Danny Heptinstall is a 24 year old birder, naturalist and aspiring conservationist currently researching red kites at the University of Aberdeen. Here he presents a shortened version of an article that asks “Where is the UK’s Youth Conservation Movement, and what can be done to find it?” I’m a young conservationist, and I get annoyed…
BLOG
Guest blog – Let’s not let our wildlife-rich grasslands fade away by Colin Raven
I can trace my interest in nature back to childhood walks in the 1960s with my grandparents and their whippet Rip, to West Meadow and Lord’s Ground near the fenland village of Willingham in Cambridgeshire. With their tall hedgerow elms and a kaleidoscope of wildflowers, these ancient pastures, teeming with rabbits for Rip to chase,…
Letter to my MP – response from Defra 3
The last part of the letter I received from Defra, via my MP Andy Sawford, was as follows: ‘4. Dr Avery asks about the main animal welfare concerns surrounding the rearing and release of pheasants and red-legged partridges. It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) to cause any unnecessary suffering to an…
More bits
isn’t this result on whaling absolutely fantastic (see also here, here, here)? I heard my first Blackcap this spring at Stanwick Lakes on Monday – a March Blackcap IPCC – we’re doomed, but not if we do something (lots, soon) BGBW results I was distracted a few times in a meeting the other day by…
Botany
I’m not very good on flowers – but I know what I like. I like the spring and I have noticed, at least I think I have noticed, that there are lots of yellow flowers around at this time of year. As well as the daffodils and primroses, there are aconites and celandines, and I…