This is a stimulating book which takes an independent view of Scotland’s Highland landscape. The author challenges the current orthodoxy (is it?) that most of the Highlands was not so long ago wooded and that restoring woodland cover, the great Forest of Caledon, should be an aim of rewilding and nature conservation. No matter…
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Sunday book review – The Tories – a tragedy by Henry Morris
This book has little to do with wildlife and its conservation, just like two of its characters, Therese Coffey and her bestie, Liz Truss. However, unlike the late unlamented Secretaries of State for the Environment, Henry Morris, is a friend of wildlife and a friend of mine so I’ll happily plug his latest excellent book…
Sunday book review – Under the Changing Skies by various Guardian writers
I sometimes wonder how many Guardian journalists have been for a walk in the countryside (without ear pods) in the last week. I guess the Guardian’s ignorant aloofness is better than the Telegraph’s ignorant familiarity although it’s a close run thing. At least the Guardian has a daily, tiny but valuable, account of some…
Sunday book review – Cuckoo by Cynthia Chris
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There are about 144 cuckoo species across the world including anis, coucals and roadrunners (I love the Greater Roadrunner!). Not all of them, by any means, are brood parasites but understandably that habit features prominently in this book as it is biologically fascinating and leads the Common Cuckoo into many cultural references. The six…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 62 by Nick MacKinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
RSPB calls for licensing of gamebird shooting across the UK
Illegal bird of prey killing must end, urges RSPB Birdcrime report The Birdcrime report, which reviews the past 15 years, reveals 1,344 birds of prey were illegally killed between 2009-2023, with crimes continuing to emerge. These criminal acts target threatened species including Golden Eagles, Goshawks and Hen Harriers. The majority of incidents are associated with…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 8 by Nick MacKinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
The RSPB AGM 2024
I attended most of the RSPB’s online AGM on Saturday after having a bit of a struggle to get registered for it. I was there from the beginning until I had heard that my friend and former colleague Euan Dunn had been given the prestigious RSPB Medal this year. That news was, in some ways,…
Press release by Trees for Life – UK ‘return’ for ancient aurochs
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UK ‘return’ for ancient aurochs 400 years after European extinction Huge wild cattle could be ‘back from the dead’ to rewild Highlands near Loch Ness Trees for Life has launched a project which could see the first introduction to the UK of a breed of huge wild cattle called tauros – effectively reintroducing the aurochs, the…
RSPB press release – Tiny wasp helps protect island bird species threatened with extinction
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Tiny wasp helps protect island bird species threatened with extinction One of the world’s rarest birds, Wilkins’ Bunting, has been handed a much-needed lifeline by a small species of parasitoid wasp. Only found on the remote Nightingale Island in the South Atlantic, the bunting’s food source was threatened by an invasive alien scale insect. Conservationists…