‘The NFU reacted angrily…’ is a common occurrence – try searching for it online and you’ll find a lot of examples. Today’s example, at least as reported on Today, is the NFU reaction to Ian Boyd’s suggestion that the future British countryside will have more hedges and trees and fewer grazing animals in it. This…
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Peak District bird surveys
Some bird surveys in the Peak District have been published. Well, actually, that’s not quite true; some rather obviously selective analyses of some bird surveys done in the Peak District have been promoted but not properly published. See here, here and here. Despite the fact that there is some celebratory social media coverage of these…
Garden birds October 2019
October has been a good month for birds with four new species for the garden list for the year – two of which were garden lifers! All four species were recorded on 22 or 23 October during a period of good weather when sitting in the garden with a cup of tea was not just…
Look into autumn
I’ve always liked; No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus The same is true of autumn. Just now the autumn colours are lovely round here – hardly spectacular but wonderful in an understated English way – simply lovely. When I…
Murmuration
This is the season of Starling murmurations. On Monday i visited a local nature reserve, Summer Leys south of Wellingborough, and to the south of the road a little west of the car park there was a good display of Starlings swirling around over the reedbed before they dived into it to roost. It wasn’t…
Farming Today again
Farming Today went back this morning to their not entirely accurate story from yesterday about the RSPB having a look at its policy on game shooting. Apart from the repetition of Martin Harper’s out-of-date ‘up to 50 million gamebirds’ (figure from GWCT is now 47m Pheasants and 10m Red-legged Partridges which is a long way…
Dissolution of Parliament
The Government has tabled a motion proposing that an early general election be held. The motion is in the terms set out in section 2(2) of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. If agreed to by a super-majority of the House of Commons, an early election will take place in accordance with that Act.In the event…
Save the dates – brood meddling appeal
Though the mills of God grind slowly; Yet they grind exceeding small https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_of_God We have a date, two days actually, for our appeal of the brood-meddling judgment. After Halloween And after the Rugby World Cup final And after Guy Fawkes Night And after the end of the grouse shooting season And after the general election…
Symbolic
This is an image of my mate Chris Packham last spring after he had picked up his CBE for services to nature conservation. He scrubs up pretty well doesn’t he? Check out the tie with the Extinction Rebellion logo on it. Chris wore that to St James’s Palace (I think it was) where his CBE…
Farming Today on RSPB and game shooting
Martin Harper was interviewed on Farming Today this morning. Martin did well but it was one of those unsatisfactory interviews where Anna Hill simply got lots of things wrong – listen here from about 9 minutes into the programme through until the end. In the introduction (which Martin won’t have heard until today) Hill says…