It’s a fascinating general election which has been preceded by a tedious and shallow election campaign. None of the political parties, certainly not the ‘Big Two’, come out of the campaign with much credit. It’s been a ‘heads down’ rather than an ‘eyes up’ campaign, with little analysis, little laying out of political philosophy and…
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Three Harriers go missing
The RSPB has just disclosed that three adult male Hen Harriers have gone missing from their ‘stronghold’ in the Forest of Bowland over the last three weeks. All three birds had active nests on United Utilities land and all three disappeared away from their nesting sites. Two of the nests have failed (as the males…
Henry is game
Henry did tell me that he has eaten grouse in the past, and so we went to Yorkshire Game to see what they had to offer. But they’d all gone home when we arrived. So Henry did a few circuits of the car park to stretch his wings. As Henry told you earlier, North Yorkshire…
Timing is everything
Yesterday I did the first visit to my first BBS square. I might have done it on Bank Holiday Monday but my plan, based on a favourable forecast, was to see lots of butterflies in the Chilterns on Monday. However, the forecast was an accurate weather forecast rather than a butterfly forecast and the Dukes…
Easy win on lead, minister
The incoming DEFRA ministers, will soon have to make a decision on whether to ban the use of lead ammunition in England. The science is pretty straightforward, and has been reviewed by an expert group, but the expected recommendation, to ban lead ammunition, will be deeply unpopular with vocal interest groups. I had a part…