This is the companion book to the recent TV series. Reading its pages didn’t really take me back to the wonderful moving images of the TV episodes and, I’m afraid, it didn’t take me on very far. There are many great images, and quite a few moving passages of words, but it seemed to me…
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Guest blog – The Geese will tell it in Autumn by Vanessa Wright
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Vanessa divides her time between Hertfordshire and the Hebrides and loves to write about birds, butterflies and beachcombing. She gave up corporate life during the pandemic, taking the plunge to follow her passion for wildlife. Recently finishing a Masters in Nature and Travel Writing, she has been announced as a Runner-Up in the BBC Countryfile…
Sunday book review – The Return of the Grey Partridge by Roger Morgan-Grenville and Edward Norfolk
This is the story of the recovery of Grey Partridge on the Duke of Norfolk’s land at Peppering on the South Downs (that’s Arundel Castle on the cover). It is a beautifully written tale (by Roger Morgan-Grenville) of a successful species recovery project based on the landowner’s enthusiasm for having a wild partridge shoot for…
Thoughts on the RSPB AGM
I attended the RSPB’s online AGM on Saturday. It was slick, a bit uplifting, but not entirely satisfactory and not entirely convincing. Amir Khan was a very cheery President and looked entirely natural in that position. Kevin Cox (Chair) and Beccy Speight (CEO) also said good things and said them well. Nobody goofed their lines….
Sunday book review – Nature Conservation in Europe by Graham Tucker (ed).
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This is not a cheap book, nor is it a small book, but it is a very useful and impressive book. It consists of fairly standardised accounts of the approaches to and the state of nature conservation across 26 countries, 25 of which are still members of the European Union (Luxembourg and Malta…
Sunday book review – Terns of North America by Cameron Cox
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There are 19 species of tern (if you count a couple of noddies and a skimmer, as this book does) in North America. I’ve seen all but one of these species (Aleutian Tern) somewhere or other, and almost all of them in North America, but also almost all of them in Europe and almost all…
Sunday book review – Yellowstone’s Birds by Douglas Smith et al.
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I’ve been to Yellowstone twice, and spent about a dozen days there so I’m hardly an expert but I can tell you that few people go there to see the birds. We all go there to see geysers (and the wonderful Grand Prismatic Spring), Grizzly Bears, Black Bears, Grey Wolves, Moose and Bison. But…
Anglian Water respond
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I wrote to Anglian Water – see below in blue – and they responded very quickly. How do you think I should reply? Good morning Mr Avery Thank you for your contact and your request for information regarding sewage discharges into watercourses. Our Manager of Quality Regulation and Enforcement has advised that Storm overflows…
Dear Anglian Water
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Dear Anglian Water, I’m a customer of yours. Each year you send me a new bill for the year ahead and I glance at it, shrug, and you collect my money by direct debit. This year, you and I are going to have a little chat about that bill because I will be looking at…
Sunday book review – Diary of a Secret Royal by Henry Morris
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Not strictly, or even loosely, speaking an environmental book, but now that Henry Morris has come out as the author of this and the side-splitting predecessor Diary of a Secret Tory MP (reviewed here) you can see why it deserves a review. There is the odd word or two about wildlife and how much the…