RSPB press release – Number of Hen Harriers killed or missing reaches new high

  Over the past five years, record numbers of Hen Harriers have been killed or have gone missing according to a new report from the RSPB. Most of these incidents have occurred on or near grouse moors in northern England. The RSPB is calling on the Westminster Government to introduce licensing of grouse shooting in…

Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 25 by Kate Haslegrave

Kate is a photographer and has lived in Haworth for twenty years. Walking on the moors she has come to learn that no two days are ever the same. Her blog about Haworth & Stanbury moors is at www.katietuppence.com. This is her third blog in this series about Walshaw Turbines – see here for the…

Sunday book review – Urban Plants by Trevor Dines

This book, out of 50 I reviewed in 2025, was my choice of wildlife book of the year. You can buy this book from Bookshop.org and I have set up a booklist to make that easy through this link https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/MarkAvery Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you…

Sunday book review – Beepedia by Laurence Packer

This book takes us from Agapostemon to Zacosmia although that may not be the most helpful introduction from me as it suggests that this book is perhaps dull and worthy whereas it is fun and interesting. I enjoyed reading about the links of Danuncia Urban (bee taxonomist) and Charles Michener (another bee taxonomist) with bees…

Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 21 by Nick MacKinnon

Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…

Press release Walshaw Turbines Research Group – Legal challenge to massive windfarm proposal

On 1 June 2025 the Walshaw Turbines Research Group (WTRG) sent a letter before action to Christian Egal, Project Director of Calderdale Energy Park. The letter can be read on the WTRG website here, and the paper giving the extensive evidence is available here.  The work of the WTRG may be familiar to some in their long…

Sunday book review – Land Beneath the Waves by Nic Wilson

The publisher’s attempt at describing this book’s genre seems pretty accurate to me, loaded as it is with words such as ‘health’, ‘self-help’, ‘illness’, ‘well-being’, ‘family’ and ‘memoir’. Would there be enough nature in here for me, I wondered. And the answer was a resounding ‘yes!’ (although one can’t easily have too much). Those drawn…

Sunday book review – Words from the Hedge by Richard Negus

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book and that feeling was justified by the pleasure it gave me. Most of the pleasure was because this is a well-written book by someone who seems to be an interesting man with whom I’d be very happy to share a few pints at some stage. He is…