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

Thoughts on the RSPB AGM

Mark 14 Comments

I attended the RSPB’s online AGM on Saturday. It was slick, a bit uplifting, but not entirely satisfactory and not entirely convincing. Amir Khan was a very cheery President and looked entirely natural in that position. Kevin Cox (Chair) and Beccy Speight (CEO) also said good things and said them well. Nobody goofed their lines….

Sunday book review – Nature Conservation in Europe by Graham Tucker (ed).

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    This is not a cheap book, nor is it a small book, but it is a very useful and impressive book.  It consists of fairly standardised accounts of the approaches to and the state of nature conservation across 26 countries, 25 of which are still members of the European Union (Luxembourg and Malta…

Sunday book review – Terns of North America by Cameron Cox

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There are 19 species of tern (if you count a couple of noddies and a skimmer, as this book does) in North America. I’ve seen all but one of these species (Aleutian Tern) somewhere or other, and almost all of them in North America, but also almost all of them in Europe and almost all…

Sunday book review – Yellowstone’s Birds by Douglas Smith et al.

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  I’ve been to Yellowstone twice, and spent about a dozen days there so I’m hardly an expert but I can tell you that few people go there to see the birds. We all go there to see geysers (and the wonderful Grand Prismatic  Spring), Grizzly Bears, Black Bears, Grey Wolves, Moose and Bison. But…

Anglian Water respond

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I wrote to Anglian Water – see below in blue –  and they responded very quickly. How do you think I should reply?     Good morning Mr Avery Thank you for your contact and your request for information regarding sewage discharges into watercourses. Our Manager of Quality Regulation and Enforcement has advised that Storm overflows…

Dear Anglian Water

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Dear Anglian Water, I’m a customer of yours. Each year you send me a new bill for the year ahead and I glance at it, shrug, and you collect my money by direct debit. This year, you and I are going to have a little chat about that bill because I will be looking at…

Sunday book review – Diary of a Secret Royal by Henry Morris

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Not strictly, or even loosely, speaking an environmental book, but now that Henry Morris has come out as the author of this and the side-splitting predecessor Diary of a Secret Tory MP (reviewed here) you can see why it deserves a review. There is the odd word or two about wildlife and how much the…

If this is a big announcement…

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This is the smallest, least consequential, big announcement you will ever see. Alex Sayer claims that she has been working with some of ‘the top people in government’ to launch a new group at the Tory Party Conference in Manchester (aka ‘the end of the line’ conference). She claims that she has got friends –…

BSBI press release – Autumn Lady’s-tresses found in Northern Ireland.

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The elegant and beautiful Autumn Lady’s-tresses, Spiranthes spiralis, an exquisite orchid with a delicate spiral of flowers, has been discovered for the first time in Northern Ireland – by a young botanist out walking with his mum! Jake Dalzell, a third-year plant ecology student at University of Cambridge, was out walking with his mum Judith…