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…
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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…
RSPB press release – another missing Hen Harrier
Vulcan – another missing Hen Harrier, presumed dead. A young male hen harrier has disappeared in suspicious circumstances in Wiltshire and is believed most likely to be dead. The harrier, named Vulcan, was one of five chicks to fledge from a nest in Northumberland last summer. He was fitted with a satellite tag as part…
Preston
I spoke to an audience of 160 folk in a church in Preston on Monday evening. I enjoyed it. There were some familiar faces in the audience (some raptor workers, some RSPB staff, some birders, some regular readers of and commenters on this blog and some BASC staff). It made the evening more interesting to…
Restoration burning is a myth
An open access paper in Biodiversity and Conservation looks at the burning of blanket bogs. Its Abstract ends with these words, More frequent burning will result in a greater proportion of land in the early post-burning stages, potentially resulting in a thinner moss layer, more bare peat and less healthy Sphagnum, with potential consequences for…