You do know what day it is, don’t you? What has been in the news recently? There was ‘Buzzardgate’ (see here, here, here and here for example) back in May, but if Fighting for Birds had been published by then you would have known that it was coming. I wrote as follows on page 210:…
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
Saturday 4
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This photograph was taken in the Lake District, in Keswick actually, a few weeks ago. Note the name of the shop. It has nothing to do with my book, Fighting for Birds, which you could buy now by clicking here. You do know what day it is, don’t you?
Saturday 3
I have a column in Wild Travel magazine which is a new magazine about travel and wildlife. The second issue is now out and my column takes a look at the wonders of animal migration. Wild Travel comes out six times a year and is now priced at £3.99. I bought my copy in WHSmith….
Saturday 2
You do know what day it is don’t you? Yesterday, in rural Bedfordshire, I was passing a field of unharvested beans, where the beans looked brown and crispy. I saw a raptor flying low over the crop and I wondered whether it might just be a marsh harrier so I pulled over and had a…
Saturday 1
It is widely expected that there will be a government reshuffle on Monday. It may take a while for the full details and impacts on junior Ministers to be revealed. Let us hope that this road sign which I saw in London last week is not a sign for the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at Defra.
Holiday journey – can you work it out?
From the end of July to the middle of August I was travelling. You might say holidaying (but some of it might be tax-deductable). Can you work out where I went from the clues below? Funnily enough I went to lots of nature reserves and a few historic monuments. It’s just for fun – maybe…
Give oceans real protection – everyone gains
More than two thirds of the Earth’s surface is ocean and yet we give it barely a thought, at least according to a recent poll by KnowSeas which shows that only a third of UK citizens are worried by ocean health whereas around 60% of Portuguese and Spaniards have the oceans on their minds. Might…
Turtle doves under fire
I haven’t seen a turtle dove in Northamptonshire this year and it seems I am not the only one. This was a bird that I didn’t see in the north Somerset countryside where I grew up. It was only when we came on holiday to East Anglia that I saw my first turtle dove –…
Guest Blog – response to Mark Avery by Magnus Linklater
Magnus Linklater is a former editor of The Scotsman and Scottish Editor of The Times. He is trustee of an estate in Perthshire, and a regular commentator on rural affairs. I knew that taking on the RSPB would be nothing but trouble. But I was not quite prepared for the volume and ferocity of…
Man on the Earth
The death of Neil Armstrong has made us all think of those days when Mankind took that giant leap. Armstrong seems to have been a lovely, talented and modest man; and therefore a good choice to be the first of our species to step on the Moon. Few of us have had the privilege of…