Standing up for Nature
Oscar writes: this Chaffinch was singing from the top of the gorse bushes in the car park at Minsmere. I was able to find a spot to photograph it from with a tree behind it, giving a nice clean green background. Nikon D800, Nikon 600mm f/4 AF-S II, Nikon 1.4x TC Mark writes: it’s not…
Last year it took 28 days to reach 5,000 signatures on an e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. This year it has taken 6 days to get half way to the level where the government must respond. I wonder whether we could reach 10,000 signatures by Hen Harrier Day, or certainly by the Inglorious 12th?…
You should buy The Field this month – you really should (and you should buy Birdwatch every month, of course). I found ‘Bransdale’s resurgence‘ an interesting read, partly because Henry and I had visited some of the places mentioned in this article on our travels. Bransdale is a moor in the North York Moors –…
If you can’t make it to one of the growing number of Hen Harrier Day events occurring across Scotland and England in two weeks’ time then you can still add your name to the shout out for the Hen Harrier on social media by supporting our thunderclap. “We’re missing our Hen Harriers – and we…
I’ve been getting ‘phone calls and emails from friends, and from people I don’t know well, telling me that they have enjoyed reading Inglorious – conflict in the uplands, even though it isn’t officially published until Thursday – that’s 30 July. The earliest copy that I know to have been bought from a bookshop was…
Two weeks today is Hen Harrier Eve when over 250 people (but the room can hold 300 so there are a few tickets available) will gather to celebrate the Hen Harrier ahead of the Hen Harrier Day rally in the Peak District the next morning (9 August, Goyt Valley). Hen Harrier Eve – 8…
Whereas Birdwatch magazine has a ringtail Hen Harrier on its cover this month, The Field has a marvellous image of a Red Grouse on its cover. Don’t you just want to…errr…shoot it? As a graphic example of the crisis of confidence in the British grouse shooting industry, Max Hastings calls on readers of The Field…
Birdwatch magazine excels itself by putting the Hen Harrier on its front cover for its August issue (as it did last year) and featuring the plight of the Hen Harrier and Hen Harrier Day events on six pages inside the magazine including my ‘Political birder’ column, a page of information about Hen Harrier Day events…
According to the Guardian newspaper, the Expert Committee on Pesticides was told by Defra to postpone publication of minutes after refusing to back an NFU request to use banned neonicotinoids on oil seed rape. On Thursday Defra lifted the ban on use of the controversial neonicotinoid pesticides on oil seed rape seeds on an…
Occupy the butts! This one is not a million miles away from the Goyt Valley – site for the Derbyshire Hen Harrier Day rally – but on the day there will be other butt-occupying opportunities.