Standing up for Nature
Springwatch’s Gillian Burke has guest-curated a collection of pieces for the Art of Saving Species exhibition which launches online today. There are few people who would claim Monday mornings are their favourite time of the week but with little to look forward to on weekends the gloomy winter dark mornings are even harder to bear….
I’m not very familiar with Richard Fortey, not having read any of his previous books nor, as best as I can recall, seen him on TV. So I came to read his book of memoirs uncluttered by preconceptions. This book is about Fortey’s childhood through to young adulthood and about the role of natural history…
Tim writes: the 8th October started well for me as almost unbelievably this was the second species of bird I saw thiat morning after Moorhen. Numbers three and four were Little Egret and Jack Snipe. The Great White Egret flew into the Canal Scrape at Spurn at 7:10 that morning. When I started birdwatching Great…
In their recent evasive blog the GWCT say that I once wrote that I ‘was hoping the GWCT might soon be going bust‘. Wrong again, I didn’t write any such thing (have a look) indeed my blog started with the words ‘Wouldn’t it be terrible if the GWCT went bust?’ which has the opposite meaning,…
Last year you may remember that there was a furore over Natural England issuing licences for falconers to take a small number of Wild Peregrine chicks into captivity for captive breeding; See: 16 April: Natural England issues licences to take Peregrines from the wild where this blog broke the news that Natural England had issued…
I received this by email today. This is just the type of information that I hope it will be possible for individuals to submit to the DEFRA consultation on regulating gamebird releases which is promised (by DEFRA) for Monday. This letter has been edited to remove information that is personal or which would identify the…
If the GWCT cannot conjure up a single scientific publication to support the 500m buffer zone for non-native gamebird releases near protected sites, and they can’t, then it seems that no-one can – read the Wild Justice blog here. DEFRA is planning to consult on the #500mmyth next week along with other aspects of the…
The Daily Telegraph has an exclusive where they say that the Sandringham Estate is supporting the release of White-tailed Eagles next door at Wild Ken Hill. This is good news if true. The statement from the estate given to the Telegraph doesn’t actually say that they support the W-t Eagle reintroduction – it says they…
In the latest Shooting Times, gamekeeper Alex Keeble writes about the dubious practice of catching up gamebirds after the shooting season for captive breeding purposes. He advises caution as this is a potential source of diseased birds. Ahead of the expected DEFRA consultation on gamebird releases next week, this gamekeeper writes: You may think that…