RSPB press release

Men given community order for possession and trade of 22 wild Peregrines On 11 December 2023 Timothy Hall and his son, Lewis Hall pleaded guilty to multiple offences relating to the possession and trade of wild Peregrines in Scotland and were both handed community service orders yesterday for these crimes. Without the introduction of sentencing…

RSPB press release – Bird Flu

New study shows role of bird flu in widespread declines of UK seabirds A new report by the RSPB has for the first time, quantified the effects of recent Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreaks on the populations of the UK’s seabirds. Of the 13 species included in the study, nine showed declines, three of…

I’m coming out… as a…

… moth-er. In other words I have a moth trap and I am now gradually becoming addicted to moth trapping. How can one resist when there is the possibility of catching moths like the one above – what a corker! Well, that is the type of thing that birders say about the drabbest of Phylloscopus…

Sunday book review – Purposeful Birdwatching by Rob Hume

This is a lovely book, filled with an appealing mixture of wisdom, humour, nostalgia, stories, facts, speculation and common sense. It’s about birdwatching, very much birdwatching, and not just birding, for Rob Hume has watched many birds and thought about what he was seeing and, it seems, enjoyed most of it immensely. In a mixture…

Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 43 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…