123,076 of us signed the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. And you only have to glance at the map of signatures to see that the signatures come predominantly from rural constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales. If you have a map of the last general election’s results in your head you can quickly compute…
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
Dunlin at Dove Stone
Nesting Curlews and Dunlin were recorded in record numbers at Dove Stone nature reserve in the Peak District this year thanks to blanket bog habitat restoration. Over the summer, the RSPB recorded 44 pairs of Dunlin at the Saddleworth site, an increase of 37 pairs since 2004 and one pair up on last year’s previous…
World Land Trust – Big Match Fortnight
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We are in Big Match Fortnight – a period where your donation to the World Land Trust appeal to protect a habitat corridor for Indian Elephants will be doubled! I’m a council member of WLT so I get to see some of the excellent work that goes on behind the scenes to protect wildlife, with…
West Pennine Moors
Natural England moves with the pace of a snail when it comes to protecting wildlife sites but with that of a cheetah when it comes to issuing licenses to bump off wildlife. Because of NE foot-dragging in the area of Gate Zero there now appears to be a race against time to get the West…
Oscar Dewhurst – White-capped Dipper
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Oscar writes: Earlier this Summer I spent nearly 3 weeks in Peru. Having spent nearly 3 months there in my gap year, it was great to return and show the place to my family. For part of our trip we were staying near the Colca Canyon, and this river ran through the valley at our…
Sunday book review – Speaking Out by Ed Balls
Did you watch Ed Balls on Strictly Come Dancing last night? Yes, so did I. If you want to learn more about the man behind The Mask, and the moves, then this is the book for you. But it’s also a book to read to understand that politicians are people not cut-out models, and they…
Tim Melling – Ring Ousel
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Tim writes: Ring Ouzels have a reputation for being unapproachable and skittish but in places like the Peak District they seem to get used to visitors. In early spring I repeatedly saw a male singing from a favourite song perch rock, trying to attract a female. While he was having some down time I ensconced…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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Labour dropping the ball – maybe we need a register?
There are still large numbers of Labour MPs who haven’t even responded to their constitutents, after several weeks, on the subject of driven grouse shooting. This is pretty shocking since Labour has has a perfectly respectable standard response that has been sent out by other MPs since at least 24 August. That’s over six weeks…
Snog, marry, avoid?
At the State of Nature launch there was a panel discussion which was very ably chaired by Sue Armstrong-Brown (now of Green Alliance but a former colleague at RSPB). One of the questions to the panel was, in a post-Brexit world which EU environmental policies would you Snog, Marry or Avoid. The panel’s answers were…