I’m not much of a naturalist, just a half-decent birder and formerly a better than half-decent ornithologist, and so I walk around the natural world missing most things. Birds are easy, even if you don’t look at them they shout, beautifully, at you. Butterflies are great, partly because they are fairly manageable in numbers, but…
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Press release – SCOTLAND the big picture
Chain of rewilding ‘stepping stones’ to tackle Scotland’s nature and climate crises A chain of nature-rich hotspots bringing together a diverse group of estates, farms, crofts and community-owned land is to be created across Scotland with a new rewilding network launched by charity SCOTLAND: The Big Picture. The Northwoods Rewilding Network will allow more of…
Slow Spring
It feels like a slow Spring. Not only is this apple tree about 10 days behind last year but so are many of our migrant birds. Although the ‘first records’ for arrival dates of spring migrant birds in the UK, or parts of it like my home county of Northants, are distinctly on the early…
Another petition to ban driven grouse shooting
Far be it from me to put people off any petition against driven grouse shooting but I don’t think I’ll be rushing to sign this one. I’m not sure its timing is wise, and as far as I know it has not had the benefit of any ground being prepared so that it might be…
RSPB press release – 2020 on RSPB nature reserves
2020: an amazing year for wildlife on RSPB reserves New report shows that despite Covid restrictions affecting vital conservation work many threatened species had a bumper year on RSPB reserves in 2020. Highlights included breeding spoonbills, egrets and rare plants, butterflies and spiders. More than 18,500 species have now been found living on RSPB reserves. Despite Covid-19 restrictions affecting access and conservation work in the…