This is Jack by the Hedge or Garlic Mustard growing in my garden – like a weed some would say! But I love it. It’s quite pretty but it is also one of the food plants for Orange Tip butterflies (Milkmaids, Lady’s Smock or Cuckoo Flower is another). So every Spring, I look at the…
BLOG POSTS
RSPB press release – Swifts
Swift numbers plunged 58% between 1995 and 2018 They are the fastest bird in level flight and rarely if ever touch the ground as they eat, sleep and mate on the wing The RSPB is calling on the public to help record where swifts are nesting to help us understand where the best places are…
Bird surveys under COVID 19
Advice from the BTO: Not straightforward is it? That’s what it’s like running an international bird survey with different administrations taking slightly different lines on travel etc. Still, you might expect a global pandemic to have some major impacts and this isn’t one of them! Restrictions in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland will have to…
Press release – Derbyshire Wildlife Trust
We welcome the decision of the court today that ruled against the NFU’s legal challenge of the UK Government over not allowing the badger cull to come to Derbyshire. The NFU legal challenge over the decision by the government not to allow a badger cull in Derbyshire has reached its conclusion today and has ruled…
The life scientific with Prof Debbie Pain
This programme is quite fun – my friend Debbie Pain talks about lead poisoning, saving Asian vultures and the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Although I’m sure there is even more to come, the examples demonstrate how Debbie has already had a career packed with both scientific and conservation achievement. It’s well worth a listen. And it provides…
My first BBS visit
Travelling a couple of miles by car for a 6km walk is the furthest I’ve been for weeks. But we are in mid-May and the May is out in flower, and this is the time for the first visit to Breeding Bird Survey squares. I can see why the BTO hasn’t yet updated its guidance…
Guest blog: Emma Turner: a life looking at birds by James Parry
My name is James Parry and I’m a writer based in Norfolk. I focus mostly on art and heritage, but have recently become fascinated by the history of wildlife photography. With co-author Jeremy Greenwood, I’ve just published a biography on Emma Louisa Turner, one of the greatest early pioneers and yet whose life and work…
It could be you…
It could be you … it’s going to be someone. Are you the person for one of the most important jobs in ornithology? You might get about £80k for doing this job, which certainly isn’t overpaid for the complexity, importance and difficulty of the role. A good interview question might be ‘In the 87-year history…
Bird song (47) – Meadow Pipit
I have to remind myself that this is one of the most numerous species in the UK because I don’t see them much around me. There’s an old airfield near me where Meadow Pipits nest in thelonger patches of grass – and it always surprises me to find them there, close to my home, singing…
Guest blog – The Bureaucrats and the Beavers by Derek Gow
Derek Gow is a farmer. A previous guest blog here, about rewilding his farm (and much else besides), Winds of Change 4 February 2019, was one of the most popular posts on this blog in all time. His second guest blog, I must tell you something of the Beaver was about the subject which he…