Who I am – Scottish with a fascination for wildlife from childhood – in lieu of formal qualifications (and not being able to flash them about!) – was on the 1990 International Youth Conservation Exchange to Hungary, was the 1993 winner of the BBC Wildlife Magazine ‘Realms of the Russian Bear’ competition and spent nearly…
BLOG POSTS
Good news on Hen Harriers
This news from Natural England is very welcome – for two main reasons. First, it is good news, and second, it is fairly informative and doesn’t look as though it was written by the shooting industry. 119 Hen Harrier chicks fledged from 49 nests (actually from the 34 successful nests, and some nests were re-nests…
RSPB press release
RSPB warns of nature disaster as Tory leadership rhetoric targets laws that protect wildlife RSPB warns that loss of vital laws that protect wildlife, and the bodies that enforce them, will result in a disaster for nature and development free for all. RSPB calls on Tory leadership candidates to urgently commit to high standards and…
Truss beats Sunak – a dead cert?
I’ve made money over the years on political betting, although I nearly got my fingers burned over Brexit and Trump but, in both cases, could see which way the wind was blowing right at the end. The largest bet I’ve ever had was on the result of the 2001 general election which looked like a…
From the Guardian, 27 June 1987
This newspaper (pages 1-2 and 31-32) has been lining a drawer since before our children were born but it relates to Nicholas Ridley’s plans to privatise the 10 regional water authorities in England and Wales, and thus was a step on the road to the mess that is water and sewerage services and their regulation…
Les faisans et les squamates – evidence from Belgium that Pheasants reduce reptile numbers.
Pheasants eating reptiles, but not simply eating them, eating them in such large numbers that they disappear from areas of ‘massive’ releases. I’m assuming that the main mechanism is from devouring the snakes and lizards rather than the other possible mechanisms but, to be fair, this study cannot distinguish mechanisms. You could say, that since…
Guest blog – Save Danes Moss by Simon Browne
Simon enjoys watching wildlife and hands-on conservation work in his spare time. Voluntary work includes being a parish councillor, which allows some championing and practical enhancement of the local environment, but he finds the battles against development that involves extensive nature destruction very frustrating, though necessary. The work of the Save Danes Moss group has…
Sunday book review – Rooted by Sarah Langford
I liked this book, which at its best is a mix of James Rebanks and Jake Fiennes at their best. It’s about farming and the changes in farming over three generations, and what might happen in future. I think the author ends up in the right place, more or less, but I wondered whether…
Sunday book review – Audubon at Sea by Christoph Irmscher and Richard J. King (eds)
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This is not a picture book, although there are plenty of Audubon’s sketches and reproductions of his finished artwork in these pages. This is a book of Audubon’s words, some of which were intended for publication and others which were more private jottings, or accounts meant for the later reading by his family. In our…
Sunday book review – Trees by Peter A. Thomas
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The New Naturalist series has become rather patchy in my view, in terms of the quality of the content and of the quality of production. This volume is a good one on both counts. It was a pleasure to look through the pages and find a wide range of informative and legible photographs, diagrams…