The Peak District Hen Harrier Day event on 7 August will be in beautiful Edale. Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green Party, Henry the Hen Harrier and I will be there – and no doubt a whole host of others too. Watch this space – and also this space on the Birders Against…
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
Labour voters and Jeremy Corbyn – this is about fairness
Our e-petition calling for an end to driven grouse shooting is whizzing along – but it is gaining least support in urban Labour constituencies (which is ironic since we used to be told that these are the only people who would support it!). If you live in Birmingham, Coventry, Oldham, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds or Leicester,…
Oscar Dewhurst – Little Egret
Oscar writes: I was in Suffolk hoping to photograph Bitterns, but unfortunately had no luck whatsoever, and only saw two in the week, both at a distance of about 200m! Luckily there were plenty of other things to photograph, like this Little Egret. It is in fact the same individual I photographed from the same…
That song contest, and another
Last night I was listening to a song contest – in a Northamptonshire wood. There weren’t millions of us – but a few folk turned up, as they do every evening at this time of every year, to listen to the Nightingales of Glapthorn Wood. The rest of ‘Europe’ was listening to the Eurovision Song…
Sunday book review – Spring edited by Melissa Harrison
A collection of writings about spring – what could be nicer? This book is one of four on the seasons. Are there really four seasons, I wonder? I’m not totally sure that summer exists – doesn’t spring (March-June) just fade into autumn (July- December) and then there is a bit of winter (January and February),…
All in the 90s
A whole clutch of constituencies are poised to reach 100 signatures on our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting and join the ‘100 Club‘ (which now numbers 41 constituencies with the very recent addition of Cambridge, East Lothian and Southwest Surrey) Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk 99 signatures Richmond (Yorks) 99 signatures East Devon 98…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
36,000
In the very early moments of this morning our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting passed 36,000 signatures. That last 1000 signatures took longer than most but we are still steaming ahead. Calder Valley 232 signatures – Craig Whittaker MP, CON Ross, Skye, Lochaber 171 signatures – Ian Blackford MP, SNP Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and…
This is not just spin, this is M&S spin
The story so far: For several years this blog, and lots of M&S customers, have been asking M&S (previously run by a keen shooter, Marc Bolland) not to sell Red Grouse in their stores – and so far they haven’t. The production of Red Grouse for driven grouse shooting is environmentally damaging and is underpinned…
…then they fight you and then you win! We will win.
See this piece in tomorrow’s Daily Mirror which is already online. @HuntingSolution is followed by 1000 people – I would just ask them whether they follow this account because of, or despite this type of ignorant rudeness. I haven’t seen a RT of any of this by Nicholas Soames MP and I rather hope he…