Have a look at the ‘a focus on nature’ website. Launched at the Bird Fair this looks like a good initiative to me. How do ‘young people’ get the advice and mentoring that they need to get into nature conservation? I’ve offered to give a helping hand and maybe you can too? Or maybe you…
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
Who am I, at the Bird Fair?
Or rather, what am I? As you may have picked up, I live in rural Northamptonshire, but close to the Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire borders (bandit country?). I, therefore, am often crossing into neighbouring counties and passing the roadside signs which announce them. I was very fond of the old signs which announced that Northamptonshire was…
Send WWT £10 now! I have.
I’ve mentioned the spoon-billed sandpiper a few times in this blog (eg here and here). There is a very brave, uncertain and exciting rescue attempt being made to save this bird from extinction by a bunch of organisations: WWT, RSPB, BirdLife International and Birds Russia (with help from loads of other people). WWT have produced…
Wuthering Moors 27
Blogs entitled ‘Wuthering Moors’ form a series of articles about the Walshaw Moor Estate and its relationship with Natural England and Defra. The Observer published this letter from a sizeable group of Hebden Bridge residents who are concerned that the management of nearby grouse moors including Walshaw Moor has increased the risk of flooding for…
What would Douglas Adams think of this?
Douglas Adams, who wrote the five books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, was a great environmentalist. Hitchhikers is a book about environmentalism – and the fact it is funny doesn’t make it any the less serious. At the beginning of the book, when Arthur Dent’s house is to be demolished, he is…
Bird Fair – the people
The Game Fair was cancelled because of rain and plagues of frogs etc but at the Bird Fair we sweltered in the sun – does that tell us anything about how the weather gods see us? Probably not. I felt that there were noticeably fewer people than usual around on all three days but Tim…
Shuffle
The Bird Fair was great – and will have provided much inspiration for future blogs. I’ll come back to it soon but let’s change tack to politics. David Cameron, and everyone else, deserves a holiday, but the PM’s mind may be spinning over a rumoured reshuffle. Let me first say that I think that it…
Bird Fair Day 2 – time to buy for Christmas
Phew! What a scorcher! I mean, of course, the weather although these four ladies from Froglife, who’d like to collect your wildlife memories, might get a similar response. In a sea of blokes (yes, like me), in jeans (yes, like me), it’s nice to see some people have made the effort! …
Bird Fair day 1 and bits and pieces
Bird Fair: I met some really nice people yesterday and some of them were buying my book Fighting for Birds. Lots of Twittery and Bloggy people introduced themselves and it is really nice to put a face to a Twitter name. For example, it was nice to meet @ValGall and even nicer to read on…
The raptor haters? – Magnus Linklater
Magnus Linklater is a clever man as befits some Old Etonians and some former editors of The Scotsman newspaper. I’ve only met him once and we got on quite well as we looked at the heather moors of the Langholm Estate one sunny day. He wouldn’t deserve a place in this occasional series of articles,…