Creed welcomes Hen Harrier breeding successPayments to farmers for 2019 Scheme commencing this weekThe Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D., welcomed the Hen Harrier Monitoring report for 2019 which is showing a 35% increase on the 2017 figure in the number of young hen harriers fledged. The 81 chicks fledged this…
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UK bird populations continue to suffer very badly
DEFRA has today published its latest report on how badly it is doing in conserving bird populations. The graphs above show the individual values for each year of the aggregated population levels for groups of birds by habitat. So the dotted lines go up and down from year to year. The solid lines show the…
The final scores
If you signed this e-petition then ‘Thank you!’. If you signed it recently and haven’t clicked on the confirmation email you were sent then it might be worth finding it quickly (though it might already be too late). Here’s the list of constituencies with more than 200 signatures, an entirely random cut off point, with…
Badger Trust Symposium
I’ll be at this event on Saturday – I’m very much looking forward to it – details here.
Closed – at 111,963 signatures
Well, that happened a bit earlier than I expected but all good things must come to an end. Many of you will have received the same email from the Petitions Committee that I did which included this message; The current Petitions Committee, the group of MPs who decide whether petitions are debated, won’t exist after…
Last day to support this e-petition
CLOSES MIDNIGHT TONIGHT
More choices, more choices
The Birdwatch Birders’ Choice nominations are published, and the closing date is the end of this month – click here. Book of the Year? Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness Rebirding by Benedict MacDonald RSPB Guide to Birdsong by Adrian Thomas Gulls by John Coulson Oceanic Birds of the World by Steve NG Howell I’ve only…
Guy Fawkes night cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Shouty Blackbirds
The Blackbird is an incredibly familiar bird – have you seen one today? Or heard one? When I was doing fieldwork for my PhD I spent a lot of autumn and winter evenings, at dusk, hanging around in places. The characteristic sound of that time was the ‘Chink!!’ of Blackbirds as the light faded. In…
Craig Whittaker must go – please
The Calder Valley constituency is currently the one offering the greatest support to the e-petition calling for a ban of driven grouse shooting. That’s not surprising since it is the home of the Ban the Burn campaign and there is plenty of support for the idea that recent floods have been caused by the intensification…