At Saturday’s NT AGM there was a very close vote which led to the members’ resolution to end trail hunting being rejected by 30,985 votes to 30,686 votes – my vote was in the losing category. That’s very close – but I am getting used to being on just the wrong side of close votes….
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
Vishal Jadhav – Amur Falcon
This is a female Amur Falcon. This is an incredible small raptor which breeds in southern Russia and migrates to Africa, and a huge congregation of these raptors is found in Nagaland, India on their migration route. From here they travel on their way across the Indian peninsula to Africa the wintering grounds. One…
Dr Coffey’s reading list (7)
Dr Therese Coffey is the junior minister at Defra. When Gavin Gamble’s e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting passes 10,000 signatures (and it stands at over 9300) then Dr Coffey will need to sign off a government response. In order that she does not make Defra look even more foolish than they do…
Sunday book review – Islander by Patrick Barkham
This is a tour from one island to the next, starting with the Isle of Man and travelling to smaller and smaller islands around the British coast until ending on a very small and uninhabited island in the Essex saltmarshes. Patrick Barkham writes so well that I’d really like to go on an actual journey…
Tim Melling – Northern Eggar
Tim writes: Northern Eggar (Lasciocampa quercus callunae) is a large day-flying moth that is currently considered to be the northern form of the Oak Eggar (L. quercus). Northern Eggar is darker with distinct wing marking differences (eg paler shoulders and an S-shaped cross band), it has a two year life cycle (not one year like…
Dr Coffey’s reading list (6)
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Dr Therese Coffey is the junior minister at Defra. When Gavin Gamble’s e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting passes 10,000 signatures (and it stands at over 9300) then Dr Coffey will need to sign off a government response. In order that she does not make Defra look even more foolish than they do…
An Unreliable History of Birdwatching (30) by Paul Thomas
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Wild Food (8) – Sloe Gin by Ian Carter
I do admire people who manage to produce their own wine from flowers, fruits or leaves, gleaned from the countryside. It seems to require lots of faffing about with all sorts of different ingredients, and endless decanting of fluids from one vessel to another – followed by a long, nerve-wracking wait to see if it…
Thank you
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Thank you for your comments. This blog started in April 2011 and this week we passed the 50,000 comments milestone.
It is a Big Issue
I often stop for Big Issue sellers, but I rarely take away the magazine – after they have given me change and the magazine I usually give them both back. But that’s why I missed these excellent words from Ali Schofield in mid-September (in a larger (very good) article mostly about badgers). ‘It’s not the…