James McCarthy of Wales Online tells the shocking tale of lots of poisoned birds of prey being found on the Glanusk Estate near Crickhowell which is owned by the Legge-Bourke family. It’s well worth a read especially as ‘this incident has not been reported until now‘. It is well worth a read. It is well…
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
The grouse moor conception of national leadership
I can remember when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister – I remember my father couldn’t stand him because of something called Selective Employment Tax (funny what you remember isn’t it?) – but I certainly didn’t remember him referring to grouse moors. So I am grateful to a former RSPB colleague and reader of this blog…
Writing competition – deadline midnight Saturday
Just a reminder that the deadline for this blog’s writing competition is midnight on Saturday. I haven’t read any of the entries so far so I cannot even hint at the quality of the 18 entries. I can say that of the four categories, one currently has just a single entry whereas another already has…
UEA desecration update
Following Monday’s guest blog by Prof Tim O’Riordan there has been a Guardian Country Diary piece by the marvellous Mark Cocker and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust has also stirred itself to voice concerns. Add your name to a petition here.
Guest blog – Big Brother FC says No! by Peter Marren
Peter Marren has contributed Guest Blogs here before (NHM threatens wildlife (garden), 27 October 2015, Where green objectives clash, 26 January 2015; Ashes to ashes, 7 November 2012; Wildlife NGOs, 7 October 2011) and his excellent books Where the Wild Thyme Blew and Rainbow Dust – three centuries of delight in British butterflies…
Allow me a moment of pride – please? Then back to work!
I’m rather proud of this – many people have got us this far – but only I get this email. OK – that’s enough feeling pleased – lots of hard work ahead! Let’s see how high we can get the signature total by midnight on 20 September (two weeks today) – get all your friends…
Good news – we’re heading for a debate
I had an email this afternoon confirming that the House of Commons Petitions Committee has agreed to schedule a debate on our e-petition! The date is not yet confirmed and we’ll have to wait a while for that, but the important thing is that there will be a debate in the Westminster parliament on the…
Grouse moors and flooding by Chris Packham
How does shooting grouse for fun connect with the misery of having your home or business flooded? It’s no coincidence that the constituency that has provided the most signatures for our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting is the Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker MP, 762 signatures). Calder Valley has been flooded several times in recent…
How far have we come together?
I thought hard about whether or not to launch a third e-petition on the subject of banning driven grouse shooting – and then I did. The current e-petition closes at midnight in two weeks time – and started five and a half months ago. I have no idea how many times I have refreshed the…
Brian May and Chris Packham discuss grouse shooting
Here are two wildlife enthusiasts talking about driven grouse shooting. Please sign this e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting, alongside Brian May and Chris Packham.