I’m looking forward to speaking about driven grouse shooting and all that stuff – sign here please – on Thursday evening in the Carpenter Room of Sheffield Central Library. Kick-off is 7pm – admission is free but you should book please. Sheffield, of course, sits just to the east of the Peak District National Park,…
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
First BBS visit
I was up early, although not that early for me, yesterday to visit one of my two Breeding Bird Survey squares. This is the 12th year I have covered this particular 1km square on the border of Cambs and Northants – it almost feels like mine after all this time. The weather was cold, and…
Make toxic lead ammunition a thing of the past
This is your last chance to sign Rob Sheldon’s e-petition to ban the use of toxic lead ammunition. A few more signatures would push this past the 17,000 signatures – a pretty good achievement. A reminder: this e-petition is supported by the RSPB this e-petition is supported…
Did you notice?
Did you notice that we have passed the previous best total for signatures on an e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting? Last time around it took six months, that must be 26 weeks, to reach 33,655 signatures – and I thought that was pretty amazing really – but this time around we passed that total…
Bank Holiday Monday book review – Summer’s Guests by Theunis Piersma
I’ve lived with House Martins in the streets where I live, and sometimes next door, but never on my home, for more than half my life. Their return, ahead of the screaming Swifts, is looked for and appreciated when it happens. And they are there, chirrupping in flight, all summer long and sometimes daring to…
Sunday book review – How did we get into this mess by George Monbiot
George Monbiot writes so well – I envy him. And he knows so much – I envy him! The subtitle to this book is ‘Politics, Equality and Nature’ and it really is that wide-ranging. If you are familiar with George’s Guardian column you will currently be missing it as he is having a break and…
This brought a tear to my eye
Hi Mark, I have just read your recent blog on the Peak District and the National Trust, and I am afraid it has made me cry. I think they are partly tears of sorrow and partly of hope against hope that what you write about could be true. I love the Peak District. It is…
Northants gleanings 2
It’s been good to visit some local sites over the last few days and check up on how spring is progressing. At the airfield on the Beds/Northants border it felt more like winter than spring. But I heard and saw my first UK Whitethroat of 2016 and there were two migrant Wheatears too, so it…
Birdtrack – still great
I haven’t mentioned Birdtrack for a while – but if you read these blogs carefully then you’ll realise that I am still using it religiously otherwise I’d never have the stats for my birding at my local patch so much to hand. I have downloaded the new, and greatly improved, iPhone Birdtrack app (it’s free)…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Ralph writes: This is a draft of a cartoon I did for a FoE Brussels campaign on the importance of regulation – I thought readers of this blog might appreciate it.