The BAWC fundraiser – to tag raptors in persecution hotspots – is now very close to £15,000. Thank you to all who have contributed so far. I understand that field testing continues, tags are being ordered and lots of forms are being filled in. If you’d like to support BAWC’s first full field project then…
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
Sad news: Eric Meek 1947-2017
Dewilding Scotland
Mountaineering Scotland are looking for a safe route down from the ledge onto which they have jumped. Finding themselves cuddling up to the Scottish Gamekeepers Association on an exposed overhang with a big drop below them, they are looking to clamber to safety. The bit of a row is about Mountaineering Scotland choosing (because I…
Oscar Dewhurst – Fox
Oscar writes: Another winter looks like it will go by without me getting the chance to photograph anything in the snow. The last time I did was at the start of 2013, when I was working on some local foxes. Here is one taken just as the snow was getting going. School had been cancelled…
Sunday book review – Birding in the Bristol region (edited by William Earp)
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The Bristol Ornithological Club is 50 years old and this book is a celebration of its first half century. I was a member from 1970-76 and so my memories are mostly from its early years when I was a schoolboy and starting (mad) keen birding. This is a friendly warm book which sketches the…
Tim Melling – Jaguar
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I photographed this male Jaguar (known as Geoff) a few seconds after he had made an unsuccessful attempt to catch a large Caiman. He pounced and disappeared under the water but emerged only with a mouthful of Water Hyacinth. I photographed him in Brazil’s Pantanal region. Taken with Nikon D500 Nikkor 300mm f4 lens f4…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
“Something I did for @sharkstrustuk recently, sharks get a really bad press and I think it is probably Steven Spielberg’s fault”
Guest blog – Opportunity for young people by Keith Betton
Keith Betton is, amongst other things, a mate of mine and the co-author of Behind the Binoculars, in whose pages you can find out more about him. At the moment he is in Senegal birding but he left this blog before he left. SHOULD WE WORRY ABOUT THE LACK OF YOUNG BIRDERS?…
More popular than supporting grouse shooting
Chris Packham’s e-petition for a moratorium on shooting declining waders has more than a month to run and is poised to pass the signature total of the e-petition in favour of grouse shooting (which closed yesterday with 25,322 signatures) any time now. Please sign here.
Guest blog – More from the Peak District by Bob Berzins
Bob writes: I have a life long passion for the outdoors through rock climbing and fell running. A cancer scare in my thirties made me appreciate many things I simply hadn’t noticed before, from the smallest plants to the gap in the sky from a missing raptor. It’s all worth fighting for and that’s what…