Do you remember the plaque? The blue plaque? The blue plaque that attached itself to a shooting lodge in Rosedale in the North York Moors National Park and then mysteriously vanished when this blog mentioned it? You do? (for new readers, see Here’s a puzzle for you, 27 September; Did someone nick a plaque? 27…
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
Reply from Defra
I wrote to my MP asking him to pass on my approval of what George Eustice, the agriculture minister, said about funding for grouse moors in his remarks at the Oxford Farming Conference. Here is the reply. It doesn’t say that much, but MPs, ministers, in fact all of us, like being told that we…
How did I miss this? Sell out? No, Sells stays in!
I’m not sure how I missed this piece of news except, perhaps, because it was only lauded on the Moorland Association website. Andrew Sells is pictured hiding behind a wall by the Moorland Association whereas Natural England is usually perceived as sitting on a fence whilst preparing to jump off on the wrong side…
Grousing in Suffolk!
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I’m looking forward to talking in Halesworth on 21 February to the Waveney Bird Club and anyone else who’d like to come along to The Cut.
What would Mick Carroll have said?
Last week the RSPB announced that a Hen Harrier called Carroll, named after the raptor worker Mick Carroll, had been found dead in late January – the bird died of parasites but the post mortem showed that it had also been shot (two pellets were in its body in healed wounds). That was late January….
BASC members told to appear nice
BASC has issued a press release telling its members to hide their wild side and to appear nice in case they lose their firearms licences. The advice comes after someone’s behaviour on social media was used to withdraw a firearm licence (reinstated on appeal). BASC doesn’t actually tell its members to be nice people, just…
Guest blog – Spurn development decision by Georgia Locock
Georgia is a young naturalist and blogger. She is in her second year of A levels and plans to study zoology at university. Amongst her fascination of all wildlife, she particularly enjoys using trail cameras to capture footage of nocturnal wildlife, birding, campaigning and sharing her fascination of the natural world in the hope of…
Thank you to the IRSG
The weekend before last, I was at the Irish Raptor Study Groups’ conference in Dublin. What a great bunch of people – passionate and so friendly. It might seem just a little stereotypical to say that one always gets a friendly welcome in Ireland, in all parts of Ireland, but in my experience it is…
The Birds
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Do you ever listen to Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 between 1045pm and 11pm? I do, although the fact that it is around my bedtime usually means that I fall asleep before 11pm and get snatches of the story on a few nights a week! But it opens my ears, temporarily, to books that…
Questions 2
As well as Natural England, the Hawk and Owl Trust also has questions to answer over the non-publication of the details of Rowan’s death – Rowan was shot! Why would a wildlife charity, indeed, a raptor charity, which had funded the tagging of a young Hen Harrier, want the details of his death to be…