It was, perhaps appropriately enough, soon after I passed through Bird City, Cheyenne County, Kansas that I saw my first Northern Harrier on my recent visit to the USA. After that they were an almost daily presence which made me think of Hen Harrier issues back home frequently. Until recently this was regarded as a…
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
Welcome Mr President
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Green Day’s 2004 song, American Idiot, has hit the UK charts to coincide with Trump’s visit to the UK. You may be surprised to hear, but maybe not, that I am quite a fan of Green Day.
Flowers we can pick (6) – Meadowsweet
Meadowsweet is one of the plants that Plantlife says we can pick! It’s in the Plantlife Pickable 12. This must be a common plant because it is another one that I can actually identify! And this is the time to see it – there was plenty in the boggier bits of Perth and Kinross on…
Guest blog – Feel Good Factor by Ian Parsons
Feel Good Factor It was during the demise of the much fabled ‘Beast from the East’ that I first noticed him. A whirry blur of brown feathers flying below me as I looked out of the back bedroom window at the sad grey dripping masses of what had been, just a few days earlier, pristine…
Save the date – 22 September
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For our French readers…
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Congratulations on your result against Belgium last night – we hope to see you on Sunday. Coming to a bookshop near you in time for your Christmas purchases – to be published 4 October 2018.
Start the rewilding now Mr Gove – the people have spoken.
On a hot summer’s night the people spoke – the vote at the end of last night’s rewilding debate in London was 52% in favour of rewilding the uplands and a mere 39% against. If 52% (actually a smidgeon under) v 48% (actually a smidgeon over, and without counting the don’t knows and did not…
Brood meddling judicial review
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Still waiting for white smoke as to if, and when, our case will be heard (and the RSPB’s too), but it is very unlikely to be before October. But it seems that the risk of any activation of the licence is almost passed for this year.
Press release from National Trust
England’s lucky omen? It’s our tern now – rare sea bird visits Farne Islands for first time since 1966 A rare seabird has “come home” for the first time since 1966 – just as England’s footballers hope to repeat the nation’s World Cup heroics of the same year. The sooty tern, usually only found in the…
Scottish trip
Going to Scotland at the weekend served many purposes: I saw my son, I picked up many cases of whisky (not all mine) which were purchased years ago but have now matured, I escaped the heat of southern England for the relative coolness of central Scotland, I had a brief look at the Strathbraan Raven…