I’m rubbish at plants so I don’t know how much I will use this book, but I’m interested in books on natural history and I can see that this is a high-grade piece of work. This is another Princeton University Press/WildGuides field guide and they are almost always clear, well-designed and written by experts (see…
BLOG POSTS
Gamebird shooting today
The most controversial aspect of gamebird shooting is whether you call its unwilling participants gamebirds or game birds. Aside from that it is widely agreed that things must change. But mass shooting of gamebirds has become a habit, a bad habit, and the macho so-called leaders of the shooting industry are so stuck in the…
Sunday book review – A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough
I’ve sat in audiences and listened to David Attenborough, I’ve talked to him, briefly, with others, and, like you, I’ve watched him and listened to him on television. He once phoned me at the RSPB and as Claire, my PA, said ‘It’s David Attenborough on the phone’ my brain thought ‘But I need to be…
Tim Melling – Squabbling Starlings
Tim Melling: I was recently watching and photographing Starlings in the garden and was surprised to see how much time they waste squabbling over the abundant food. They even squabbled over the bird baths which can comfortably fit five Starlings together. It seemed to be mainly the “teenage” Starlings that did most of the fighting…
RSPB position on gamebird shooting
As just announced at the smooth, inspiring and excellent RSPB AGM the RSPB has a new position on gamebird shooting. It’s not massively different, but it does represent a ‘Gloves off‘ moment as a commenter on this blog asked for. Well, maybe we should regard it as a ‘Gloves off, but it will take us…
RSPB Medal winner – Dr Ram Jakati
RSPB honours influential conservationist who saved India’s vultures Today (Saturday 10 October), the RSPB is presenting Dr Ram Jakati with the prestigious RSPB Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Nature Conservation. In the 1990s India’s vulture population was pushed to the brink of extinction due to the use of the veterinary drug, diclofenac, given to cattle…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Tomorrow’s RSPB AGM – what would Etta Lemon think?
There will be lots of interest in tomorrow’s online RSPB AGM. Is the RSPB going bust? Who gets the RSPB Medal (see this blog at 1130am tomorrow to find that out). What is the RSPB new policy on gamebird shooting? I think the RSPB has handled the latter matter slightly wrongly judging from the number…
Yesterday, next spring and the rest of 2021
Yesterday I talked to a journalist and sent him some information, sent the Wild Justice lawyers some carefully crafted thoughts, answered the front door several times as books and vegetables arrived, wrote my column for British Wildlife, wrote two blogs, picked some red tomatoes and a lot of green tomatoes, had conversations on the phone…
Earthshot or crackpot? I’m not sure.
It’s pretty unclear to me what this £50m over 10 years in £1m prizes is likely to achieve but we’ll see. The five categories are: Protect and restore nature Clean our air Revive our oceans Build a waste-free world Fix our climate …and if you have a really good idea on any of those subjects…