Daphne’s bio and work can be seen at www.daphnepleace.co.uk. In brief, she describes herself as an elder, writer, facilitator and lifelong learner, gone feral, wandering about in nature whenever she’s allowed out. Twitter: @DaphnePleace Nature Writing and Gender: 12 ‘different’ books by women Many of the (published) ‘nature’ books women have been writing these last…
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Tim Melling – Purple Hairstreak
Tim writes: Purple Hairstreaks are one of our commonest hairstreaks, but they are not easy to see and even less easy to photograph. That’s because they are essentially a treetop butterfly that only occasionally ventures down to ground level. They occasionally visit flowers but usually obtain their sugary fuel from aphid honeydew on tree leaves. …
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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News round up
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Stuff that’s happened: Government’s/Boris’s 10-point plan: Official GOVUK, New York Times, Guardian, Independent, BBC. Some of this isn’t new, some of it isn’t great, but some of it is pretty good. Is it enough? I’m struck by the fact that journalists can’t get past the large amount of money involved (to be spent over a…
Bird/poultry flu at Slimbridge it seems
Yesterday DEFRA announced that avian influenza H5N8 (pathogenicity to be confirmed) has been confirmed in captive birds at non-poultry premises near Stroud in Gloucestershire. I think we can be fairly sure that this is Slimbridge WWT. And the cases in wild birds (which mostly appear, given the vague way in which DEFRAA reports these cases)…
Guest blog – Fighting for the Soul of Swanscombe by Dave Clark
Dave Clark is an ornithologist with an MSc in Ornithology from the University of Birmingham and environmental campaigner with a particular interest in the interactions between birds and humans. Dave is keen to spread the word about the importance of urban areas for wildlife and improving our engagement with nature. Dave’s previous two guest blogs here…
Lockdown2 birdlist – not much progress
In the first week of Lockdown2 I saw 27 bird species. I saw all of them again this week (except LTTit and Green Woodpecker) but I brought the cumulative list up to 29 with Herring Gull and Rook. It’s not quite like sprng, is it?!
Forestry and Land Scotland – also Jay friendly
Forestry England don’t kill Jays themselves on their 250,000 ha and it’s clear they don’t let many others do it either. When I asked Forestry and Land Scotland about their policy they replied very quickly with; Hi Mark FLS does not cull jays on Scotland’s national forests and land – and our records indicate that…
Forestry England – friendly to Jays
Forestry England manages 1500 forests for us in England covering 250,000 ha of land. that’s a lot of forest, managed for timber, access, recreation and wildlife. So, I wondered how much Jay-killing goes on by Forestry England under the terms of the general licences (particularly as DEFRA has failed to remove Jay from the English…
North Northants will fly a Red Kite
This is the propsed logo for the new county of North Northamptonshire from April next year. This is a modified version of one of the logos which was proposed back in the summer. I’m very happy with this and although this wouldn’t have been my preferred option it is an improved version of my second…