Worcester City Councillor Alan Amos (Conservative) is quoted in the Daily Telegraph as calling gulls ‘vicious flying rats’. Apparently if people behaved like gulls do, then they would be arrested, but then, let us consider, shooting people for pooing on your car is illegal so shall we agree that gulls aren’t people, councillor? Natural England…
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The RSPB and game shooting
Saturday’s welcome announcement from the RSPB that they are reviewing their position over game shooting is just that – welcome. None of us yet knows what that review will look like nor what, if anything, the RSPB has in mind might change; but we can guess. First, you don’t announce a review if your attention…
Tim Melling – Cormorants
Tim writes: there are a lot of fishing ponds near to where I live which makes Cormorants rather wary. So I was really surprised when this Cormorant continued to dry its wings while I took its photograph. And this was on a stocked lake full of anglers. The microscopic structure of Cormorant feathers makes them…
NEWS: RSPB prepares to shift position on gamebird shooting
At yesterday’s RSPB AGM, Kevin Cox, the Chair of Council made the following announcement; There is growing concern about the environmental impact (including for carbon, water and biodiversity) of intensive forms of game bird shooting and associated land management practices. This includes both driven grouse moor management (which involves shooting our native red grouse) and…
Sunday book review – Tracking the Highland Tiger by Marianne Taylor
This is a well-written book and there is much to be enjoyed within its pages. If I am ever on a long coach ride from Victoria coach station (they do crop up in the book) and find myself sitting next to the author I feel we could have a good chat. There is lots of…
Tim Melling – Grey-headed Albatross
Tim writes: this is a Grey-headed Albatross photographed at Shag Rocks, which is 150 miles west of South Georgia, where it breeds. It is a rare albatross whose world population was estimated at 250,000 individuals back in 2004, but the population is on a downward trajectory so it is likely to be much rarer than…
Time jerks
Remember that tonight the clocks go back – actually you’d better check that, as I find it difficult to work out from first principles which way the time-change goes (I know, I’m a bit thick). But it’s definitely different tomorrow. I think that changing the clocks twice a year is one of the clearest examples…
Amazingly interesting resource from RSPB
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Where do Hen Harriers travel? Click here to see the answers for many RSPB satellite-tagged birds from the EU (remember them?)-funded LIFE project.
Waiting for a debate date
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There are only six open petitions on the Westminster parliament website which have overtopped the 100,000 signatures and are therefore eligible for a debate in Westminster Hall. Of those, one is about to become largely irrelevant (and is talked about incessantly anyway), two have been debated, one has had a debate date set and two,…
Importance of peatlands for carbon storage
Europe’s peatlands are drying out – due to a combination of factors including human actions. And recent estimates of carbon stored in peatlands are twice as high as previous ones. Here is an accessible and useful account of these two papers with interviews with a range of scientists. Altogether peatlands are even more important than…