The RSPB believes that; … new laws backed up by tougher enforcement will be needed to end … vegetation burning on peatlands. These practices are entirely incompatible with the imperative to address the climate and ecological emergency and there are perfectly practical alternatives. https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/martinharper/posts/outcome-of-the-rspb-s-review-of-gamebird-shooting-and-associated-land-management DEFRA is dragging its feet on this matter and the long-awaited England Peat Strategy…
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What the RSPB says now
The RSPB statement on gamebird shooting – click here to read it. It’s written in black and white and yet already there are some who are giving it their own interpretation. Driven grouse shooting Critically RSPB says; We will provide an annual assessment of progress and review our position within five years. Failure to deliver effective reform…
Sunday book review – Britain’s Orchids by Sean Cole and Mike Waller
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…
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…