I hadn’t seen the Blackcap(s) in my garden for a week but yesterday I did see one, so they are still around. My Birdtrack records show that most of my sightings are in January and February but a few linger into March. Last year was the first that it appeared that the wintering birds turned…
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
Disgusted of Norfolk in the Telegraph
Last week RaptorPersecutionUK highlighted this letter in the Telegraph. It stands as a monument to a largely bygone age, an age of intolerance to people and some wildlife species too. It is the antithesis to progress and enlightenment. These views are not completely gone, but it’s good that they are going. I assume that the…
Vjosa Forever
Albania must still be one of the least known countries in Europe – I’ve never been there, I’ve never really considered going there. Have a look at this short (7minute) video and you will see some of what you and I have been missing – and may well lose the chance to see at all….
A video #stateofnature
Please share the #stateofnature petition on social media and mention it to your friends and colleagues. Nature needs more protection and we need to get it in writing from politicians. #stateofnature petition https://bit.ly/3kjLIsX
One week – 72,000 signatures
The joint NGO campaign to get a binding target for nature in the Environment Bill is a week old and has raised over 72,000 signatures. It’s a marathon not a sprint, and with collaborative campaigns different organisations do their running at different times. But this has got off to a good start. Personally, I think…
Sunday book review – Shearwater by Roger Morgan-Grenville
I did wonder, with some trepidation, what a whole book on Manx Shearwaters might be. For sure, they are wonderful birds, as are all birds, and certainly they make remarkable journeys across the oceans, but they come to land to nest on remote islands at night and live down burrows. But I needn’t have worried…
Tim Melling – Purple Sandpiper
Tim writes: Spurn peninsula in East Yorkshire has been breached by the sea so the point is now an island at high tide. As I walked back along the breach in late September I spotted just a single wader on the beach, which was this Purple Sandpiper. I usually expect to see this species on…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
GWCT does a bit of rewriting of history
GWCT have a blog which is usually asking you for money but this one is trying to rewrite history in order to curry favour with DEFRA too. Phrases such as; These sites are designated for rare and vulnerable birds (and for regularly occurring migratory species) by the EU under the Birds Directive. Your SSSI may…
Time to brush up on bird song (2)
Comments Off on Time to brush up on bird song (2)
Last spring I wrote series of blog posts, 50 in all, about bird song – we were all in lockdown and people were listening more. The blogs went down very well. Well, now is a good time to revise, or simply start, listening to bird song and getting to recognise the species involved. Of course,…