Tim writes: on 28 September the weather was good for photography and I hadn’t taken a photo for a few days so I decided to head for Spurn Point on the Yorkshire Coast where I had a wonderful time. This Red-flanked Bluetail was the star bird, though it was first found by someone else. I…
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
Tim Melling – Brown Shrike
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Tim writes: despite being an adult male, this shrike is proving problematical to identify. There seem to be three possibilities; Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus), Turkestan (Isabelline) Shrike (Lanius (isabellinus) phoenicuroides), or a hybrid between the two. Though very few hybrids involving Brown Shrike are known. When I started birdwatching these were all treated as races…
Tim Melling – Hoopoe
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Tim writes: in early October a Hoopoe turned up not far from where I live in West Yorkshire so I decided to go to see it. When I arrived there was nobody else around and I stopped the car as it walked down the road in front of me. I took several photographs of it…
Jones Hill Wood (and brood meddling)
Yesterday, Justice Lang stopped the felling of Jones Hill Wood in the ‘licensed area’ (as defined in License WML-OR58, issued by Natural England on 30 March 2021) and granted the Claimant, Mark Keir, permission for an expedited rolled up judicial review of Natural England’s licensing of the felling. This hearing will take place in the…
Ralph Underhill Saturday cartoons – first and last
Ralph writes: I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has followed my cartoons over the years, even the person who presses the dislike button every single week without fail! It has been a great opportunity and I am incredibly grateful to Mark for giving me a platform to try and hone my…
This blog (4) – the photographers
Peter Cairns: has had plenty opf his images used on this blog in a guest blog, in other people’s press releases, in news about SCOTLAND: the Big Picture but also this image of a damaged landscape which I have used many, many times. Thank you Peter. Oscar Dewhurst: Oscar Dewhurst was 18 when he started…
This blog (3) – the cartoons
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Over the last decade this blog has featured the work of many artists who could be regarded as cartoonists. Ralph Underhill: Ralph has contributed hundreds of cartoons for a regular Saturday morning slot – his last offering, and some words from him, will appear on this blog tomorrow morning. But here are a few to…
Normally…
This is one of those familiar x-rays of a shot raptor – see the pellets? I’m not at my best when identifying dead birds from x-rays but this is apparently a Red Kite. And Gloucestershire police would like anyone with information to step forward… I noticed that someone commented on this subject that they wouldn’t…
Fantastic Mr Fox’s wood and Natural England
Following Dominic Woodfield’s guest blog here last week, a High Court challenge has been issued over HS2’s felling of parts of Jones Hill Wood under licence from our very own statutory, ahem, nature conservation agency. This reminds me of nothing so much as : It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government…
An important half a sentence…
It’s not exactly a headline election promise, but on page 56 of the SNP manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections in May you will find; All that campaigning leads to that half a sentence – hard won, and only a start. But if I had the opportunity to quiz candidates in this election I’d be…