Reach for the round up!

Sparrow Survival, a wholly mythical NGO, reacted calmly to the news revealed in the erudite Sun ‘newspaper’ that one whole blue tit was eaten by a carnivorous plant, with the following statement: ‘We love plants but they’ll all have to die.  This is proof-positive that plants are the cause of all songbird declines and they’ll just…

A slightly dull report

Yesterday’s blog considered an interesting report by gamekeepers about the state of the countryside and today’s blog is about a slightly dull report by the BTO, RSPB and the JNCC about the state of breeding bird populations in the countryside.  Yesterday’s report was based on a questionnaire survey whereas this one is based on tens…

An interesting report

At the Game Fair – I said those couple of days could keep this blog going for ages – I picked up a report by the  National Gamekeepers Organisation considering the state of nature on commercial shoots.  It’s an interesting read. With the snappy title ‘Gamekeepers and Wildlife’ this report compiles information from a postal…

Bitter harvest?

Around where I live the combines are out in the fields working by day and into the night.  It’s a bit unusual that some farmers are getting in their wheat before the end of the barley or rape harvests.  The high prices of wheat mean that everything depends on a good wheat harvest and yields…

TMS caught out by Batesian mimic?

England won the second test match yesterday on a very warm day.  After listening to see whether Bresnan would get a hat-trick (he didn’t) I nipped out to post some copies of my book to very astute purchasers.   This is becoming a regular afternoon outing and that’s fine by me. My route takes me through…