I’m delighted that the RSPB and Natural England have been able to announce that booming bitterns have passed the 100 mark – and reached 104 booming males in fact. Given that in 1997 (incidentally, the year before I became the RSPB’s Conservation Director) there were only 11 booming males this is a remarkable and very welcome recovery. And let’s…
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
CFE and NFU
Last week’s Farmers Guardian had a couple of short pieces on the Campaign for the Farmed Environment, answering the question ‘Is it working?’. I was asked to write the piece saying ‘No’ and this is what I wrote: “The CFE is a Big Society approach – ironically one set by the last Labour Government. Would…
Last day to vote…
…for your favourite wildlife friendly farmer. Rob Law – see what Jordan’s Cereals say about him here Robert Kynaston – see what Open Farm Sunday says about this LEAF farmer here Somerset and Carolyne Charrington – see what Wild Scotland says about them here David White – see what the Countryside Alliance says about him…
Gone and forgotten?
‘Farmland birds in Europe fall to lowest levels‘ is a terribly sad headline. And we should be raging that things have got so bad. The grey (or ‘English’) partridge is in free-fall right across Europe with a decline of two thirds in numbers since 1990, and of 82% since 1980 according to the European Bird…
Mine host
You will have been warned about meeting people over the internet so it was a bit odd that I headed north to Scotland last week to meet someone I had usually argued with on my blog and various other ethereal places. As I pulled up outside a house in Fife the barking of labradors made…
Don’t bank on it, 2
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And we pick up yesterday’s blog on a boat to the Isle of May with gannets fishing around us… The sun had gone and I was glad that I had opted for a combination of short-sleeved shirt and jacket as an each-way bet on the weather. You can’t bank on the weather over a five-hour…
Don’t bank on it, 1
Having seen a rosefinch at Fife Ness on Tuesday, a trip to the Isle of May on Wednesday seemed a good bet. The May is famous for its seabirds, and the studies of them which have been carried out there, and as a place for seeing migrants. Just as Fife Ness reaches out to tired…
In the rough
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On Tuesday I spent several hours in the rough but didn’t have anything to complain about. I don’t know Fife that well and enjoyed being shown around by my host for this trip (of whom, more, probably, later). We looked in at the Eden Estuary and admired the seals as a whimbrel flew up the…
It’s Winter all over the world – readers’ offer.
My summer holidays are beginning to fall into a familiar pattern. We book an attractive cottage in the West Country which is every bit as nice as it looked on the internet when we arrive and see it in reality. The weather is a bit English, the phone reception is appalling, there’s a nice pub…
Bit of a breather
After three days at the Bird Fair I could do with a rest but I am on a secret mission to Scotland this week – I’m sure I will be able to tell you about some of it some time, perhaps. Tomorrow’s blog will be about a book that I think that many of you…