A recent BTO report – click here – comes to the unsurprising conclusion that brood meddling of Hen Harrier nests made little or no contribution to the recent rise and fall of the Hen Harrier breeding population. As was predicted in advance, brood meddling is a distraction and an irrelevance. The drivers of the steep…
BLOG POSTS
BTO steps back from ‘Global’ Bird Fair
Comments Off on BTO steps back from ‘Global’ Bird Fair
I was interested to see BTO saying: “We’ve taken the difficult decision to not return to Global Birdfair as an exhibitor. While we recognise that Birdfair provides an opportunity to meet with members and volunteers, our continued investment in other ways to engage with supporters is proving to be a more effective use of resources. …
Press release – Mineral Products Association nature awards
Comments Off on Press release – Mineral Products Association nature awards
Top conservationists celebrate quarrying’s role in nature recovery Leading figures in UK nature conservation gather in London to celebrate the essential role quarrying plays in nature recovery and biodiversity gain. Leading figures in UK nature conservation gathered at The Royal Society, London this week to celebrate the essential role quarrying plays in nature recovery and biodiversity…
Sunday book review – The Borders: The Lands We Share by Andrew Bibby
This is an account of a walk from Edinburgh to the River Swale. Each of 21 chapters tells the tale of a section of the walk but also discusses a land use or issue relevant to that part of the journey. Such an approach must take quite some planning but the account has a steady…
Sunday book review – The Secret Life of a Cemetery by Benoît Gallot
Comments Off on Sunday book review – The Secret Life of a Cemetery by Benoît Gallot
‘In the midst of death, we are in life’ might be the subtitle of this book about the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where wildlife shares a place of rest with its human occupants. For many town-livers, the few green spaces, with their somewhat limited wild species, are important oases of peace. The author celebrates…
Sunday book review – Scientists on Survival by Scientists for XR
Comments Off on Sunday book review – Scientists on Survival by Scientists for XR
These are personal stories – by interesting people. What brings them together is that they are all from scientists involved with activism in the area of climate change. I know a few of the authors, and know of some more, so I read those first and they got me off to a good start. Unusually,…
Sunday book review – A Wilding Year by Hannah Dale
Comments Off on Sunday book review – A Wilding Year by Hannah Dale
The author is an illustrator who lives on a farm in North Lincolnshire that she and her husband have rewilded – or allowed to rewild itself. We don’t hear a lot about the farming but it is clear that this was difficult land to farm and some of it has reverted to sogginess and other…
Guest blog – Short walks along streets that flood (and roads not taken) by Jenny Shepherd
Comments Off on Guest blog – Short walks along streets that flood (and roads not taken) by Jenny Shepherd
Ban the Burn rep to the Stronger Together to Stop Calderdale WIndfarm campaign group. On behalf of the group, named creator of the Parliamentary Petition, Ban WIndfarms on Protected Peatland in England – click here . Tend to carry a Grandmothers Against Bullshit placard – covers so much in so few words. Short walks along…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 57 by Nick MacKinnon
Comments Off on Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 57 by Nick MacKinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
Sunday book review – The Restless Coast by Roger Morgan-Grenville
Comments Off on Sunday book review – The Restless Coast by Roger Morgan-Grenville
This is a good read and goes straight into my list of contenders to be this blog’s book of the year. The format involves the author walking stretches of the coast of Britain investigating the places, talking to the people and trying to figure out what he makes of the issues that affect these…