The Birdwatch Birders’ Choice Awards vote closes at the end of the month and so this weekend would be a good time to sift through the categories and choose your heroes and villains. They are quite difficult choices.
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
NE don’t know much about their study
Back on 1 October I asked NE some questions. They asked for extra time to answer them and I had a response yesterday afternoon. The questions related to an excellent NE publication of 2008 entitled ‘A future for hen harriers in England?’ which it is well worth having a good look at, and asking yourself…
Congratulations to the winners
RSPB press release The winners of the sixth annual Nature of Scotland Awards, organised by RSPB, have been announced, in a celebration of the passionate and dedicated people fighting to save the country’s wildlife. Mike Dilger, ecologist and natural history presenter, hosted the event last night (Thursday 23 November) at the Sheraton Grand Hotel…
Who deserves better protection – your child or your dog?
If you eat pork, chicken, beef etc then there is a statutory legal limit to how much lead that food can contain – it is set at 10ppb (parts per billion). If you eat game, such as Pheasant, Grey Partridge, Red Grouse, Rabbit etc, then no such legal level applies – even though in many…
The December Birdwatch
The latest Birdwatch is now out – my column promotes Gavin Gamble’s e-petition. Elsewhere in the magazine is an interesting review of the Hawfinch invasion – have you seen any? No, nor have I – but I keep looking up and hoping. Bill Oddie writes about birding Scilly this autumn – and getting wet and…
Silence from the Food Standards Agency
It’s apparently GB Game Week (#GBGameWeek) where the shooting industry tries to persuade us all to eat game meat. Although I am veggie for four days a week, the freezer has quite a lot of venison in it – and very enjoyable it is too. But I know where that venison comes from, it’s shot…
My article on UKHillWalking.com
Here’s an article by me on the UKHillWalking website – seems to be going down well. Have a look at the comments too – some interesting ones there. GWCT is bleating that they want a say – but they haven’t left a comment on the article so far. It would be good to…
This is just weird!
How peculiar can you get?
Guest blog – Conservation 21 by Ian Carter
Ian Carter has worked as an ornithologist for more than 25 years. He was involved with the Red Kite reintroduction programme in England and has a keen interest in the conservation of raptors, bird reintroductions and wildlife management more generally. He is particularly interested in human attitudes towards wildlife and the complex ways in which…
Wild food (17) – Useful Books by Ian Carter
Comments Off on Wild food (17) – Useful Books by Ian Carter
That’s useful books used by me (not written by me) just in case that wasn’t obvious. These are a few of the books I refer to most often or have found especially inspiring. Mainly they are about the essential business of identification but they also describe how to go about tracking down edible species and…