130 years of Little Owls

Little Owl. Photo: By Trebol-a (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Little Owls were successfully introduced into the UK at Lilford Hall, just down the road from me here in east Northants, by the 4th Baron Lilford in 1889; on St George’s Day, his gamekeeper found a little owl on a nest.

BASC doublespeak – another example

As disputation goes, this is on the level of ‘I didn’t steal your car and it’s mine anyway’ David Mitchell in Observer 14 April David Mitchell wrote in the Observer last week about the public subsidy of gun licences and is somewhat unimpressed by BASC’s ‘argument’ from those who give ‘specially bred poultry a terrifying…

Dear Tony

Dear Tony I’m really glad that you are taking over the hot seat at NE. Best of luck with it. And you certainly don’t need any advice from me, but… Your job is really about nature – but you’ll have to deal with a bunch of interest groups on the way – some of them…

I hope you had a good weekend

The last four days have been wonderful – time spent with family, time spent sitting in the garden and time spent with Spring nature. This is a time of arrivals – the emergence of butterflies, the flowering of plants and the growing mix of songs in the dawn chorus. Here are some of my weekend…

April British Wildlife

The latest British Wildlife arrived in the post on Thursday – and if it had been a wet Bank Holiday weekend it would have been read by now! But the weather has been glorious so I’ve only dipped into it. My column, written six weeks ago, is about legal challenges and Wild Justice. I write…

Paul Leyland – Red-breasted Carrion Beetle

Paul writes: I found this beetle a few days ago along the River Derwent at Weldrake Ings in Yorkshire. It was sitting on an old log, possibly looking for a mate. It’s a Red-breasted Carrion Beetle (Oiceoptoma thoracicum), which is fairly easy to identify once you get close to it. A very distinctive beetle, with…

Sunday book review – Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness

This is a redemptive story – of how the author recovered from a pit of despond and how nature helped him to make that transition. Chapter 1 is very moving and although getting the low-down on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Generalised Anxiety Disorder may not sound like a rattling good yarn it is a good…

Tim Melling – Tibetan Macaque

Tim writes: This is a male Tibetan Macaque, sometimes known as Milne-Edwards’  or Chinese Stump-tailed Macaque (Macaca thibetana).  They are the largest species of Macaque and occur mainly in Eastern Tibet and Western China.  He was watching over his harem of females when I took this and did not like me stopping to take his…