Dear Mr Pursglove, First, congratulations on your promotion to Minister of State at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice. As your colleagues resigned in droves I wondered whether you would be one of the few remaining government ministers. I am writing to you about an endangered bird called the Woodcock. It’s a wading bird,…
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Defra fails nature – in the big things and the little things
If Defra were a school it would be judged inadequate, would be served a notice to improve and be put in special measures. But it isn’t, so it jogs on as the government department near the bottom of the political pecking order and with few friends in government or in the real world. Defra sprung…
Bird/poultry flu on Today today
Comments Off on Bird/poultry flu on Today today
Good to hear more about bird/poultry flu on this morning’s Today programme. ‘Patchy’ does seem to be the word, which will make any biologist’s antennae start wiggling – what is the cause of the variation? But note that the patchiness has some pretty big chasms. Gannets down by ‘up to 25% in some colonies’ –…
Press release – Wild Moors and League Against Cruel Sports
Natural England restricts gamebird shooting on Thornton Moor. Fresh doubt has been cast over the future of the controversial game bird shoot on Yorkshire Water’s land at Thornton Moor after Natural England has refused permission for a significant part of the operation. The government’s habitats watchdog has said in a decision notice issued to Yorkshire…
Farming Today about 10 years out of date
I enjoyed the piece on Farming Today this morning where a farm was monitored for 10 years and by sensible application of agri-environment schemes its farmland birds increased and remained as profitable as farms around it. That’s obviously good news. And it appears to be a good replicate of the findings at the RSPB’s Hope…