Last Wednesday I asked five wildlife conservation organisations what they thought was the best thing that Defra had done for wildlife in 2015. After a bit of sucking of teeth they came back with these thoughts, three of which refer to Rory Stewart’s words on Thursday (would Plantlife, Butterfly Conservation and RSPB have been stumped…
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
Spider numbers creep up
It was in a fairly early blog here that I told you about the reintroduction of Ladybird Spiders at Arne RSPB nature reserve. More than four years later it’s good to hear that this project is going well. Surveys show that the spiders are expanding outside of the original release areas. Toby Branston, RSPB Dorset…
What nonsense from Defra
‘Bovine TB eradication strategy delivering results‘ was the headline of a press release issued by Defra on Thursday last week. Defra went on ‘The comprehensive strategy to eradicate bovine TB in England is delivering results with more than half the country on track to be officially free of the disease by the end of this…
Oscar Dewhurst – Otter
Oscar writes: While I was in America we spent 5 days in Grand Teton National Park. On out penultimate morning, while looking out from Oxbow Bend, I spotted a mother grizzly and her two cubs swimming across the lake. I got a few photos of them with the trees behind, and they then passed into…
Nice weather for bats – or is it?
November was very warm on our planet – 0.97°C above the twentieth century average and the warmest November on record. In the UK the highest night-time temperature record was broken and it looks like we might be heading towards a record December too. A couple of nights ago the lowest recorded night-time temperatutre across recording…
British Wildlife – December edition
I look forward to British Wildlife dropping through the letterbox every couple of months. The December issue is well-timed to be well-read over the Christmas break. Peter Marren writes about the threat to the NHM garden (you read it here first?) and I write about the twelve days of Christmas. There is a letter from…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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State of UK butterflies
On Tuesday afternoon I attended the launch of the latest ‘State of the UK’s Butterflies report‘ – an excellent report authored by Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. This is the fourth in a series of reports which charts the status of our butterflies every few years. More species are declining than…
Dear Mr Trump
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Dear Mr Trump Your environmental credentials in the UK set you apart from most other golfers standing for the Presidency of the USA. Please tell me that you are in favour of driven grouse shooting (I bet you are!). Nothing energises an online petition quite as much as being associated with you (see here and…
Guest blog – Media Circus by Graeme Walker
Graeme Walker is a member of the British Dragonfly Society and a lifelong amateur naturalist. Hailing originally from rural north east England, after several decades living in Buckinghamshire, he moved to Orkney in 2013. Graeme is on the committee of the Orkney Field Club and his main interest is Odonata (though that’s not why he…