An account of the Birds of the Huddersfield District was written in 1915 by Huddersfield man Seth Lister Mosley and is one of the most important books in the history of local and national ornithology. However, it is very rare and little known outside specialist circles, but is full of interest for a present day…
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KOS it makes sense!
I spoke at the Kent Ornithological Society’s conference in Canterbury on Saturday. I’d like to thank the organisers for inviting me and laying on a great day for us all. The road to Canterbury passes too close to Rainham Marshes to ignore them (and a Cattle Egret or two), and too close to Gravesend not…
Guest blog – the launch of Revive by Robbie Marsland
For the past 30 years Robbie has had a background in social change. He has held senior management roles in campaigns on the issues of homelessness, human rights, international development and animal welfare. He has been the Director of the League against Cruel Sports Scotland for the past four years and for six years before…
Paul Leyland – the Perfect Hoverfly
Paul writes: I gave this name to the hoverfly because it hasn’t got a common English name and it’s my favourite. The Latin name is Chrysotoxum bicinctum, which also has a nice ring to it. Why is it perfect? It’s a nice size, a wing length of up to 10mm and a chunky body so…
Sunday book review – Climate Change and British Wildlife by Trevor Beebee
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This is an appropriately weighty book on a portentous subject. It is very attractively produced with many photographs of wildlife, habitats and people and a fine looking jacket by Carry Akroyd (although the jacket on my copy is slightly ill-fitting). The index is very good but the reference list is rather shorter than I expected….
Tim Melling – Lesser Whitethroat
Tim writes: Not your classic full-on bird portrait but this is the kind of view you tend to get of Lesser Whitethroat. This was really difficult to capture through a tiny gap in the foliage. They usually skulk about in bushes unless you catch them singing in the spring. This one was collecting insects to…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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NE ‘compliance’ and information requests
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I sent this to NE this morning; The ICO guidance to public bodies on Time Limits for Compliance states that bodies such as NE should be able ‘account for, and justify, the length of time taken to meet the obligation’ when the ‘authority complies close to, or on, the final day of the 20 working…
A response from NE
Here is a response from NE to an information request from myself to follow up an earlier one. We discover not very much in the first answer, and that the MoU has not been renewed a year after it expired from the second answer. This is another example of an information request, a pretty straight…
Bowland’s burning
This image, from a walker, shows moorland burning a few days ago on Forest of Bowland grouse moors. This burn was on the slopes of Conder Head. Now, the Duke of Westminster’s Abbeystead Estate has signed up to the voluntary agreement not to burn blanket bog – so was this a transgression? According to this…