In court, virtually

Friday found me watching a computer screen from 10:30am to 4:30pm to watch the Wild Justice challenge to the lawfulness of Natural Resources Wales’s general licences. In theory this was in court in Cardiff but I am not sure that anyone was in Cardiff. There were many attendees from ourselves (the Claimant), NRW (the Defendant)…

Bird/poultry flu update

A lot more cases in wild birds – mostly Mute Swans; … and one more in poultry – a backyard flock; …and a case in the far north of Scotland, in fact in Orkney; So now, it seems to me, that the counties with positive records for wild birds (shaded pink) and the locations of…

Tim Melling – Greenshank

Tim writes: Greenshank is a scarce breeding bird of northern Scotland, with about 1100 pairs breeding particularly in the wet, peaty bogs of the Flow Country in the far north.  But the Scottish population is a tiny fraction of the European population that breeds in the taiga zone across Scandinavia and NW Russia which is…

Should I say yes?

I get a lot of these – at least one such email a day. If you think I should be saying yes to these unsolicited junkemails then let me know and I could fill this site up with them… Hi Mark, I hope you’re doing well. I’ve been reading some of your content for some…

Today…

Today the Wild Justice challenge of the Welsh general licences is held online in front of His Honour Judge Jarman QC. The great advantages of online attendance of court is that one can shout at the screen, the seats are more comfortable and one can munch biscuits all the time.

Press release – Trees for Life

Scots want beavers moved not shot, new research finds A majority of Scots agree beavers should be moved to new locations in Scotland instead of being killed, according to new research. The findings come as Highland-based rewilding charity Trees for Life seeks to raise £40,000 through a crowdfunding appeal to help protect Scotland’s wild beavers….

State of the UK’s birds

New report reveals declines in UK’s woodland birds New data show long-term declines of woodland bird species Some specialist woodland species have declined dramatically, including willow tit, which has shown the second biggest decline of any widespread UK bird. Numbers of native birds overall are down, with 19 million fewer pairs of breeding birds in…

From World Land Trust

As the chair of trustees, I’m proud of the work that World Land Trust staff and our partners across the world have done in very difficult circumstances this year, and also grateful to our donors for loyal and generous support.

Brighton’s Big Secret

I found this video fascinating. It’s 20min but it is fascinating and reveals so many natural riches on Brighton’s doorstep. It’s an interesting commentary too. I will return to this.