Our e-petition to ask the Westminster government to ban driven grouse shooting, reached 20,000 signatures last night. That took less than two and a half months. Last year, the similar e-petition took six and a half months to reach the same milestone. And remember, this has been done by you and me, and 19,998 others…
BLOG POSTS
Oscar Dewhurst – Bittern and Marsh Harrier
Oscar writes: When I spent some time at Minsmere in the spring of 2014 one of the things I saw but never managed to photograph was the confrontations between Bitterns and Marsh Harriers. Whenever a Marsh Harrier hunting over the reed bed happened to pass near a Bittern’s nest the latter would shoot up out…
Let’s get a debate in parliament!
I’m grateful to the ‘TeamforNature’ (on Twitter @MMNNActionUK) for setting up a thunderclap in support of the idea of getting a debate in the Westminster parliament on the future of driven grouse shooting. You can add your name to this thunderclap if you have a Twitter, Facebook and/or tumblr social media account. Then, provided we…
Sunday book review – Natural Capital by Dieter Helm
This is a book written by an eminent economist who is also passionately interested in wildlife. There may be lots of such people but I haven’t met many of them. And Professor Dieter Helm has been since 2012, the chair of the Natural Capital Committee in England. The author states in his preface that ‘The…
Cambridge fails to learn to live with nature
Do you remember our attempt to persuade Cambridge University not to build a new boatyard on valuable wildlife land at Ely (see here, here, here, here)? Well, we didn’t exactly win that one, but have you noticed that since then Cambridge has lost all three men’s Boat Races? And all three women’s Boat Races? And…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Please have a look at Ralph’s new website.
A rapid response from the NHM
Dear Mark, Thank you for your email. The Museum is currently consulting on plans for a redevelopment of its grounds, from Exhibition Road in the East, along the front of the main Waterhouse building, and on the West from Cromwell Road to the northern extremity of the site (Museum Lane). The plan currently under consultation…
And another review of Inglorious
There’s a long review of Inglorious in October’s British Birds, by Chris Smout. ‘impassioned’ ‘singularly well-informed’ ‘the evidence he [that’s me] marshals for the deleterious effects of driven grouse shooting is impressive’ Where the good professor parts company with me is in my solution to the problems of driven grouse shooting, which of course,…
Guest Blog – NHM threatens wildlife (garden) by Peter Marren
How many of you, I wonder, have visited the wildlife garden, nestled in the western corner of the grounds of the Natural History Museum? I must admit I hadn’t until last week, and was amazed at what I found. Created exactly twenty years ago as the Museum’s ‘first living exhibition’, it boasts a miniature chalk…
Another record month for this blog
September was a record month for this blog (despite being of 30 days). It was the second month in a row to exceed 100,000 page views – 102,129 – just slightly lower than August 2015’s total. But in terms of unique users, the 23,311 surpasses all previous totals (previous highest June 2014 22,238). In September…