The Marine and Coastal Access Act of 2009 was one of the major environmental achievements of the last Labour government but, to be fair, the Shadow Defra team, including Richard Benyon who is now a junior Defra minister, were very supportive of the thrust of the legislation too. At times, the progress of the Act…
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
Peregrines – moor is fewer.
I see peregrines quite often these days, but it’s usually in the middle of London (like this image is of one in the middle of Manchester) rather than in the uplands where I would only have expected to see them in my youth. This is good – I’m glad they have become commoner and more…
Church leaders
Have you read the report of the St Pauls’s Institute on Value and values? I bet you haven’t, even though it has been in the news quite a lot. Archbisop Rowan Williams’s foreword contains the following words; An ethical approach to economics requires us to move away from the illusion that economics can be considered…
Remembrance of things past?
If you get the chance to go to the Ghosts of gone birds exhibition then do! I had a look yesterday afternoon and I hope to get back for another look before it finishes on 23 November. Ceri Levy the curator and co-creator of the exhibition told me he was very pleased with how busy…
Are you S or D?
Martin Harper wrote an interesting blog last week about S-type conservationists and D-type conservationists. Which are you? The gist (you should read the original to check the details – and read some interesting comments) is that there are conservationists (S for supply) who act for nature in its own right through direct nature conservation action…
The raptor haters? Robin Page.
Robin Page clearly is special. He has issues. When you read his own words it is difficult not to think that he has a lot of pent up anger that needs to spill out now and again (see here and here). And so it comes as no surprise that he is angry about birds of…
Other reading
I’m going to point you in the direction of some other blogs – blogs that I like to read (although not necessarily agree with). But first I’d like to point you back towards a few of my previous blogs and the comments that have accumulated on them. Since I came back from the USA this…
Don’t fire-bomb the countryside tonight!
I like 5 November – although clearly the Catholic conspirators missed an opportunity to influence Parliament. The failed Catesby plot allows us to celebrate with fireworks – and that’s what I’ll be doing this evening (probably after Strictly Come Dancing). But a couple of years ago I was in Stratford upon Avon at this time…
Why do they do this?
The reaction from the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation to yesterday’s RSPB report on the numbers of poisonings of birds of prey was a bit predictable. After making the arguable claim that gamekeeping is a ‘profession‘ the NGO makes the obligatory nod in the direction of upholding the law and then talks about the ‘surge’ in birds…
Not very nice
If anyone out there is thinking of killing me, please choose something quick. Whilst at the RSPB I had very few death threats (far fewer than my boss – goes with the territory) but they were mostly because of our position on ruddy ducks. It is ironic, with the passage of time, that those who…