We are re-emerging after decades of hibernation as a campaigner for global free trade. And frankly it is not a moment too soon because the argument for this fundamental liberty is now not being made. The reason we do not seek membership or part membership of the customs union or alignment of any kind, is…
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Tim Melling – Steppe Eagle
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Tim writes: Steppe Eagles (Aquila nipalensis) are a bit smaller than Golden Eagles and breed across the desert steppes of Central Asia but migrate south to winter in sub-Saharan Africa, India and Southeast Asia. Huge numbers pass through certain places on migration, such as the Middle East and Nepal, and its name (nipalensis) refers to…
Fake News (10) by Diogenes
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Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
BTO press release – A Cuckoo called Carlton II
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A Cuckoo called Carlton II has just arrived back in England having spent the last ten months travelling to and from the Congo rainforest, becoming the first of the BTO’s satellite tracked cuckoos to return to this country in 2020. Aided by favourable southerly winds, he completed the last leg of his mammoth journey in…
NEWS: No Fin whaling in Iceland in 2020
It’s been confirmed that there will be no Fin whaling in Iceland this summer. Kristján Loftsson’s reasons for not going ahead, he says, include the difficulty of competing in the Japanese market now that the Japanese government supports its own whaling industry. According to Kristján, prices are low and costly testing for chemical analysis doesn’t…
Bird song (40) – Turtle Dove
The Song of Solomon talks of the voice of the turtle being heard in the land – that was the Turtle Dove, not some warbling reptile. But it is a song rather rarely heard in the land these days. The Turtle Dove was once a very common bird in southeast England and its purring was…
Bird song (39) – Corn Bunting
Jangling keys – that’s how a Corn Buntng sounds. Here are examples of jangling keys from across Europe. Here’s one from Oropesa, Spain: …and another Spanish bird from Tarifa; …and one from Yorkshire, UK; There is a single pair of Corn Buntings in Northamptonshire, I gather. I used to see them in several places, but…
131 years of Little Owls
Today is the anniversary of the first Little Owl nest nest to be found in the UK. Little Owls were successfully introduced into the UK at Lilford Hall, just down the road from me here in east Northants, by the 4th Baron Lilford: in 1889, on St George’s Day, his gamekeeper found a Little Owl…
Bird song (38) – House Sparrow
The song of the House Sparrow seems to be pretty much like its call – cheep! But you can see a male House Sparrow, sitting by a nest box or opening on the edge of a roof, going ‘cheep!’ time after time after time. If it were any other bird then we’d call it a…