Chew Valley Lake, CVL to its friends, has been an important part of my life – for a period of just about five years it was where I wanted to be, with my binoculars, in any spare moment. That was nearly 50 years ago and the journey to CVL was then a 40-minute cycle ride…
BLOG POSTS
Tim Melling – Sabines Gull
Tim writes: Sabine’s Gulls are quite a difficult gull to see. They breed in the high arctic but migrate south after breeding to spend the winter at sea off the continental shelves in the southern hemisphere. In the Atlantic they mainly winter off southern Africa and South America. They are only occasionally seen from land,…
New Year Honours
Prof Sir Dieter Helm – former Chair of Natural Capital Committee. Author of two books highly rated by this blog; Net Zero (published 2020) and Green and Prosperous Land (published 2019). Joan Edwards OBE – for services to Marine Conservation Dr Alistair Burn MBE – for voluntary services to conservation in Cambridgeshire Raymond Marsh MBE…
Happy New Year!
I hope you weren’t partying and snogging everyone in sight to celebrate the New Year last night. Somehow I don’t picture the readership of this blog as having many superspreaders in it but, you never know. I had an early night! I’m looking forward to many things this year and now we are well past…
Thoughts on 2020 (7th and last) – was it a good year for you?
I think we’re all supposed to say that it has been an awful year – and it has had its moments – but actually, I’ve had a lot of fun. The bad things have been mostly to do with not seeing friends and family enough. Our two offspring have had big events in their lives…
Thoughts on 2020 (6) – this blog
2020 was a record year for readership (pageviews) on this blog. Here are the previous five years (1 Jan – 31 Dec) and this year: 2020, 1,331k pageviews (with a few hours still to go) 2019, 1,139k pageviews. 2018, 898k pageviews 2017, 876k pageviews 2016, 1,254k pageviews 2015, 808k pageviews But what of the content?…
Thoughts on 2020 (5) – nature conservation
I don’t think that nature conservation, as a movement, comes out of 2020 very well. The economic challenges should have brought home to many nature conservation organisations that they have morphed too much into being part of the entertainment industry in recent years and have loosened their nature conservation and environmental roots. When it came…
Thoughts on 2020 (4) – politics
Do you think better or worse about politicians at this end of 2020 than this time last year? Has a crisis of COVID-19 and the challenge of Brexit raised or lowered your estimation of the politicians that you and our fellow voters elected? Come to that, do you feel more impressed or less impressed about…
Thoughts on 2020 (3) – birdwatching
I’m a poor naturalist but a half-decent ornithologist and birdwatcher. I haven’t seen many birds this year – certainly in terms of number of species. Although I know of many who do (overwhelmingly males) I do not keep a bird list for the year. Some of my friends and acquaintances would be able to reel…
Thoughts on 2020 (2) – coronavirus
Let’s hear it for the virus – a remarkable product of evolution by natural selection. A small chunk of RNA in a protein coat that has changed our lives dramatically, and ended many too. You have to admire it, or rather the process of evolution that has shaped it and made it so effective. I’ve…