Almost a year ago, a group of scientists met in Oxford to review the evidence for lead impacts on people and wildlife. The shooting organisations were invited and almost to a man, showed their lack of interest in the science of this subject, and boycotted the event. Is it possible they spent the day looking…
BLOG POSTS
Ask your MP to do something
By chance, the three main MPs in the Peak District are from three different political parties: Andrew Bingham, High Peak, Con; Nick Clegg, Sheffield Hallam, Lib Dem; and Angela Smith, Penistone and Stockbridge, Lab. If one of these is your MP then why not write and tell them how upset you are about the lack…
The Sandford Principle
I am very fond of the people who comment on this blog – most of them anyway. There is so much knowledge, and humour, and different perspectives that I learn a lot. Sometimes you just make me smile and sometimes you provide nuggets of information. Yesterday, Richard Wilson, a frequent and valued commenter here, pointed…
Just go back and read the comments…
…on this Guest Blog by Prof Sir John Lawton about the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s plans for a visitor centre at Spurn Point. What a lot of comments – and most of them are against the idea. But most of the Likes/Dislikes are ‘Likes’ for the blog. I wonder how many of the ‘Likes’ are from…
Peak trough
The Peak District National Park is failing badly in being a refuge for protected birds of prey. Our National Parks are wildlife crime hotspots because we allow game shooting to dominate the ecology of so many of them. After five years of ‘co-operation’, when ‘everyone’ was working collaboratively to increase bird of prey numbers, the…
Not mere
I was at Martin Mere over the weekend – and very nice it was too. I saw flocks, gaggles, herds, wisps, springs, flings, paddles, plumps, omnisciences (yes, really!), deserts, a small exaltation, doadings, skeins and flights – but what is the collective noun for lots of your birding friends? Because it was a great place…
Big Story on Friday evening
I’m looking forward to attending the Big Story event on Friday at the Natural History Museum. It’s a live, staged adaptation of the Natural Histories radio series and of the book reviewed here a while ago. With Rory Bremner, Tamsin Greig, and a host of stuffed animals (?) involved, it’s bound to be a good…
Guest blog – Protecting the knackered by Jean-Luc Solandt
Jean-Luc Solandt is a marine biologist struggling to get out of a policy expert. He worked on coral reef ecology for 15 years, providing diving survey data for the creation of Marine Protected Areas. He’s been working in the UK at the Marine Conservation Society for over 13 years on developing networks of MPAs, making…
Oscar Dewhurst – Steller’s Jay
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Oscar writes: While hiking around Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park we came across this gorgeous Steller’s Jay feeding in some conifer trees. Fortunately it didn’t seem bothered by me trying to creep up on it, and happily carried on feeding, letting me take some photos of it. Nikon D800, Nikon 600mm f/4 AF-S…
Sunday book review – The Man who made things out of Trees by Robert Penn
I liked this book. It’s about Ash trees and what you can make out of their wood. It’s a simple enough idea but it takes the author, Robert Penn, to many parts of the UK , Europe and America and he meets a variety of interesting craftsmen on his journeys. Baseball bats, cricket stumps and…