I heard my first Willow Warbler of the year at my local patch of Stanwick Lakes this morning. It seems to have been a long time coming since the first Chiffchaff was three weeks ago! I think of my first Willow Warbler as being usually a week to 10 days after the first singing Chiffchaff. …
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
Press release: RSPB and Kent Wildlife Trust
Press release from RSPB and Kent Wildlife Trust: A Local council ignores national outcry by ploughing ahead with plans that threaten one of the last bastions for nightingales in England Last year over 12,000 people wrote to Medway Council to object to proposals that could see thousands of houses built at Lodge Hill, the most…
Signatures for banning driven grouse shooting
These are the maps of signatures for ‘my’ e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting (closed September 2016, LEFT) and Gavin Gamble’s e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting (closed Monday this week, 2 April, RIGHT). Unfortunately the shading isn’t on the same scale (and…
Not many migrants
There haven’t been many spring migrants (birds) around in Northants so far. I still haven’t seen anything more than Chiffchaffs and a few Sand Martins – but then I’m not out all the time. But the Chiffchaffs are singing in lots of places. Their song cuts through the air and delivers the message that spring…
Guest blog – Peak District Moorland Monitors
Thanks Mark, for allowing us the opportunity to introduce ourselves! We are the Moorland Monitors – a group of local people from raptor, mammal and ecological backgrounds who want to combine forces to protect the wild species and wild spaces of the Peak District grouse moors. We believe that local people and visitors can play…
Gender pay gap data
The gender pay gap is a very blunt measure of anything – because it does not measure whether both (or more) genders get paid the same amount for the same job. But the data are out there. This is what I’ve discovered so far (data rounded to nearest whole number): If you’d like me…
Hare today, goner tomorrow!
The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust is helping with a survey of Mountain Hares. They’ve got the science to tackle a job like this. To see a shocking video of Mountain Hare ‘management’ see here.
Those 48,166 (now 48,173) signatures
The analyses presented here (provided by ‘a reader’ – to whom many thanks) resemble closely those generated last time. They show that rural constituencies (England only was analysed) are stronger supporters of banning driven grouse shooting than are urban constituencies (with mixed urban/rural constituencies in the middle)(top graph). We’re used to this – but it…
Guest blog – ELS/HLS madness by Andrew Carter
Andrew Carter is a farmer in South Wilts with a pedigree Aberdeen-Angus herd which is making use of both chalk downland and meadows in the Hampshire Avon valley – much within the current Higher Level Stewardship scheme. He practices conventional arable farming, but with a high quantity of environmental balancing. A lifelong interest in natural…
First bus is in the garage
It seemed back before Christmas that e-petitions about grouse shooting were a bit like buses – you don’t even see one for ages and then three come along together. Well, the first bus, Gavin Gamble’s e-petition is now parked in the garage. That means that the focus passes to the Jane Griggs pro-shooting e-petition which…