Alick Simmons is a veterinarian, naturalist and photographer. After a period in private practice, he followed a 35-year career as a Government veterinarian, latterly as the UK Government’s Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer. Alick’s lifelong passion is wildlife; he volunteers for the RSPB and NE in Somerset, is chair of the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare,…
BLOG POSTS
Coul Links crowdfunder
I like it when conservation organisations work together on important issues – here’s one. The Save Coul Links Conservation Coalition was formed by Buglife, Butterfly Conservation Scotland, Marine Conservation Society, National Trust for Scotland, Plantlife, RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust to help save Coul Links – an internationally important wildlife site, protected by…
Guest blog – Toad Rage 2 by Paul Sterry
This guest blog is an update to last week’s blog about carnage on a Hampshire road as passing cars kill passing toads, frogs and newts. The rescue team at work: counting amphibia and moving them to safety. Photo: Rob Read – Nature Photographers Ltd. In Hampshire, the run of mainly dry and chilly evenings continued…
Paul Leyland – Eriozona syrphoides
Paul writes: This was my favourite hoverfly sighting of last year, it was a first for me, it’s also one of the charismatic species that you hope to see in the right location. Eriozona syrphoides is a wonderfully furry bumblebee mimic with a black and white body and a yellow face. It is quite a…
Sunday book review – Rebirding by Benedict Macdonald
This book is a ‘Must read’ and a ‘Good read’ but not necessarily a ‘Must agree with’ type of book. By which I mean that it is well written and has the right mixture of interesting facts and well-explained views mixed in with a few areas where I thought (you might not) ‘Hang on, I…
Tim Melling – Red-billed Leiothrix
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Tim writes: This attractive bird lives in forests in the Himalayas and Southern China. It was once a common cagebird and I saw my first ever one in Britain several decades ago, when it went by the name of Pekin Robin. But it isn’t related to Robins. It is in the Laughingthrush family, but it…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Birdwatch wrapper good enough to eat?
The wrapper on my March Birdwatch magazine looked different… and it is. I’m glad to see that Birdwatch alongside many other magazines, but far from all of them, has switched away from plastic wrappers and, in this case, to potato starch. Good for them! And although I am sure that the managing editor, Dominic Mitchell…
Long-serving Defra minister George Eustice resigns
George Eustice has resigned from the government and from his post as Minister of State in Defra. That post is more senior than Therese Coffey as a Parliamentary Under Secretary and less senior than Michael Gove as Secretary of State. Eustice has been a Defra minister since October 2013 – an exceptionally long time (first…
Guest blog – FC and hunts by Jack Riggall
Jack Riggall is an independent hunt monitor and anti-hunting campaigner. Fox hunting, in the last few years, seems to be an activity of increasing interest to the media as well as social media which has helped voluntary activists to document the reality for the wider public to see. In the midst of all this, the…