The Isles of Scilly is a place that strange people visit at this time of year in search of rare birds. Stuck 28 miles west of Lands End the islands reach out to the North American continent and provide a landfall for birds swept across the Atlantic on strong winds. However, there are, of course…
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
Boris aims to lead the shooting party…
…was a headline in the Evening Standard yesterday (Londoner’s Diary). The Tory supporters of Uxbridge are in for a real change when the birdwatching Sir John Randall is replaced by bird-blasting Boris Johnson next May (other candidates are available but may not get a look-in). Boris has been off grouse shooting it seems. A Twitter…
Guest blog – The Sunken Garden by ‘filbert cobb’
Filbert cobb is a regular contributor of comments to this blog. Sometimes he seems a bit nutty. He is often witty but gets very serious about climate change. I encouraged him to write a Guest Blog for us and I was not disappointed, in fact I was delighted, by what he sent. Boyhood, nature and…
Spoon-billed Sandpiper – great news!
This spoon-billed sandpiper chick is amazingly cute and has an amazing mother and an amazing grandfather. Its own cuteness needs no elaboration from me. Its mother was hand-reared by conservationists in Russia from eggs taken from nests on the breeding grounds. The reared birds were then released to set off on their 5000 mile journey…
Two of our Hen Harriers are missing
Sky and Hope, female Hen Harriers fledged from United Utilities land in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, have gone missing. Scientists tracking the movements of the young Hen Harriers became concerned when their tags stopped transmitting. Sky’s satellite signal stopped suddenly on the evening of Wednesday 10 September with the data suggesting she was…
A day less busy
Yesterday I spent a lovely few hours at the RSPB nature reserve at Rainham Marshes. I like Rainham, with its quirky-looking visitor centre and its medieval grazing marshes surrounded by the hustle and bustle of modern life. Planes fly over, boats pass on the Thames, cars and lorries pass along the roads, and trains, including…
Talking
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I enjoyed talking at Wootton last week. They were a lovely audience and look at that fantastic backdrop! The Wootton Village hall talks have attracted a large number of famous speakers over the years – I wish there was a series of talks where I live of the same calibre. Tomorrow I am off to…
People’s Climate March – London 21 September 2014
Emma Thompson leads off the People’s Climate March in London on Sunday afternoon. Vivienne Westwood and Peter Gabriel also attended. There are reports of 40,000 people joining the march but it felt like a smaller event than The Wave five years ago to me. There wasn’t a very obvious NGO presence – the occasional Panda…
Guest blog – Real life bugs, or a living planet..? A response by Max Barclay
Max Barclay is Collection Manager of Beetles at the Natural History Museum in London, where he manages a dedicated team of curators, and some 10 million specimens going back to the voyages of Charles Darwin, Captain Cook and beyond, consulted each year by hundreds of scientists from all over the world. A life-long naturalist, Max…
Oscar Dewhurst – Swallow-tailed Kite
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Oscar writes: While in Peru one of the more common birds of prey I saw was the Swallow-tailed Kite. One evening, from the canopy tower, a group of 12 flew past fairly close, before settling in the top of a tree to roost. Nikon D300s, Nikon 600mm f4 AFS-II