Apologies for the title but I couldn’t resist… Although being a person of no faith myself, I sometimes wonder why religions are not much more involved in the moral case for nature conservation and animal welfare. I guess they are probably more involved than I notice but there is no way that they could be…
BLOG POSTS
Bird/poultry flu update
A few more cases in wild birds at the end of 2020 but another update is due very soon
Hen Harriers and moorland management
The week after next may see a flurry of activity on the future of driven grouse shooting and Hen Harrier conservation. On Monday 25 January we may see a Westminster Hall debate on driven grouse shooting (following one on trespass) and then on Tuesday and Wednesday 26 and 27 January the much delayed appeal of…
What do you think of this?
Who doesn’t love a turtle? asks the headline. Quite a few to judge from the reception this piece got on social media. Two lads planning to make money out of captive breeding reptiles and amphibians and with an ambition to reintroduce herptiles to the UK – quite a few of them. When I was their…
Interesting and important paper
This paper (accepted for publication and avialable online – but may have some last minute changes added to it in terms of copyediting) looks at trends in wetland bird species across RSPB nature reserves and compares them with ‘counterfactuals‘. You’ll have to read the paper to find out what counterfactuals are in general, and which…
Wildcats again
Apologies for the late posting of this morning’s post – technical issues connecting to the database (whatever that means!). Yesterday’s guest blog by Dominic Woodfield was on a contentious issue – the right way to conserve Scottish wildcats. This is an important issue and I’m grateful to Dominic for writing about it. What doesn’t seem…
Neonics and sugar beet
Following this post about neonics and sugar beet from mid December, permission has been granted by the UK government for use of neonicotinoid pesticides on sugar beet in 2021. Today’s blog by pesticide expert Prof Dave Goulson is well worth a read on the Wildlife and Countryside Link blog.
Cry havoc
This is really a story about restaurants being shut rather than damage to woodlands. It’s a bit difficult to believe that a couple of years of low culling of deer in woodlands is going to make that much difference to their ecological status. If so, it suggests that there is far too close a link…
Guest blog – Is it really too late to save the Scottish wildcat? by Dominic Woodfield
Dominic Woodfield is the Managing Director of Bioscan, a long established and well-respected consultancy specialising in applied ecology. He is not a wildcat specialist, but has significant experience of working with rare and protected species and is currently instructed by Wildcat Haven to advise on regulatory and ecological matters, including on the methodology for their…
Sunday book review – Wild Farming by Robin Page
It would be fair to ask what this book is about: and that is a question to which there is no easy answer. The first part of the answer is that it is not the book pictured above envisaged by booksellers (eg see here, here, here), and indeed Quiller (the intended publisher) who claimed Wild…