeds game to the hungry and needy in the East of England this evening (19:30 broadcast). I wonder whether they will ask questions about the lead levels in the game that is provided? Will they point out that a major food provider, Fareshare, refused lead-shot game…
Looking good for Les Wallace – petition nears 10,000 signatures
It’s looking good for Les Wallace’s epetition calling for a proper economic study of the costs and benefits of driven grouse shooting – but there’s still some way to go. Another 700 signatures will mean that Defra has to respond to this epetition. My guess is that they will say ‘no’ because the last thing…
NE news
I hear that staff morale under the new interim Natural England CEO, Marian Spain, is rising. That’s good to hear. It might rise a little more if the report in Saturday’s The Times, that Tony Juniper might be NE’s new Chair, is true. It’s a difficult job but Tony might well be the person to…
GWCT plumbs new depths
Here are some quotes from a press release from Abzed’s Ian Gregory which was released yesterday morning: From: Ian Gregory <ig@abzed.com>Sent: 27 January 2019 09:58Subject: Official Figures Reveal RSPB’s “Increasing Failure” To Protect Endangered Birds Embargo 00.01 Monday 28 January 2019 Government data shows the RSPB is four times less successful with hen harriers…
Paul Leyland – Empis tessellata
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Paul writes: Empis tessellata is a common fly and can be seen throughout the UK, it belongs to the family Empidae, also known as Dagger Flies. The family is quite distinctive, typically with a small head combined with long body and legs. There are several similar species, Empis tessellata can be told from its black…
I’ve done my BGBW and it was fun!
Long-tailed Tit. Photo: Tim Melling I looked out between 9am and 10am to record the birds I saw in my garden. It’s a good ritual which brings hundreds of thousands of people together in a common activity and thinking about nature for a while each year. My records were as follows; species seen in chronological…
Big Garden Birdwatch anyone?
Great Tit. Photo: Tim Melling It’s the weekend for the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. I’ll be looking out of the window for an hour this morning to see what birds are using my garden. A Reed Bunting or a Blackcap would be quite exciting as I haven’t seen either in the garden yet in 2019…