Say hello to the cuckoo

It’s May, it’s raining and for the first time for many a year, perhaps ever, I haven’t seen a cuckoo in April. My Birdtrackrecords going back to 2005 show me that I have always seen a cuckoo by now. I went out in a fine spell on Monday thinking that I should hear a cuckoo…

And the winners and losers are…

The two polls for your favourite and least favourite UK wildlife NGOs are now closed.  Thank you for voting. Across the two polls, over 2400 votes were cast: 1330 in the poll for the favourite organisation and 1085 in the poll for the least favourite.  This seems to show that despite a few voices saying…

Agriculture policy and stuff like that

The week before last the EU adopted a biodiversity strategy which says many good things.  but let’s just concentrate on agriculture for a moment. Here are some highlights about agriculture (I’ve highlighted some bits for you): 58. Recalls that over half of the EU’s territory is managed by farmers, that farmland delivers important ecosystem services and…

Note to self

A year ago I had a permanent job but after 25 years and one month at the RSPB (the best nature conservation organisation in the world), and after 12 and a half years of being its Conservation Director, I gave up a well paid and very satisfying job to explore new challenges. Was this really…

Firing blanks

When I worked at the RSPB I got a media summary every day.  I would look forward to Thursday as the Shooting Times would always deliver a few laughs.  You could tell that when there wasn’t anything of great interest to write about in the shooting world they would fill their pages with lurid stories…