DEFRA’s consultation on their proposed gamebird regulation is a shocking example of pretending to do something worthwhile whilst failing to do anything much at all. This is the worst consultation from government I have ever seen – it is so unshamefacedly biased. If we hadn’t all got used to it by now it would be…
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
Sunday book review – Out and About, Discovering British Wild Flowers by Deidre Shirreffs
This is a book allegedly aimed at 6-12 year olds but I found it suited me fine. Each year I tell myself, with less and less conviction each year, that I’ll learn a few more plants and I try, but somehow each Spring finds me re-learning the same species over again. This simple photographic guide…
Sunday book review – Birds of Lincolnshire, by Lincolnshire Bird Club
If you live in Lincolnshire you will want to own this book and it will be an invaluable reference source for your everyday birding for years to come. This volume follows a 1989 predecessor, and much has changed and occurred in the last 30+ years. It appears that this book was conceived as a way…
Tim Melling – Weasel
Tim writes: I know this isn’t a competition winner but it is an extremely difficult subject to photograph, especially carrying prey. I was out for a walk locally on 11 October when I saw something moving on the track some way ahead. A quick glance through binoculars and I’d identified it as a Weasel that…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Where are we in the league table?
How many birds are killed by ‘hunters’ in each km2 of the UK each year, and how does that compare with other European countries? Have you ever wondered? Neither had I until a reader of this blog put me in touch with the data with which one can work it out. Well it depends what…
Bird/poultry/gamebird flu update
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Dwindling?
Press release – Rewilding Britain
Rewilding boosts jobs and volunteering opportunities, study shows Jobs up by 47% as new “myth-busting” evidence emerges from Rewilding Britain Rewilding marginal land can significantly boost job numbers and volunteering opportunities while increasing action to restore nature and tackle climate breakdown, new research by Rewilding Britain shows. An analysis of over 20 sites across England…
Tim Melling – Hen Harrier with Maltese moult?
Photographed on a Peak District grouse moor this week – but who knows how that large gap in the wing feathers on the left wing came about?
Wild Justice advice on responding to DEFRA gamebird consultation
DEFRA is consulting on the measures it will introduce to protect sites of nature conservation value from impacts of vast releases of non-native gamebirds. Wild Justice doesn’t think much of the consultation and is suggesting how the public could respond – click here. The consultation closes on Monday so a wet weekend might provide an…