I don’t see many Goshawks, and so I was interested to read about film cameraman James Aldred’s experiences filming this species for much of the spring and summer of 2020. Spending so much time with this bird would make it ‘a season unlike any other’ for most of us but it was also a season…
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
Inglorious – no sparkle here
Driven grouse shooting still exists but it is beleaguered. It’s good to think of how far we have come in just a few years. It is a worthless hobby and its proponents have no answers to the charges against it except to ignore them. If driven grouse shooting hadn’t been invented c170 years ago then…
Black-browed Albatross – by Brian Leecy
There’s something about albatrosses – they are big, they are ocean wanderers and when they turn up in UK waters they are a bit lost! This bird has been around for a few weeks now and is sometimes seen at the RSPB nature reserve at Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire. I know a few people who’ve made…
Yesterday’s Hen Harrier Day broadcast
Yesterday’s Wild Justice Hen Harrier Day broadcast was watched by well over a thousand people and that will have included quite a few readers of this blog – but also many people new to the issues of land management in the uplands and the persecution of protected wildlife. You can catch up with the broadcast…
Brood meddling update
1. Legal challenge: there is a saying that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ and I’m beginning to feel that quite strongly. The RSPB and I, separately, were granted the right to appeal the original judgment over the lawfulness of brood-meddling of Hen Harrier nests in autumn 2019 – yes, 2019. Our appeal was scheduled for…
Sunday book review – Light Rains Sometimes Fall by Lev Parikian
In Japan they have 72 seasons we learn – each of 5-6 days – which is quite a thing to find out. Japan has four main seasons, each divided into six subsections, and each of those has three parts. That’s fascinating, and forms the framework into which Lev Parikian plugs his light-hearted but accurate observations…
Sunday book review – Bee Tiger by Philip Howse
I enjoyed this book hugely – and rather more than I thought I might. Was I really interested in one large insect with a rather spooky pattern on its thorax? Well, yes I was as it turns out but this is really a book about perceptions, and that is a fascinating subject. Because of its…
The Hartoft Mural has been rewilded.
Comments Off on The Hartoft Mural has been rewilded.
…and the story behind it from last year.
FIBOT is appealing
I’ve never been to Fair Isle, and maybe I never will, but I care about it because of its place in British birding – both recreational and that verging on the much more scientific. See David Parkin’s guest blog about his Fair Isle memories – click here. Many charities have fallen on hard times because…
BBS extra
I told you, as I usually do, about my visits to my two Breeding Bird Survey squares (see here and here). Having done the surveys and entered the data online I thought I was done but those nice people in BTO HQ wanted to wring a little more from my volunteer effort because I had…