https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/wildlife-and-the-law/wild-bird-crime/the-birdcrime-report/ The walk-out of shooting organisations from the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (revealed by this blog on Friday) is very much to be welcomed. They have played an almost entirely negative role in this group. In my opinion, justice, birds of prey and the group’s work are all better off without their presence. We…
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
Paul Leyland – Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
Paul writes: Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria selene) was a new butterfly for me last year. I knew they bred at Fen Bog, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve on the North York Moors, so I thought I’d see if I could spot one. Fen Bog is a moorland reserve with a large area of wet heath,…
Two books I’m reading at the moment
Reviews will appear closer to publication date. Rebirding by Ben Macdonald is published by Pelagic Publishing. Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness is published by Unbound.
Tim Melling – Wolf
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Tim writes: Imagine seeing a wild wolf loping across the countryside when he stops about 40m away and stares right into your eyes. It sent shivers down my spine and is one of my most enjoyable wildlife experiences ever. I have seen wolves on a number of occasions before, but this one was a particularly…
Guest blog series, A Break from Humanity (8) by Ian Carter.
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Continued from last Saturday If you read anything about the island of Colonsay you probably won’t get far without a reference to ‘the Scottish Highlands and Islands in miniature’. A cursory assessment from the deck of the ferry, followed by a twenty-minute drive around the island’s only single-track loop road showed why it had earned…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Walk out
I haven’t written much about the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group because it has largely been a waste of space for years. There have been strong signs from the new Chair, Supt Nick Lyall, that he wanted the group to be more effective in tackling wildlife crime. On Wednesday the group had its first meeting…
EDM #1963 gains more supporters
This EDM has acquired 13 signatures now. See Caroline Lucas’s Guest Blog on this site earlier this week – click here. Write to your MP asking them to add their name – like I did here. Here are the 13 MPs who have added their names, including the first Tory – unsurprisingly that is Zac…
News from the NGOs
RSPB: RSPB is going through a big reorganisation and cost-cutting exercise. Something like 300 staff will be going (from c2000 altogether). The English regions will shrink from five to three with the North England Region being largely untouched (as far as boundaries are concerned) except for losing Derbyshire to the new Mid-England Region). East Anglia…
Icelandic whaling
A Minke Whale steak. This report in Icelandreview, of a report on the economics of whaling in Iceland (see account in Icelandic here), suggests that the hunting of whales for their meat is of net economic benefit to the Icelandic economy and that it is not putting off whale-watching tourists. The latter suggestion is difficult…