It’s autumn and this weekend is Fungus Day in the UK and so one’s mind turns to the Kingdom of Fungi – just forget plants and animals for a day. This is one of a series of Little Books which are little books but they pack a big punch. They will remind many readers of…
BLOG POSTS
Guest blog – The Faroe Islands’ Grindadráp: whose business is it? by Alick Simmons
Alick Simmons spent most of his career in public service serving as the UK Food Standards Agency’s Veterinary Director (2004-2007) and the UK Government’s Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer (2007-2015). He is the current chair of the Zoological Society of London’s Ethics Committee on Animal Research and a member of the Wild Animal Welfare Committee. He…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 17 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…
Guest blog – How donations to World Land Trust can be Multiplied Four Times by Andy Langley
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Andy Langley is a wildlife enthusiast and supporter of World Land Trust (WLT), who will be doing a sponsored birdwatch this October to raise money for WLT’s ‘Protecting the Ecuadorian Amazon’ appeal. Each October, for the last seven years, my employer Ecclesiastical Insurance, part of the Benefact Group, has pledged matched funding up to £5,000…
Guest blog – Think Big, Act Bigger by Roy Dennis
Roy Dennis is a senior and eminent wildlife conservationist with a lovely voice and plenty of things to say. He once worked for the RSPB as Highland Officer and before that he was the director of the Fair Isle Bird Observatory. For many, Roy is best known for his role in promoting reintroductions of mammals…
RSPB in some trouble
Indications have been growing for some months that the RSPB is in trouble but it’s no use hiding it any more. Many organisations go through what seem like interminable reviews, and RSPB has had its share in the past decade or so, but this one is pretty serious. The jobs of hundreds of staff have…
Guest blogs for this site – guidance
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This blog has published over 400 guest posts since May 2011. Do you recognise any of these names; John Burton, Peter Cairns, Ian Carter, Andy Clements, Ian Coghill, Mary Colwell, Kerri ni Dochartaigh, David Fursdon, Derek Gow, Jeremy Greenwood, Miles King, John Lawton, Dara McAnulty, Lucy McRobert, Peter Marren, Stephen Moss, Andrew Painting, Alick Simmons,…
Illegal use of lead ammunition to shoot Mallards continues
This paper looks at lead pellets retrieved from shot Mallards in the 2020/21 shooting season at a time long after the use of lead ammunition to shoot ducks was made illegal in England (similar but slightly different rules apply in other UK nations). Most Mallards in the study were shot with lead ie they were…
Guest blog – Viewers May Find Scenes in This Nature Programme Upsetting by Beth Richardson
Beth is a Sussex-based nature writer who has enjoyed writing for websites, local newspapers and monthly regional and charity magazines. She has recently completed an MA in nature and travel writing at Bath Spa University and hopes to use her new skills and experience in purpose-led PR to write about conservation and rewilding. Warning: Viewers…
English Hen Harrier numbers slump
Natural England has published, in more detail than in previous years (click here), the numbers of Hen Harriers nesting in England – they are down this year. Numbers in 2024 are lower than in 2023 and 2022 and only slightly higher than in 2021. This year puts an end to a run of years of…