This is a book about Hen Harriers too (see reviews of The Hen Harrier and Bowland Beth)! But this book takes a different perspective – it is a novel about the impacts that Hen Harriers, and their persecution, have on a local family and the community in which it sits. In theory, this is 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
Tim Melling – Bearded Tit
Tim writes: I suppose the most unusual thing about this photograph is that it was not photographed in a reedbed. In winter they are supposed to feed mainly on the seeds of Common Reed (Phragmites australis) but I found a flock feeding in a rough field near to a reedbed in North Lincolnshire. It…
An Unreliable History of Birdwatching (17) by Paul Thomas
Paul’s website Previous episodes: An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (1) An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (5) An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (6) An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (13) An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (15) …
Some news and some blogs
Things that have caught my eye in a busy week: at least two pairs of Bee-eaters have hatched young at East Leake – and Mark Thomas from RSPB was on Today this morning talking about it (he’s very good with the media) official announcement of the West Pennine Moors SSSI (a few fields were snipped…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Comments Off on Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Gove the environmentalist?
The speech by Michael Gove today is just fantastic – but is it fantastical? I don’t really care whether he believes what he says or not, I just care whether he implements his quite detailed words of today during his time as Secretary of State for the Environment. Since 2010 we have had one pretty…
The new Gove – ‘I am an environmentalist’
Michael Gove’s speech ‘The unfozen moment – delivering a Green Brexit‘ is very, very good. It’s, by far, the best speech made by a government environment minister since at least 2010. Not only is it erudite and clever, it shows a better grasp of the issues than his two immediate predecessors could muster after…
Farming subsidy debate gets moving…
We’ll have to see what ‘Green Brexit’ Gove actually says today, and then watch like hawks (harriers, eagles, kites and falcons) what he actually does. But there is clearly something afoot when the Today programme stirs itself on the subject of agricultural payments (click here and two bits – at 08:10 and 08:55). The first…
A Gove for good?
Michael Gove is a consummate politician and he’s no fool either. There are also rumours that he is quite keen on wildlife and the countryside (though he has managed to keep this fairly well-hidden to date). The new and dynamic Secretary of State for the Environment is about to make a speech at WWF’s HQ…
Banking on wildlife
I went to the bank the other day, which entails a car journey, and I was hoping to see a Bittern at a local nature reserve a few miles further on. I was only a hundred yards or so from home when I stopped at a T-junction and looked right; there was no traffic but…