Interesting figures on SSSI status

This was in my local(-ish) paper but it seems to be the Northants tip of a national iceberg. In the olden days it would have been an NGO that did this anlysis but not now – I wonder why not? The basic story is that Natural England isn’t doing its job properly in acting as…

An unresponsive MP

So far I have had no response from my MP to my letter to him of a month ago – see here. This is very disappointing and I hope it doesn’t mean that Mr Pursglove has a more sizable majority he is going to ignore his constituents… Note added later: A response arrived in the…

February Birdwatch (2)

There is even more in the latest issue of Birdwatch than I let on earlier. There’s an excellent article by Dominic Mitchell on revisiting a former local patch of his which is strong evidence for my contention (oft broken, I admit) that one should never go back to a place where one loved the wildlife…

February Birdwatch (1)

There’s a cute owl on the cover of the latest Birdwatch magazine and a cute Bill Oddie too. What’s not to like? But lest you think you can just gawp at the cover in your local newsagent shop then let me tell you it’s worth sitting down with a mug of tea and some Digestive…

PLR

It’s that time of year when authors are told whether they have earned any money from the Public Lending Right system. If any libraries have your books on their shelves, and if anyone borrows them (as judged by a sample of libraries) then you get some dosh, at the rate now of 9p/loan. My books…

Very nasty

I don’t think you will find this story in any newspaper other than the Daily Mail – they say it is an exclusive. And you’ll notice that it stems from a complaint by the Countryside Alliance. The story, such as it is, is that a senior, highly respected, female police officer, Chief Inspector Lou Hubble…

Werritty evidence session tomorrow

Tomorrow morning, from 09:30, the Scottish Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee will take evidence from three members of the Werritty group whose report on licensing of grouse moor management was so inadequate. The three members are the Chair, Prof Alan Werritty, and Prof Colin Reid and Prof Alison Hestor. It will be interesting…

Wild Justice is fundraising and going birding

Wild Justice is fundraising in the month running up to the first anniversary of its launch – see here for details. Also, Ruth Tingay and I will be looking out for raptors over the next few weeks – see where we will be, click here. Maybe we’ll see you while we watch harriers flying past?