I had missed this news until I saw it on Twitter just now – thanks to @StephenMoss_TV. Great news! There is nothing else that needs to be said.
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New Chair of EAC
Huw Irranca-Davies, former Defra Minister and former shadow minister, was today elected as chair of the Environmental Audit Committee (following the stepping down at the last general election of the excellent Joan Walley). Huw, once voted 48th sexiest man in Wales (nowhere near as sexy as the Hen Harrier of course) follows a class act…
A place called Invercauld
Henry parked in a layby somewhere between the River Dee and the River Don – I believe that this may be part of the Invercauld Estate. This area seemed to have very few birds and the usual large rectangular patches were burned into the hills. It wasn’t very pretty and Henry looks a bit unimpressed…
African vultures plummet in numbers – new study shows
In a paper published today in the scientific journal Conservation Letters, scientists say African vultures are likely to qualify as ‘Critically Endangered’ under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s global threat criteria. The study indicates that Africa’s vultures are declining at rates of between 70% and 97% over three generations; a time interval used…
BBS second visits
I completed the second visits to my two BBS squares the weekend before last. Each passed without huge incident. On my first square it was a rather low species total over the two visits, but last year was the highest ever so not much of a trend there. I was glad that there were still…
The military career of Jacob the goose.
Since it is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, where the Coldstream Guards fought with gallantry that day at Hougoumont Farm, it seems fitting to recall the military career of Jacob the goose, also of the Coldstream Guards. In 1839 the Coldstream Guards were sent to Quebec in our colony in Canada. There,…
Glen Tanar – Henry is impressed
Glen Tanar – great place. And a man cycles past without giving Henry a second glance. I don’t think there have been any Hen Harriers at Glen Tanar for a while but when I visited in 2011, I was impressed by what was happening there. I talked to Colin McLean who was then the estate…
Thirteen years old
I wrote a Guest Blog for my young friend Findlay Wilde – have a look at it. This is me at the age of thirteen holding a trophy that I and a companion had won in the Under -14 (but Over-12) age category in a schools competition run by WWT at Slimbridge. I was handed…
M&S
Dear Marc Bolland Just a recap really in case you are thinking of selling red grouse meat in your shops this year. Some things that have happened since your excellent decision not to see red grouse meat in your shops last year: I started shopping at M&S again governments, including the EU (and including the…
Henry goes to Dinnet – were you driving past?
We’d just been to Balmoral (oops! – haven’t told you about that one yet) and this place seemed to ring a bell or two so we stopped to have a look and a photo. I’ve noticed, because it’s me taking the photos, that there is a difference between how men and women react as they…