The Blackcap and the Mistletoe – a garden experiment pays off. Nick Brown worked for the Wildlife Trust for many years but since retiring has continued his voluntary work helping to run projects on Swifts and urban Peregrines. Nick was also involved in the initial stages of setting up Hen Harrier Days, the first being in…
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
Lead in Leeds children
This study (which can’t really be that pioneering) is greatly to be welcomed, and indeed is overdue. Some would say, long overdue. See here for details. Blood lead levels in children will be examined in Leeds – apparently a lead hotspot. It’s a shame that the study isn’t a bit more rural in scope and…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 19 by Nick MacKinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
Keir Starmer said what…?
I was listening to BBC R4 PM just now and this is what I heard Keir Starmer say: “Children should be able to go as far as their talent will take them. They shouldn’t have barriers. Poverty is a barrier to children realising their talents and being able to play their full part in the…
This blog’s Book of 2025
I have reviewed 50 books on this blog this year – a wide-ranging varied selection including many high quality works. If you are looking for a Christmas present for a nature-loving naturalist then this list might give you some ideas and I’ve whittled it down to a shortlist of eight books that most impressed me…
Sunday book review – Ghosts of the Farm by Nicola Chester
Nicola Chester writes superbly well and has a close relationship with the natural world. This book takes the area around the author’s home, and where she grew up, and travels back to the 1940s, war time, to describe the rural community then. Much of the detail comes from the diaries of a woman farmer and…
Sunday book review – Lifelines by Julian Hoffman
The author and his partner settle in to living in northern Greece, near the borders with Albania and North Macedonia, and close to the two Prespa Lakes. Imagine Driving over Lemons with less driving, fewer lemons and a lot more wildlife. This book is a very good read partly because of the thoughtfulness of the…
Newsblast readers’ poll
I asked the readers of my monthly newsblast six questions on 21 November. Two were about their age and sex, one was about how they felt about the future of wildlife in the UK, and three were about politics. Here are the responses of 464 people up until I closed the poll yesterday at 6pm…
Rewilding Britain press release – Nish Kumar backs rewilding
Nish Kumar backs rewilding as calls for 30% nature restoration grow Comedian and writer speaks out as Rewilding Britain celebrates decade of “wild hope” and calls for upscaled investment and political support for rewilding Comedian, writer, and activist Nish Kumar has added his voice to calls for major rewilding of Britain’s land and seas. The…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 23 by Nick Mackinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…