When readers guessed at how many signatures Gavin Gamble’s e-petition would get, the carefully crafted estimates were as follows: Well, with eight and a half days to go, Louise, Nick and Philip have already lost out and Simon would need a massive slowdown to stand any chance! And that might happen as we are heading…
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Sunday book review – Chasing the Ghost by Peter Marren
I’m no botanist (have I said that before recently? – yes) but this book, had it existed decades ago, might well have won me over. Peter Marren writes with such knowledge and affection for plants, and in such a modest and winning manner that few could help wanting to be a plant spotter in this…
Tim Melling – Siberian Meadow Bunting
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Tim writes: Well I normally like to isolate my photographic subjects but this perch wasn’t quite what I had in mind for my first Siberian Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides), which is usually now known simply as Meadow Bunting. I have long been fascinated by this species which was illustrated in Thorburn’s Birds as it…
Do you say ‘Ban driven grouse shooting’?
Over the past week I have featured quotes from a couple of dozen people who have made their feelings clear that they want to see driven grouse shooting banned. Here are the links to what they said: Mark Cocker, Alan Davies, Jeremy Deller, Jon Dunn, Dominic Dyer, Brian Egan, Peter Egan, Harry Huyton, Ceri Levy, Gill…
An Unreliable History of Birdwatching (50) by Paul Thomas
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Cartoonist Paul Thomas says: ‘I’m against driven grouse shoots because of the grotesque cruelty that is being dished out in the name of ‘sport’. Anyone defending it is talking out of their butts.’ To join Paul Thomas, please sign Gavin Gamble’s e-petition which calls for a ban on driven grouse shooting.
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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Mark writes: Hen Harriers too, can’t speak out, can’t hire lawyers, can’t vote – that why we have to do it for them. They also can’t sign this e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting but you can on their behalf.
April Birdwatch – wildlife crime special
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April Birdwatch, in shops now, is a wildlife crime special with a guest editorial from Chris Packham, an article on wilful blindness by Ruth Tingay, an account of bird killing in the Lebanon by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter and an article on the work of Birders Against Wildlife Crime by Rob Sheldon. My monthly…
Norfolk and Suffolk support a ban on driven grouse shooting
East Anglia is miles away from any grouse moors but has a strong Pheasant and partridge shooting tradition. It is also an essentially rural area with a few moderately sized urban areas such as Norwich, Ipswich, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. The breakdown of signatures in support of banning…
High opposition to grouse shooting in grouse shooting areas
If driven grouse shooting were all it’s cracked up to be then you’d think that local people would be its greatest supporters. Well, they aren’t! It seems as though the inhabitants of Chelsea and Fulham are its strongest supporters – those who whizz in to a grouse moor for a while, shoot, and leave?…
Guest blog – A Natural Tree Line? by Douglas Gooday
I work as a Ranger in Aberdeenshire, where much of my time is spent delivering environmental education programmes in which I take school children out into semi-natural habitats (we don’t really have any natural habitats in the UK, hence we use the term semi-natural) and teach them about different aspects of Scotland’s ecology. In the…