A couple of weeks ago I suggested that you remember this quote from the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Tim Bonner, ‘There is very little clear, peer-reviewed evidence, of any problem to human health and the environment from lead ammunition that can’t be solved with clear advice on things such as how to butcher…
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
Perspective
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Pheasants, partridges and Red Grouse are, obviously, three-dimensional objects (they wouldn’t make much of a meal otherwise), whereas the X-rays are two-dimensional. Here is just an example, it’s from one of the partridges, of how two separate X-rays of the same bird can show the shot to appear to be in very different places.
Mystery bird competition (5)
Yesterday’s mystery bird was a Red Grouse. And on closer inspection we see all the usual fragments of small pieces of lead (picked out (only some of them) with red arrows) And here is a second Red Grouse… And a larger image of part of the carcasse with the lead fragments indicated with red arrows…
Mystery bird competition (4)
Yesterday’s mystery bird was another partridge – are you getting good at this? Here again, some of the lead fragments are highlighted in red. Again, there are lots of them and the fragments are really small and spread through the flesh of the live (but dying bird) and through the meat when it arrives on…
Underwater
Today the SWLA exhibition opens at The Mall Galleries – an annual treat where the beauties of nature are brought in to the centre of London. I had a look around yesterday evening at a very enjoyable SWLA/BTO event. Artist Chris Rose got a taste for sub-marine adventure after winning The Wildlife Trusts’/SWLA’s Undersea Art…
Guest Blog – An update on African and European Vultures by Chris Bowden
Chris Bowden is RSPB’s Globally Threatened Species Officer, and Programme Manager of the consortium of ‘SAVE’ partners – Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction. Chris has worked for RSPB on various threatened species, (after his Woodlark and Nightjar research days on Thetford Forest), notably the Northern Bald Ibis based in Morocco (for which he still has…
Mystery bird competition (3)
Yesterday’s mystery bird was a partridge – although I’m not sure which species of partridge because my identification skills are rather dependent on plumage characteristics and call. The cause of death was probably being shot! There are five very obvious, bright, round shots distributed through the bird’s body. In fact, look closely, and there…
Spurn – a long way to go
I visited Spurn Point on Monday. The wind was from the south-east, it was the end of October and I was on the east coast. It could only mean one thing – it was a bit nippy! No, no, the only thing it could mean was that there was a chance of rare birds,…
Liz Truss – where is your signature?
The environment ministers of Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Spain have written to the EU Environment Commissioner, M Vella, who hails himself from Malta, calling for the Birds Directive and Habitat Directive to be maintained, un-merged and better implemented. These countries represent well over half, and close to two thirds, of…
Mystery bird competition (2)
Yesterday’s mystery bird was a Pheasant – did you all get it? I find bird identification much more difficult when they are plucked and X-rayed. It was part of a package of game birds that a group of us bought at Lidgate’s in Holland Park Avenue, London some time ago. We assume this Pheasant was…