David Higgins works in conservation. He has lived and worked in the Falkland Islands, St Helena Island, India, The Skerries, the Yorkshire Dales, the North Pennines and now the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. He loves islands especially seabird colonies, where he enjoys his main passion of wildlife photography. My colleague, Filip, takes a full-frontal crap…
BLOG POSTS
Letter to my new MP, Lee Barron
Dear Lee, May I offer my formal congratulations on your election as an MP. I’m not just being polite, I delivered lots of leaflets for your campaign and I am a Labour Party member. We have met briefly – I was one of the small group of Labour supporters who met you in Raunds library…
Open letter to the new Chair of RSPB
Email to Sir Andrew Cahn, RSPB Chair Dear Sir Andrew, Congratulations on becoming Chair of RSPB Council, although I have to say that at the online AGM I voted against your appointment, not because I have anything against you personally but because I know practically nothing about you but I didn’t much like the look…
Sunday book review – Great Misconceptions edited by Ian Parsons
Comments Off on Sunday book review – Great Misconceptions edited by Ian Parsons
This is a collection of essays about rewilding. I wrote what has been placed as the last chapter so I am reviewing this book without considering the last chapter. I hadn’t seen any of the other dozen chapters until the book arrived in the post last week. The chapters have been brought together by Ian…
Sunday book review – The Peregrine Thief by Alan Stewart
Comments Off on Sunday book review – The Peregrine Thief by Alan Stewart
This is the final book in Alan Stewart’s trilogy of the exploits of Detective Sergeant Bob McKay – see reviews of Calls from the Wild and Cruel Intentions. The author wrote several non-fiction books (eg Killing by Proxy) about wildlife crime before turning to the freedom that fiction gives an author to fill in the…
Bird Fair donations
Comments Off on Bird Fair donations
I’m a fan of the Bird Fair but as I wrote in my Birdwatch September column I think Bird Fair has declined in standing in recent years. I skipped 2022 but have attended the last two, post-covid, Bird Fairs. It seems to me that people are voting with their feet and that what was once…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 65 by Kate Haslegrave
Kate is a photographer and has lived in Haworth for the past 20 years. She has been walking up on the moors for the past 10 years or so and one thing she has come to learn is that no two days out on the moors are ever the same. She has been blogging…
Sunday book review – Small Game Hunter by Peter Smithers
Comments Off on Sunday book review – Small Game Hunter by Peter Smithers
We are asked ‘Have you ever wondered what entomologists do?‘ and I have, and I enjoyed finding out what this eminent entomologist (a vice-president of the Royal Entomological Society) has done. It seems to me, he has had a lot of fun and his enthusiasm is infectious. But his main field of research has…
Sunday book review – Solvable by Susan Solomon
Comments Off on Sunday book review – Solvable by Susan Solomon
We all need hope, and one of the ways of finding it is to realise that many apparently hopeless environmental problems have been sorted out by human ingenuity and determination. That’s what this book does with five detailed examples: smog, ozone depletion, pesticides, lead and those greenhouse gases called HFCs. And the last chapter makes…
Sunday book review – The Good Slug Guide by Jo Kirby
Comments Off on Sunday book review – The Good Slug Guide by Jo Kirby
Do not be fooled by the jokey title, shortish length and smallish pages, this is not a lightweight book – it is a very solid one. By the time I had read the four-page Introduction I was hooked and a gross of pages later I had become engrossed. This is a very, very good book….