I like a good croissant – don’t you? Thursday mornings are now ASDA delivery mornings chez-nous, comme d’habitude. A wide variety of deliverymen (and yes, they have all been hommes to date) arrive in our early morning slot and deliver some of what we ordered. This is a covid-legacy pour nous. There is a minimum…
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
Ban the use of lead ammunition please Wales
Yesterday morning, this petition to the Welsh Senedd was on 600 signatures, I was the 601st, but today it has increased fivefold. It closes on 4 August, which is Wednesday. All petitions with 10,000 signatures are considered for debate in the Senedd and that would be great although it seems a big ask to get…
Shall we build back better?
This petition is about what you would like the approach to be to a post-covid recovery. Do you want the three legs of the sustainability stool to be given strong emphasis or is cash king? I would be very keen to see this petition debated in parliament because it would form a brilliant platform for…
A quick mention to The Nature of Summer by Jim Crumley
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I recently reviewed Jim Crumley’s book, Lakeland Wild, and loved it – see here. And Jim was kind enough to post a comment on that review recently. But publishers are no fools and those nice people in Saraband sent me another couple of Jim’s books, including this one, pointing out that it had recently been…
Fair Game Fair
Yesterday I went to the Game Fair to chat to Andrew Gilruth of the GWCT in front of a fairly full audience in the Carter Jonas marquee. I’ve been going to the Game Fair for years, my first was over 30 years ago and I’ve never turned down an invitation to attend. A couple of…
Wild Justice’s Hen Harrier Day broadcast
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A week next Saturday, at 10am on 7 August, Wild Justice is broadcasting a programme about the uplands. Much of it will be live, and hosted live by Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin, but we’ve been recording interviews with quite a wide range of people too. We’re being a bit coy about who they are…
Sunday book review – The Eternal Season by Stephen Rutt
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This is a lovely book about summer, and particularly the summer of 2020, the summer of covid. There is much about wildlife, particularly, but not just, birds, of climate change and how that affects the wildlife around us and of the special constraints and disruptions of lockdowns. There are some great accounts of wildlife observations,…
Today – I’m going to the Game Fair
Tomorrow I’ll blog about it and other things, and bring you a book review too.
This week
No book review this week as I have been writing a book more than reading a book, although I am confident of publishing at least one book review next Sunday. In other news: I saw my first Gatekeeper of the year but butterfly numbers are very low this year I saw my second Hen Harrier…
Sunday book review – Ecology and Natural History by David Wilkinson
This is a very interesting read. It is an exploration and an explanation of ecological principles illustrated by UK natural history, much of it through strolls through particular parts of our farmland, forests and uplands. This approach works well, and it is a different type of New Naturalist from most recent additions to this venerable…