On the day when the Scottish Government’s review of regulation of gamebird hunting across Europe is published (I will blog about this tomorrow – I’ll read it between rugby matches today) it is worth noting that Chris Packham’s e-petition asking for a moratorium on shooting of seriously declining wader species has passed the signature total…
BLOG POSTS
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
And Mark adds: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke
Halesworth
Comments Off on Halesworth
Isn’t Suffolk lovely? I spoke at The Cut in Suffolk on Tuesday evening to the Waveney Bird Club and anyone else who wanted to come along. As is often the case with my talks, there was one shooting enthusiast looking, I have to say, a bit sour and taking notes as I spoke. I wonder…
One for the #sodden570
Wow! Though this looks wetter really! And this looks drier!
Socio-economics of grouse shooting
A masters student at Harper Adams is investigating the socio-economics of grouse shooting with an online survey that appears to be open to anyone but seems to be mostly circulated among gamekeepers on Facebook! Call me cynical if you like, but I just wonder whether this might emerge at some future date as ‘a detailed…
Caring Tories
The Countryside Alliance seems to think that it owns the Conservative Party – I’ve sometimes wondered the same. The Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation has issued a manifesto for the future which calls for ‘an inquiry into commercial driven shoots’ and calls for ‘a review of the industry of shooting live birds for sport shooting’. I…
Heroes and villains
The RSPB is celebrating the success of its long term Stone Curlew recovery project at the moment. And so it should, as the Stone Curlew was heading for extinction in the UK before the RSPB got involved. The recovery of this bird, which will always remain localised in its distribution because it is quite fussy…
Champions of the Flyway
Comments Off on Champions of the Flyway
Guest blog – Save the Dukes of the North York Moors by Steve Bamford
Steve Bamford writes: I am an amateur naturalist and volunteer recorder/worker of Butterfly Conservation. This is a plea for donations, no matter how small, to save an iconic species of butterfly that is just holding on after years of decline in an area where it used to be…
John Muir
I was in Edinburgh over the weekend and took a trip out to Dunbar to see where John Muir grew up. The house with a very good display about his life and achievements used to be the grain store next to the house where he lived (which is big, and for sale if you fancy…