Feathers 2

In the previous blog I estimated the number of feathers on living wild birds to be around 420 trillion. Now I’ve had the chance to check a few things I’d like to revise the estimate a little. The logic strikes me as pretty good. How many (wild) birds are there in the world and simply…

Feathers 1

I was sitting in the garden, looking up at the sky, waiting for an exciting bird to fly over, when, as you do, I started thinking about how many feathers there are in the world. Now I’m not thinking about the ones in duvets, pillows or jackets, I’m thinking about live feathers attached to live…

Voting will close on Sunday evening

There have been over 190 votes cast for your favourite entry in this blog’s Lockdown Nature-writing challenge. Voting will close on Sunday evening after I have watched the last episode of Primates on TV. The voting is largely for fun but the more people who vote, the more the authors will feel that their work…

What will Boris say?

By now I would normally have done my first visit to each of my two Breeding Bird Survey squares. But under the current circumstances I thought I ought to let the time pass and check what the instructions were on the BTO website. Here they are: So, I was doing the right thing by not…

Press release – Langholm Community

Southern Scotland’s biggest community land buyout launches crowdfunding campaign to create vast new nature reserve An initiative to create a vast new nature reserve in Dumfries and Galloway through southern Scotland’s largest community land buyout is being launched today, with a £3 million crowdfunding campaign to help purchase 10,500 acres of Langholm Moor. The ambitious…

Roseate Terns on Coquet Island – RSPB press release

Chance of a rosy future with record year for roseate terns 2019 saw a record-breaking 122 pairs of roseate terns, Europe’s rarest breeding seabird, on Coquet Island. Three webcams now installed on Coquet Island provide a window into the life of roseate terns and puffins. In 2019 there was a record-breaking 122 breeding pairs of…

Planning for an online Hen Harrier Day

An online Hen Harrier Day for 2020 In January I told you about plans for Hen Harrier Day in 2020.  These were going along swimmingly until Covid-19 came along. There were plans for Hen Harrier Days in all the countries of the UK, ten events in all with more in the pipeline. There were some…

Press release – Trees for Life

Volunteers isolate at Highlands ‘lost world’ to save thousands of young trees A team of six people from Trees for Life have been voluntarily isolating themselves at the charity’s flagship Dundreggan rewilding estate in Glenmoriston, near Loch Ness in the Highlands since 23 March – to save more than 100,000 native young trees from being…