Sunday book review – Silent Earth by Dave Goulson

This is a very good book by an expert. For those of us whose knowledge and understanding of the natural world is highly slanted towards feathered vertebrates this book helps to put things in perspective. The argument is that we need insects, and if we don’t look after them there will be consequences for us….

Would you like glyphosate with that?

I’ve visited the Kettering Starbucks a couple of time in the last two months as it’s a pleasanter place to hang around, if one has to, than the Kettering Hospital car park. On my first visit there was a guy cutting the grass with whom I got into conversation as I drank my coffee outside….

Sunday book review – Goshawk Summer by James Aldred

I don’t see many Goshawks, and so I was interested to read about film cameraman James Aldred’s experiences filming this species for much of the spring and summer of 2020. Spending so much time with this bird would make it ‘a season unlike any other’ for most of us but it was also a season…

Inglorious – no sparkle here

Driven grouse shooting still exists but it is beleaguered. It’s good to think of how far we have come in just a few years. It is a worthless hobby and its proponents have no answers to the charges against it except to ignore them. If driven grouse shooting hadn’t been invented c170 years ago then…