This charming Hen Harrier arrived in the post from one of my favourite Twitter accounts: @chunkymark aka Artist Taxi Driver. Thank you very much. I’m expecting @chunkymark to sign up to Findlay Wilde’s thunderclap – which has passed a social reach of 6million (!!!!) And you never know, he might be in…
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
Pay day for conservationists
The disclosure of the salaries of some, not all, of the BBC’s ‘talent’ hit the headlines yesterday – we’re all interested in how underpaid we are and how overpaid ‘they’ are. Before the news came out, I thought about it a little, and I was expecting John Humphrys’s salary to be somewhere between £200k and…
Writing competition – write a book review of George Monbiot’s Feral
Writing competition – write a book review of George Monbiot’s Feral Last year this blog held a writing competition which produced some excellent articles (including this winner in the Wildlife and Politics category by Kerri ni Dochartaigh). I have some ideas for further writing competitions and this is the first one. Write a book review of…
You love @cartoonralph!
I’m glad I can predict the results of some votes, as my recent track record (EU referendum, general election) hasn’t been great. Ralph Underhill has been producing cartoons for this blog for over four years – weekly with hardly a break! I’m very grateful to him, and it seems that you are too. Half of…
Campaign updates
Comments Off on Campaign updates
Les Wallace’s petition asking for a review of the economics of grouse shooting in Scotland closed last night with a rush of late signatures (total 1256). The Scottish government is moving in this direction already and so this petition was pushing against an open door but it will have reinforced the need for independent information…
Guest blog – Spread your Passion Far and Wide by Joe Harkness
Joe Harkness writes about the therapeutic benefits of birdwatching on his Bird Therapy blog and Twitter page @BirdTherapy Inspiring the future generation of birders, nature enthusiasts and/or general nature lovers is vital in sustaining our wonderful wildlife and habitats. In my opinion, the most powerful asset at our…
Last chance to sign
Les Wallace’s petition to the Scottish Parliament closes today – with over 1100 signatures it has done well. Please sign to help it run over the finishing line… ‘Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to sponsor a comprehensive and independent study into the full economic impacts of driven grouse shooting.’…
Response from my MP
I am grateful to my MP, Tom Pursglove, for his responses to my letters to him. Last week I received a response to my recent letters to him about environmental protection post-Brexit, the lobbying act and fox hunting. On fox hunting, we now know that this issue is unlikely to arise in this parliament but…
Guest blog – by Ryszard Kulik
Ryszard Kulik – doctor of psychology, naturalist, columnist of the monthly “Wild Life” magazine, author of books devoted to man-nature relations, including “Man Towards Nature”, “Discovering Nature” or “Treading Strongly on the Ground”. Mark writes: I’m very grateful for this guest blog from Poland about the conflict over Bialowieza. The English is almost perfect and…
Does your CEO tweet (2)?
Back in April 2015 I listed some CEOs of wildlife organisations who were on Twitter and their number of tweets and number of followers. It was really just out of interest. And in the same vein here is an update. David Nussbaum has moved on from WWF and is now CEO of ‘The Elders’. Martin…