This is the smallest, least consequential, big announcement you will ever see. Alex Sayer claims that she has been working with some of ‘the top people in government’ to launch a new group at the Tory Party Conference in Manchester (aka ‘the end of the line’ conference). She claims that she has got friends –…
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BSBI press release – Autumn Lady’s-tresses found in Northern Ireland.
The elegant and beautiful Autumn Lady’s-tresses, Spiranthes spiralis, an exquisite orchid with a delicate spiral of flowers, has been discovered for the first time in Northern Ireland – by a young botanist out walking with his mum! Jake Dalzell, a third-year plant ecology student at University of Cambridge, was out walking with his mum Judith…
Sunday book review – Sea Mammals by Annalisa Berta
I was in two minds about whether to say yes to the publisher about sending me this book as I’m no expert on marine issues – but obviously I’m interested. The three things that persuaded me were (in no particular order); the cover (looks serious and beautiful), the words ‘past and present’ in the subtitle…
Sunday book review – The Painted Lady by Elvira Werkman and Maxime Beck
This is a smallish book, Ladybird book in size, of 80 pages, over 20 of which are occupied by Maxime Beck’s attractive illustrations. The text, by Elvira Werkman, covers a lot of ground very clearly in such a short space. I read most of the book, with pleasure, in one sitting. There is a useful…
Sunday book review – Call of the Kingfisher by Nick Penny
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This book is set a few miles from where I live – down the River Nene a few miles – around Oundle. The author makes regular walks, through the calendar year, and covers quite a lot of ground beside the river near his home. He sees much of the local Kingfishers, but much more besides….
Sunday book review – Nature’s Calendar by Kiera Chapman et al.
This book takes the Japanese view of many mini-seasons of a few days and fits it to the natural rhythms of UK wildlife. It’s close to an approach tried before by Lev Parikian (Light Rains Sometimes Fall – reviewed here) but in my view, it’s done even more successfully here. The four authors took the…
Sunday book review – Earth by Chris Packham and Andrew Cohen
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This is the book of the series – and I loved the 5-episode TV series. But the TV series moved around the world and moved us back in time through hundreds of millions of years and explored our home through a liberal use of moving computer generated images. All that moving – it’s what television…
Sunday book review – The Purple Sandpiper by Ron Summers
This is a wonderful book and it will undoubtedly be one of my top-10 books of the year for 2023. It is a self-published account of studies of this species, many of them led or enabled by the book’s author. And he did all this alongside his actual work being a research scientist in various…
Nah George, it doesn’t add up. More on LIARgate.
I would rarely differ from George Monbiot but I will here because I think he is probably wrong, and I am probably right. In his piece in The Guardian yesterday George essentially writes what people were saying a week ago – that the RSPB caved in to political pressure and one of their trustees, with…
The week when sewage hit the fan
There has been a certain amount of interest in the government’s proposals to opt out of protections for water bodies this week. Quite a lot of the interest has been because of a tweet (see above) put out by the RSPB, or part of the RSPB, or at least someone in the RSPB, but we’ll…