In a statement, some so-called leading rural organisations pretend to join the ranks of eco-zealots and condemn illegal raptor persecution. Of course, these organisations have always said this, but they’ve never been able to deliver any change on the ground. They aren’t so much leading organisations as lagging ones – about a century off the…
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Sophie increases lead intake of customers?
Farming Today (today, 1 minute into the programme) features former chartered accountant Sophie Bagley and her game meat enterprise in Yorkshire (as featured earlier in the Mail Online). What she says about game meat is largely true – it is low cholesterol, it is low carbon, it is low fat and to some extent game…
Guest blog – Volunteers in the Conservation Sector (4) by Louise Bacon
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A year ago, Mark published my first guest blog on volunteering, where we mused on the monetary value of volunteers, and how this was appreciated or valued within conservation charities. There was much comment, and I was actually congratulated by a couple of senior NGO managers on raising the issue, or maybe simply on sticking…
Guest blog – Hope and what we do by Jean-Luc Solandt
Jean-Luc Solandt is a marine biologist struggling to get out of a policy expert. He worked on coral reef ecology for 15 years, providing diving survey data for the creation of Marine Protected Areas. He’s been working in the UK at the Marine Conservation Society for over 15 years on developing networks of MPAs, making…
Joke response to Committee on Climate Change report from Moorland Association
Last week the Moorland Association released a joke response to the Climate Change Committee report on land use which recommended an end to rotational burning on peatlands this year. Now you wouldn’t think that would be exactly what the Moorland Association would want but they still have the brass neck to write; The Moorland Association…
So, why do you want to be Secretary of State for DEFRA?
The strong rumours are that we will see a new Secretary of State at DEFRA very soon after a ‘We’re pretending that we’ve done Brexit’ reshuffle. If so, we’ll never know what Theresa Villiers might have done because she hasn’t done much of note so far except make an awful speech at the Oxford Farming…
Brian Leecy – Short-toed Eagle
Mark writes: Brian photographed this Short-toed Eagle in Spain in September last year as it was planning to cross the Straits of Gibraltar towards Africa. I thought it was a very striking image and loved the look in those big yellow eyes, and the angle that the tail was held. Look too at the underwing;…
Sunday book review – The Pelagic Dictionary of Natural History of the British Isles by Peter Jarvis
This is an impressive work – it lists all British species that have English names. That’s from A to Z; Aaron’s Rod to Zipperback. I did know something about Aaron’s Rod but everything I know about Zipperback (what it is, where it lives geographically and in terms of habitat, and how it got its memorable…
Tim Melling – Thomas’s Pika
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Tim writes: Thomas’s Pika (Ochotona thomasi) is yet another mammal with barely any published photographs. It is a Chinese endemic, being restricted to isolated forested peaks within a relatively small area. It was only described new to science in 1948 but that was mainly due to its similarity to other Pika species. In fact we…
Big Garden Birdwatch 2020
I’ve done mine: Red Kite – 1 – low over the garden and looking down (I’m counting it!) Jackdaw – 4 Starling – 9 House Sparrow -12 Chaffinch – 8 Goldfinch – 6 Blue Tit – 3 Great Tit – 1 Dunnock – 1 Magpie -1 Collared Dove – 2 Wood Pigeon – 1 Bullfinch…