UK Biodiversity Indicators 2020 (1)

The annual, official report on UK Biodiversity indicators was published on Thursday to its usual blaze of apathy – so well done to the Guardian for noticing and commenting. Funnily enough, there was no DEFRA press release and this report was not featured on the DEFRA webpage. It is, of course, a mixture of good…

Sunday book review – Raptor Prey Remains by Ed Drewitt

This is the type of book you will like if you like this type of book, or probably more likely, if you need this type of book. It is clearly a niche publication of most use to raptor workers who often visit the nests of raptors and want to identify the prey remains that they…

The Last Flower

The Last Flower is a short video about 4 minutes in length, which draws attention to the threats faced by wild flowers in the UK, and has been put together by Nigel and Lois Harbron, from Kirkoswald, Cumbria, with the help of their offspring Rob and Jo. In 2019, Nigel Harbron composed a tune he…

Sunday book review – English Pastoral by James Rebanks

James Rebanks’s earlier book, The Shepherd’s Life (reviewed here), was a great read despite being very irritating in many places. I made it this blog’s book of the year in 2015 and, rather more importantly for the author and publisher, it was a best-seller. This book is less irritating but is still a great read….

Tim Melling – Wood Warbler

Tim writes: Wood Warbler is by far the rarest and most beautiful of the three Phylloscopus warblers that breed in Britain.  Willow Warbler has about 2.2 million pairs, while Chiffchaff has about 1.1 million, whereas Wood Warbler only has around 6000 pairs, and that is likely to have fallen as the species is in steep…