The author of this books lives in the north of England and is an ex-police officer and a gifted photographer. The photographs are superb and the production values of this book are very high. There are carefully-designed large pages, gorgeous images and although I lingered over each image I was eager to see the next…
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Guest blog – Boft Hole of CEP (240 MW) by Nick MacKinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
Sunday book review – Insects of Britain and Europe by Thomas C. John, Peter Mullen and Paul D. Brock
This book was published last week and I’ve been giving it a close look. It does what you’d expect from its title and cover – it’s a photographic identification guide to lots and lots of insects (and a very few non-insect arthropods sneak in at pages 22-23 and 639 and following). The 3,000 species are…
RSPB Medal goes to lead ammunition group
Group instrumental in establishing a phased ban on the sale and use of lead ammunition in England, Scotland and Wales is set to be honoured by the charity. The Lead Ammunition Collective will be honoured with the RSPB’s most prestigious award at the charity’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) taking place online today (3rd October), recognising…
Filbert Cobb RIP
Long term readers of this blog, which has been running for 15+ years, may remember Filbert Cobb (not his real name) who often commented on posts here (with wit) and also wrote four guest blogs. I heard from his partner last week that Filbert passed away in early September, and that he is being laid…
Where’s Kazakhstan?
This very rare bird (from Asia; rare in the UK) chose a quiet part of the Cotswolds to make a long stay and was thus available to view for over two months. Considering this was the third British record and the first two were on the Western Isles and in Fife, neither stayed very long,…
Crisis? What crisis?
The Reform-controlled unitary authority of North Northants has rescinded the climate emergency declaration made five years ago, presumably because its reading of the science means that despite increasing floods and drought and heat waves affecting us all here in the right hand half of the county of spires and squires things are getting so much…
Guest blog – Wildlife Crime and the First Few Minutes by Paul Bateman
Paul Bateman is Founder and Principal Instructor of the Independent Wildlife Crime Investigators & Trainers Association. He is a former National Park Ranger, has completed the National Police Wildlife Crime Officers Course and has particular practical experience relating to crimes against badgers and realistic mock wildlife-crime scenes. He is also Chair and Wildlife…
Lost Nature
The data behind the report published by Wild Justice back in December 2024 – click here – are now available in a scientific journal. They tell a sorry tale of non-compliance with regulations and non-enforcement by local authorities. I’m beginning to think of this as The British Disease – agreeing something shouldn’t happen and then…
Sunday book review – Peasants by Maryam Aslany
This is a very interesting book and although I wouldn’t say it will have changed my life it has given my thinking a shove in a different direction, and I thank the author for that. What it has done is tell me a lot that I didn’t know, whet my appetite to know more and…