In this month’s copy of The Field there is a page about the role of the the GWCT’s science in defending ‘our way of life’ which is surely a misprint for ‘our hobby of death’. The article is written by the GWCT’s chair, the tadpole conserver himself, Mr Ian Coghill, and it is basically an…
BLOG
The minister’s speech
On the last day of October our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting (123,077 signatures) was debated alongside another, so-called rival, e-petition to protect grouse shooting (which still languishes under 25,000 signatures despite being over half way through its allotted time). Having let a month pass I’ll now return to what was said on that…
Nice crowds
I was talking about grouse shooting at a joint Dorset Bird Club and BTO conference on Saturday and to the Bedfordshire Bird Club on Tuesday evening. Both were really nice groups of people. The advantage of a conference is that you hear others speak too and I really enjoyed hearing Nick Moran on Birdtrack (great…
Guest blog – Otters by Kevin Parr
Kevin Parr is a writer, angler and amateur naturalist from West Dorset. He is the author of Rivers Run, The Idle Angler and The Twitch (which was this blog’s book of the year in 2014) and writes regularly for a variety of publications including BBC CountryFile Magazine and Fallon’s angler. …
Vultures and lead
A new study from Spain, the stronghold of the European Griffon Vulture population, shows that blood lead levels are higher in vultures living in areas with high lead soil levels but also in areas with high lead ammunition use for game shooting. Nearly half of the vultures had elevated lead levels, a little under 5%…