I heard my former colleagues Martin Harper and Gareth Morgan spelling out the threats to Pillar 2 of the CAP early this morning. Doesn’t it sound dull? Pillar 2? CAP? But it’s about the life in our countryside and how our money is spent. The losses of wildlife in the farmed countryside have been huge…
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
It’s your money
I’m picking up very worrying rumours that there are cuts afoot in the funding for farming, and the impacts of these cuts could dramatically affect how much wildlife you see on your walks in the countryside. The way that farming is funded, by you, the taxpayer, is not completely straight forward and varies across the…
Bird list USA
This is just a list of birds I saw in the USA between 3 May and 15 June. If you are an American birder and think there is anything odd about this list – things I should have seen but haven’t listed or things I claim to have seen but seem very unlikely – then…
And finally?
So after 6 weeks (slightly more), 10,000 miles by car (slightly less), 270 bird species (slightly more) and 100 ‘lifers’ (more), what’s it all been for?? Well, this was a holiday so it was about relaxing and I relaxed, but it was a holiday only possible after I gave up the well-paid post of RSPB…
Mostly birds
My friends, family and work colleagues (especially my long-time former PA, the saintly Claire) will tell you that they are extremely lucky that I do not have moods. But if I did, then this morning’s would not have been one of the best. I woke early (which is good) realising that I was in this grotty…
Beep beep, beep beep, yes! Or no?
I was out in Joshua Tree National Park at 615am this morning – before the desert got hot. My hope was to come across a Road Runner although my hopes weren’t that high as the official National Park Service website suggests there may not be very many of them in Joshua Tree. This seemed to jar with…
No ‘Beep beep’ but better luck with wrens
I neglected to say yesterday, so I’d better get it in quick now, that yesterday’s soundtrack was The Eagles, and Hotel California was playing as I crossed the State line. Today I played another CD for the first time and it was, of course, the Beach Boys. I did some coastal mooching and then headed…
Flagstaff to the Ocean
I’m writing this with the sound of the Pacific waves near Carlsbad, California in my ears. I could live in Flagstaff it’s the most agreeable American town I’ve met. It provided me with breakfast in the Grand Canyon Diner, whose waitress was a bit slow, and whose booths seemed full of English people – me and…
Flagstaff
I drove into Flagstaff on a fragment of the ‘historic’ Route 66, which I last touched near its other end south of Chicago many days ago, hoping it would be nice as my ‘Rough Guide’ says it is – and it is. I’ve spent very little time in towns you would have heard of since New York and it’s…
Condors again
I woke later than usual and strolled down to the Navajo Bridge to see what time California Condors get up. #54 was still sitting on his or her metal girder and his or her companion resolved himself or herself to be #73. They looked quite perky together but the world was still ignoring them so…