It’s late spring here in east Northants. It’s over a month since I saw my first sand martins, chiffchaffs, blackcaps and willow warblers. I’ve seen, locally, a good list of spring-bringers – those mentioned already and garden warbler, sedge warbler, reed warbler, grasshopper warbler, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, cuckoo, nightingale, yellow wagtail, swallow, house martin, common…
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
Big Society and Small Government
Yesterday morning I was up early and doing my first Breeding Bird Survey visit of the year. I started at 6am and it was all a bit dull weather-wise, but by 730am the sun was out although the easterly wind was quite strong. I’ve written before about how this volunteer/NGO/government agency/government partnership is a good…
Guest blog – by ‘Mr White’
Dr Mark Avery – supporter of vulnerable creatures in the sporting field by Mr White, ‘Reservoir Cats‘ Mark Avery, who ‘died’ on April 28th aged 53, spent the best years of his working life as Director of Conservation for the RSPB. A public holiday has been declared in Norfolk to celebrate his loss. Arthur Balsam,…
Shooting Times fails again
Shooting Times was held up and then weakened a long way out in yesterday’s 3:20 at Perth – of course it’s a horse, what did you think? Oh you were thinking about the magazine, were you? Well, maybe, if you were then you’ll be amused that Western Bound won that race easily. I’ll be off…
Bye bye RSPB
Today is my last day at work for the RSPB. After just over 25 years I am moving on. They have been a wonderful 25 years – I have so many stories from them I ought to write a book – now there’s an idea! My successor is Martin Harper – formerly of Plantlife and…
Stand up for natural justice
Please support the RSPB’s campaign to stop the government scrapping wildlife legislation. I see Jonathon Porritt blogged on this issue – it’s well worth a read. But Jonathon is a bit slow in posting comments on his blog – mine hasn’t appeared yet. And I can’t yet see much rage being expressed by other nature…
Don’t let them get away with this
The question is – has the government gone mad or is it just wicked? The Red Tape Challenge potentially opens up any regulation anywhere to challenge but the government has included biodiversity, wildlife and natural environment regulation in this mix. Following the disproportionate clobbering that Defra received in the Comprehensive Spending Review compared with other…