My milk comes from a milkman (or milkperson) and arrives on my doorstep. But it comes from cows before then. Which cows? When my house was built in 1899 I imagine there were milk deliveries (were there?) but of a very different nature. I imagine that the distance between my house and the cow that…
BLOG POSTS
Tim Melling – Little Forktail
Forktails are a family of birds native to SE Asia that inhabit rivers and streams. I have seen several different species (always a treat to see) but the Little Forktail surprised me by being really tiny. Also it does not have the exaggeratedly forked tail that the others have. In fact its scientific name Enicurus…
Tracking the Midhope moor case – Peak District
Long-term readers of this blog may remember this case in the Peak District National Park from May 2016. This track was constructed in 2015 without planning permission but funded by Natural England despite it being in an SPA, SAC and SSSI. In 2016 the estate applied for retrospective planning permission and over 180 of…
An eagle called Fred
Press release: Golden eagle persecution 7 miles from Scotland’s Parliament? A young satellite-tagged golden eagle has disappeared in highly suspicious circumstances in the Pentland Hills, just seven miles from the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh. The eagle had hatched at a nest site in the Scottish Borders in 2017 and last June, in cooperation…
Wuthering moors (60) – Calderdale losing track (2)
Following a widespread inability to find a planning application for half a track on the Calderdale planning portal – despite there being an application for the other half on the Pendle planning portal – I made my second phone call to Calderdale Council (01422 392237) and had a nice chat with another woman and then…
Wuthering moors (59) – Calderdale losing track
It is still impossible to see the planning application made for a damaging track across blanket bog on the Walshaw Moor Estate on the Calderdale Council side of the boundary. Several others have tried and failed too. We are told that the planning reference number is 18/40002/AGR but this fails to work when entered into…
Boris sneers at environmental protection
It was an interesting decision to choose Boris Johnson, one of the most distrusted politicians in a distrusted government, to ‘reach out’ to us all over Brexit in a divisive speech entitled ‘Uniting for a Great Brexit‘. Did it work for you? Here is one passsage: ‘We can simplify planning, and speed up public procurement,…
Brood meddling – a potential legal challenge (or two)
Anyone seeking to mount a judicial review of NE’s decision to issue a licence for brood managment on Hen Harriers this year (see here and here) has a couple of months to get it sorted. We, that’s me and some mates, have been exploring this option seriously, and still are. I should be meeting a…
A White-letter day for Scotland
A declining butterfly may have started breeding in Scotland for the first time in 130 years, after eggs were discovered by amateur naturalists, Butterfly Conservation (BC) has confirmed. A handful of White-letter Hairstreak eggs were found on Wych Elm trees at Lennel near Coldstream, Berwickshire, on Sunday 4 February. The discovery comes after Borders Butterfly…
The Labour Animal Welfare plan
The Labour Party has today published its animal welfare plan. It’s pretty good. Things that some will like (and others will hate) include: expanding the definition of animal to include decapod crustaceans and cephalopods prohibit the third-party sale of puppies establish a full-time zoo inspectorate mandatory labelling of meat to include country of origin and…