News from Scotland

And a belated piece of news from Scotland – a pair of Hen Harriers, after many years, has finally produced some young in the Angus glens. You can tell this was big news because it appeared in The Courier on 5 August and the Press and Journal on 6 August. You’ll notice that the coverage…

Sunday book review – Net Zero by Dieter Helm

This book arrived in the post out of the blue from the publisher, probably because they had spotted that I have favourably reviewed two previous books by Prof Helm, Natural Capital and Green and Prosperous Land, and they were right to bank on my admiration of this further volume. It contains the same mixture of…

Tim Melling – moulting Mallard

Tim writes: I know that this isn’t a contender for bird photograph of the year but it does show something interesting. It shows that ducks moult all their flight feathers simultaneously, so they are completely flightless for a time. Most birds moult their flight feathers gradually, one pair at a time so that they are…

Mr Slater of Natural England – a star blogger

Natural England has been forced into some wise back-tracking which they call clarification and some unconvincing verbal contortions through the pressure put on them by blogs such as this and the social media storm into which they often blunder. They are, after all, No-Mates Natural England. Their attempt to shore up their reputation came in…