Sunday book review – Meadow by Iain Parkinson and Jim Holden

This is a sumptuous-looking book – truly beautiful. The photographs, by Jim Holden, are gorgeous. It’s a pleasure to flick through the pages, except that one doesn’t flick, one doesn’t want to miss any of them so even in a quick look through the book one finds oneself turning each page carefully. Iain Parkinson is…

Sunday book review – A Haven for Farmland Birds by John Meed

  This book is about the author’s patch where he walks regularly and studies the farmland birds that it contains – especially the Grey Partridges and Corn Buntings.  The site is on the southern edge of Cambridge and from reading the book it seems as though I have passed it several times on trains. Next…

Bird/poultry/avian flu is having a serious conservation impact

These two RSPB videos begin to bring home the potential seriousness of the bird/poultry flu outbreak that is affecting seabirds not just in Shetland, and not just in the UK, but in coastal areas in the Netherlands and Norway too.  It seems very likely that through this summer we will learn that the impacts are…

Guest blog – How a suppressed BTO report became published as a ‘joint’ BTO/NE study by Dominic Woodfield

  Dominic Woodfield is the Managing Director of Bioscan, a long established and well-respected consultancy specialising in applied ecology. He is a life-long birder, a specialist in botany, habitat restoration and creation and in protected fauna including bats, herpetofauna and other species. He is also a highly experienced practitioner in Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitats…