Standing up for Nature
This blog has had over 1,250,000 page views in 2016 (as of yesterday – so only just!). Thank you to all contributors of Guest Blogs, cartoons, photographs and comments and to all readers for making this blog so successful. I’ll be giving you some thoughts for what 2017 may have in store in the New…
In December 1860, the fourth Baron Lilford found seven White-fronted Geese in his meadows at Aldwincle in the Nene Valley near his home of Lilford Hall. In his book, Notes on the Birds of Northamptonshire and Neighbourhood Vol 1 (1895), Lilford describes the species as visiting Northamptonshire occasionally ‘in small numbers, generally in the…
As always, there is some good stuff in this month’s Birdwatch. As well as the good news of the guano award for YFTB and the ‘Campaign of the Year’ award for the Ban Driven Grouse Shooting e-petition, there is plenty of other good reading material. I enjoyed reading about the first Irish Harlequin Duck…
The good news – no further outbreaks of bird flu in commercial poultry farms (just this one so far). The bad news – three cases of H5N8 confirmed in wild Wigeon (Somerset, Leicestershire and South Wales) and in a Peregrine Falcon in Scotland. This map is informative – it’s from the EU (remember them?…
I’m a life member of The Countryside Users Association, together with 64.1 million other Brits. I’m a semi-constant trainspotting observer of this parish’s 7/52 avian soundscape. I’m a casual delver into its historic landscape. I’m a cursory extra beside these grand, abandoned alders quaking above a deep, undisturbed paleo-ecological archive. The European or Common…
Please sign Chris Packham’s e-petition and sign up to the thunderclap to spread the word.
After studying zoology at university Jonathan was involved in ornithological research and conservation for a number of years in France, Scotland and West Africa. Subsequently he has spent most of his career as an environmental consultant, assisting industry in managing its environmental impacts. Wildlife, particularly insects, remain his first love however and he is a…
Tim writes: Blooming heather is rich in nectar and attracts butterflies high onto the moors where you would not normally expect to see them. This was photographed high on the moors of the Peak District and necessitated crawling through the heather to get an eye-level view of the butterfly. The Painted Lady cannot survive the…
The campaign to ban driven grouse shooting was voted Birdwatch readers’ Campaign of the Year. Yes, I’ve noticed that driven grouse shooting is not yet banned, but 2016 saw a very big step in that direction because the public understanding of the issue grew enormously. Many people who knew little, and cared little, about what…