The annual, official report on UK Biodiversity indicators was published on Thursday to its usual blaze of apathy – so well done to the Guardian for noticing and commenting. Funnily enough, there was no DEFRA press release and this report was not featured on the DEFRA webpage. It is, of course, a mixture of good…
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Sunday book review – Raptor Prey Remains by Ed Drewitt
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This is the type of book you will like if you like this type of book, or probably more likely, if you need this type of book. It is clearly a niche publication of most use to raptor workers who often visit the nests of raptors and want to identify the prey remains that they…
Sunday book review – English Pastoral by James Rebanks
James Rebanks’s earlier book, The Shepherd’s Life (reviewed here), was a great read despite being very irritating in many places. I made it this blog’s book of the year in 2015 and, rather more importantly for the author and publisher, it was a best-seller. This book is less irritating but is still a great read….
Tim Melling – Wood Warbler
Tim writes: Wood Warbler is by far the rarest and most beautiful of the three Phylloscopus warblers that breed in Britain. Willow Warbler has about 2.2 million pairs, while Chiffchaff has about 1.1 million, whereas Wood Warbler only has around 6000 pairs, and that is likely to have fallen as the species is in steep…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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Thinking of going for a walk this weekend?
I’ve heard the Peak District National Park, our oldest National Park, is very nice… Try the road from Manchester to Barnsley (which is also the road from Barnsley to Manchester) near the Woodhead Pass, perhaps… And the area south of the main road along Middle Small Clough looks nice from the road … Well, admittedly…
Press release – HS2 and Barbastelles from Leigh Day
Rare bats sightings mean continuing HS2 works could be criminal offence Leigh Day lawyers have written a second letter to HS2 Limited to call for a halt to works at Jones Hill Wood, Buckinghamshire since the discovery of Barbastelle bats at the location. On behalf of his client’s concern at the sightings in Jones Hill…
Waxwings?
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Every few years we have a Waxwing winter when these highly attractive birds turn up in numbers and strip the berries from Rowan trees all over the place and Cotoneaster bushes in Tesco car parks. Waxwings come here in years of Waxwing abundance and berry-scarcity in Scandinavia. They are superb birds and all the more…
Guest blog – Fair Isle Memories by David Parkin
David Parkin was born in Sheffield and raised on Tyneside. He started birding at age 12 and decided to study Zoology after hearing talks by Denis Summers-Smith and John Coulson as a teenager. After a short spell at Edinburgh he moved to Nottingham in 1971, remaining there for the rest of his career (choose your…
Badger petition update (6) – three weeks
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End of Week 3 and our e-petition has passed 64,000 signatures at a rate of 1,300+ signatures/day for the last week. Derbyshire Dales still leads the list and has passed the 400 signatures milestone. Stroud has reached 300 signatures. Last Thursday there were 10 constituencies with over 200 signatures now there are 24. And it’s…