I’m afraid that I won’t be attending our Appeal hearing tomorrow – along with some of the legal team there are personal reasons connected to coronavirus for me being absent and the government advice has certainly become a lot clearer about travelling. I feel bad about this as I want to be there (who knows…
BLOG POSTS
Nature conservation under coronavirus
Our wildlife conservation organisations are small, medium or large businesses within one very particular sector. I ‘phoned around a few of them today to ask what they are doing as a result of coronavirus. Just about all of them said that they were sticking to government guidelines – and they are all waiting for, and…
Tomorrow we are in court
Tuesday and half of Wednesday are set aside for our (and the RSPB’s) appeal against the judgment of Justice Lang on brood meddling. I’m planning to be there – government travel bans permitting. There will not be a single Hen Harrier in court but we are taking this case for them – Hen Harriers can’t…
Sunday book review – The Birds They Sang by Stanislaw Lubienski
This book has a Polish author and many stories of Polish ornithologists, artists and writers. Since I first visited Poland last year, for a family reason, I was predisposed to these parts of the book. I enjoyed hearing of painter Jozef Chelmonski and then Googling his works, and greatly enjoying some of them and not…
Tim Melling – Sichuan Takin
Tim writes: this is a young Sichuan Takin (Budorcas taxicolor tibetana) venturing out onto a road. I love its innocent expression and Mona Lisa smile plus its tiny imp-like horns that will soon develop into huge Musk Ox-like horns. This one is only a year old but males can reach 1.4m at the shoulder and…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Comments Off on Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Cheltenham – the craic
The allure of the Cheltenham festival (of racing) for me is rather little about horses. I know very little about horses – almost all of them look much the same to me. The attraction is mostly about the people – so much of the attraction of life is about the people isn’t it? Going to…
Just for fun
I’ve been at the races at Cheltenham for the last three days. My first visit to this racecourse was 26 years ago on the Wednesday (at that time, the middle day of three) of the 1994 Cheltenham festival (of racing, I gather there are other Cheltenham festivals). On that day the first race was won…
Two bursts of song
I have been away from home, on a course at a meeting in the Cotswolds, but on Tuesday morning i was standing outside my home when I heard a strange song. Well, it started strangely, sounding almost like a Sedge Warbler’s stacatto song but it then resolved itself into a melodious Blackcap. I didn’t see…
A letter from Defra
I’m grateful to my MP, Tom Pursglove, for getting this letter out of DEFRA. Sounds great doesn’t it?