Thoughts on the RSPB AGM

I attended the RSPB’s online AGM on Saturday. It was slick, a bit uplifting, but not entirely satisfactory and not entirely convincing. Amir Khan was a very cheery President and looked entirely natural in that position. Kevin Cox (Chair) and Beccy Speight (CEO) also said good things and said them well. Nobody goofed their lines….

Where I’ll be speaking over the next few months

NEXT WEEK: 28 February – I am speaking (brought forward from 27 March) about Passenger Pigeons (and I expect other things too). Venue: The Free Church, Market Hill, St. Ives PE27 5AL. Start:7.30 pm (door opens at 7.15 pm). Entrance: Free to local group members. Non-group members: £5 adult, £2 student, £1 under 18s.  …

Sunday book review – Nature Conservation in Europe by Graham Tucker (ed).

    This is not a cheap book, nor is it a small book, but it is a very useful and impressive book.  It consists of fairly standardised accounts of the approaches to and the state of nature conservation across 26 countries, 25 of which are still members of the European Union (Luxembourg and Malta…

Sunday book review – Terns of North America by Cameron Cox

There are 19 species of tern (if you count a couple of noddies and a skimmer, as this book does) in North America. I’ve seen all but one of these species (Aleutian Tern) somewhere or other, and almost all of them in North America, but also almost all of them in Europe and almost all…

Sunday book review – Yellowstone’s Birds by Douglas Smith et al.

  I’ve been to Yellowstone twice, and spent about a dozen days there so I’m hardly an expert but I can tell you that few people go there to see the birds. We all go there to see geysers (and the wonderful Grand Prismatic  Spring), Grizzly Bears, Black Bears, Grey Wolves, Moose and Bison. But…