Wake up Lib Dems!!

Here are two maps. The first looks like the fairly familiar map of signatures for banning driven grouse shooting although to make it a bit more comparable with the second map it is the slightly different ‘% of constituents signing for a ban of driven grouse shooting’.  And the second is the LibDem share of…

Tim Melling – Goshawk

  Tim writes:  Goshawks are quite a difficult bird to see and photograph in Britain.  The closely related Sparrowhawk also provides an identification pitfall but this is the genuine article.  Curiously I have never heard of anyone mistaking a Goshawk for a Sparrowhawk, only the other way round.  It is one of those birds that…

Grouse shooting demonstrates lack of public support

The e-petition in support of grouse shooting has now closed – but it actually fizzled our ages ago. It scrabbled together 15 thousand signatures and had the richer parts of London as its most enthusiastic areas of support. We can regard it as having been supported by a network of land agents and their masters…

Guest blog – Evidence, Experts and Effectiveness in Conservation by Claire Wordley

Claire Wordley works on the Conservation Evidence project, with an emphasis on getting people to use the available science in conservation – and to test their own conservation interventions. Say hi at @ConservEvidence     Evidence, Experts and Effectiveness in Conservation. Evidence in conservation  covers a multitude of possibilities. A beautifully produced map showing species…

Guest blog – Bird Therapy – the book by Joe Harkness

  Joe Harkness writes about the therapeutic benefits of birdwatching on his Bird Therapy blog and Twitter page @BirdTherapy           In July, Chris Packham and a team of experts are embarking on a nationwide bioblitz of 50 wildlife sites over ten days. The tagline of the campaign is that nature reserves…

Sunday book review – On the Moor by Richard Carter

  This is a lovely book.  I really enjoyed it – partly, I suspect, because I have a similar sense of humour to that of the author and also because I am generally curious about life. The author goes for walks on the moors above Hebden Bridge (yes those moors) and his mind wanders widely,…