Colin Bibby recruited me to the RSPB – for which I will always be grateful (and the story of that is in Fighting for Birds p 30). Colin passed away 13 years ago, and is still missed by those of us who worked with him, his other friends, and of course relations. As his gravestone…
BLOG POSTS
Thunderous Findlay Wilde
A social media thunderclap is a device where a single message is sent out to the social media contacts of everyone who signs up. So if you follow me, @markavery, on Twitter, or if you are my friend on Facebook, then you will get this message at 09:30 on 12 August: ‘I want to see…
Oscar Dewhurst – Purple Heron
Comments Off on Oscar Dewhurst – Purple Heron
Oscar writes: While in the Doñana National Park we spent some time around the marshes by the visitor centre looking for some of the birds the area is known for, such as the White-headed Duck. One bird we saw many of was the Purple Herons, which were everywhere! This one flew past at close range,…
Sunday book review – Bowland Beth by David Cobham
I very much enjoyed David Cobham’s previous book on raptors, A Sparrowhawk’s Lament. This new, slim offering has many of the same features that made that book such a pleasure to read; a love of raptors, a selection of anecdotes and a range of snippets of conversations with others involved in the subject. But this…
Tim Melling – Willow Tit
Tim writes: In 1897 two German Ornithologists (Ernst Hartert and Otto Kleinschmidt) were looking through a series of Marsh Tits in the British Museum when they spotted a couple of Willow Tits that had been wrongly labelled. The same year some fresh specimens were collected in Coalfell Wood, Finchley and three years later Willow…
An Unreliable History of Birdwatching (16) by Paul Thomas
Previous episodes: An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (1) An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (5) An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (6) An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (13) An Unreliable History of Birdwatching by Paul Thomas (15) Paul’s website
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Ralph has had hundreds of cartoons on this site since April 2013. What do you think of them overall?
Responding to PDNP consultation – some hints
The Peak District National Park wants to know what you think – so you should tell them. This is the consultation document and this is the 52-question questionnaire. Here’s a tip: if you are planning on responding then it’s a good idea to open these two things in two separate tabs so that you can…
Pallid Harriers nest successfully in The Netherlands
The first nesting of Pallid Harriers in western Europe has occurred in the Netherlands this year, and the birds have fledged four young (all females). The birds were discovered by Willem-Pier Vellinga, a volunteer of the Dutch Montagu’s Harrier Foundation. This successful nesting of a rare species is only now being publicised at the…
Guest blog – The Somerset Lakes and Meres by ‘Messi’
Messi is a pseudonym. He has worked on flood risk and water level management and nature conservation in the UK and overseas, advised farmers on agri-environment schemes and, most recently, has worked on community-led, nature-based tourism development in SE Europe and SE Asia. The heat of the day was freshened somewhat by a cooling breeze…