It’s fitting, in a way, that on the day when Gavin Gamble writes here, movingly, about why he set up his e-petition, the rival e-petition which emanates from nineteenth century thinking makes a big leap forward. It’s now only 16,419 signatures behind Gavin’s and there’s a long time to go – longer for the rival…
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Guest blog – Ban driven grouse shooting by Gavin Gamble
Gavin Gamble is a thirty-something Naturalist, Environmentalist and occasional ink-slinger currently studying Natural Biology and Environmental Science with the Open University alongside full time employment. He is also the author of the latest petition to ban driven grouse shooting from our uplands. I suspect many of Mark’s regular readers readers will…
Wild food (19) – Hedgehog Fungus by Ian Carter
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The feature that gives this fungus its name is both a godsend and a pain in the neck. The mass of spines on the underside, instead of the more usual gills or pores, make this otherwise rather nondescript species virtually impossible to confuse with anything else. So, if you are relatively new to foraging and…
Climate change and birds revisited
Last week I was thinking a bit about climate change and birds and thought I’d had a good idea. And I had had a good idea – it’s just that others had had it too and published a paper on it two years ago! The good idea was to look at the ‘envisaged potential’ bird…
Kittiwakes
Blue Planet blues? Think of the Kittiwake. This really is a ‘sea’ gull – the most marine of all our gulls. It’s a classy looking bird with its black legs and ‘dipped in ink’ wing tips, smooth elegant grey plumage and friendly, intelligent and coquettish look. A strong contender for the Audrey Hepburn of the…
18,847 ahead
Yesterday was the last day of the grouse shooting season for 2017 – Gavin Gamble’s e-petition seeks to make that cessation a permanent one and following yesterday’s thunderclap his e-petition is approaching 19,000 signatures and the list of ’50-signature’ constituencies has reached 64 constituencies (last week – 51). Each of these constituencies has more signatures…
Bye bye Blue Planet
Yesterday evening was the last of the seven episodes of Blue Planet 2 – I’ll miss it next week. This closing episode addressed sideways on, if not completely head on, the fact that we are screwing the planet. It was a brave attempt which was partly successful. ‘There is hope’ appeared to be the message…
Paul Leyland – Bee Wolf
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Paul writes: This solitary wasp is a pretty fearsome looking beast, especially if you are a honey bee. Females are estimated to collect over 100 bees, mainly honey bees, during their flight period between July and mid-August. Thirty years ago in the UK the Bee-Wolf (Philanthus triangulum) was restricted to a few locations in…
Thunderclap imminent
This thunderclap is about to send its message to over 3 million social media accounts and spread the message about why intensive grouse moor management should be no more. It goes out at 3pm. If you are on Facebook or Twitter you can add your voice and spread the word. Thunderous supporters include the Guardian…
Some books
It is around now that this blog would normally list its books of the year, but this year you’ll have to wait until the very end of the year for that list. However, it is surely worth noting that this Christmas, and every other day from now on, there is quite a choice of books…