Michael Gove has asked moorland owners to be good boys (and girls – although all the landowners in the room at the time were actually men) and to stop damaging blanket bogs through burning them. Burning is carried out so that men (and a few women) can shoot lots of Red Grouse for fun as…
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
See you in Kent on Saturday?
Here is a link to the booking form but I’m not sure whether there are any places left… It looks like a good event and I might even see some birds on the trip.
Midhope Moors – burned blanket bog
Burned Sphagnum photographed yesterday on Midhope Moors, Peak District. And here is Midhope Moors with the blanket bog shaded in buff from the Defra MAGIC system https://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx And some more burned Sphagnum up there in the blanket bog. Well, this looks to me like a recent burn. I understand that Wakefield Farms are the landowners…
Social impact
Do you recall that over a year ago a PhD position was advertised at the University of Northampton, just down the road from me, on the social impact of driven game shooting. At the time I wrote this. Yesterday I went to a seminar on the first year of the study and heard how the…
Policing the burning agreement
This was the example of moorland burning I saw on the northern edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park three weeks ago. Does this comply with the voluntary agreement made by many grouse moors not to burn on blanket bogs? There are a couple of things that I would need to know before I could…
Are you sure you’ve identified the right one Crispin?
In The Times I read that Crispin Odey, self-confessed funder of YFTB has decided that Boris Johnson is the person he wants to lead the Conservative Party, and as soon as possible. It’s only a matter of five months ago that Michael Gove was the chosen one for Mr Odey. Blimey! Boris’s principled and reasonable…
News of a reader
Sometimes I wonder what has happened to erstwhile frequent commenters on this blog who seem to have gone missing. Giles Bradshaw has commented many times on this blog – usually under his own name but I’ve caught him trying to have conversations with himself under aliases too. Giles’s comments go back to August 2011 and…
Durham dales
Three weeks ago (how time flies) I spent two sunny days in the area of Weardale, Upper Teesdale and surroundings. It was a warm couple of days to be up in the hills. I was there at the invitation of Caroline Beck, a journalist who formerly worked for the BBC in the north of England…
Paul Leyland – Wasp Nest Beetle
Paul writes: This is an unusual-looking beetle, the antennae are particularly striking and the elytra are very pointed and leave the end of the wings exposed. When I saw this one it took me quite a while to realise what I was looking at. As its name suggests the Wasp Nest Beetle (Metoecus paradoxus) is…
Otto goes non-toxic
The People’s Manifesto for Wildlife called for: Government to put the UK on the front foot by introducing a ban on the sale, possession and use of all lead ammunition across the UK Food Standards Agency and National Health Service to undertake a public awareness campaign to promote the health risks from consumption of game…