High Peak is a marginal which has been the seat of Conservative Andrew Bingham (see here for some information about his voting record) since he won it from Labour in 2010. Mr Bingham asked a question about the publication of the Hen Harrier non-joint non-plan back in November 2014: To ask the Secretary of State…
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Home thoughts from Mark Avery abroad
HOME THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD Oh, to be in England Now that April ‘s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England—now! Robert Browning, of course. …
Henry visits Dersingham Bog NNR
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Dersingham Bog eh? You be careful! Have you read Fighting for Birds pp196-202? #HaveYouSeenHenry?
Green Party manifesto – the call for a peaceful revolution
I guess we’d expect the Greens to know something about green issues so it is reassuring that they do. After the Conservatives treated the countryside as the place that their mates own where they go to kill things at the weekend, and Labour treated it as the place which the Tories own where there are…
Blackbirds
Do you remember this ivy in my garden? I never did get around to cutting any of it. Now it has a pair of Blackbirds nesting in it. That’s nice! And there is a pair of Blue Tits taking moss and feathers into the RSPB nestbox which is a new feature of the garden too…
Conservative manifesto – they forgot the countryside too
I’m really rather surprised. Five years ago the Conservative manifesto was streets ahead of the others in its treatment of rural, wildlife and some environmental issues. That doesn’t mean I agreed with it, but one could see that someone, somewhere, had given it some thought. I was expecting the same this time around, and I…
Henry is in Norfolk!
Henry – you be careful in those parts! I hope you know what you are doing. #HaveYouSeenHenry?
Uncoiling Spring
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I’ve been at Stanwick Lakes each morning for the last four and although Spring still has plenty of tension in it, it is beginning to unwind. Over the past four mornings Sedge Warblers have moved from absent (to my ears) to occasional, to all over the place and everywhere I would expect them to be….
Hear hear! Hare hare!
Ten wildlife and conservation organisations are calling on the Scottish Government to impose a three year ban on all Mountain Hare culling on grouse moors until safeguards are in place to inform sustainable management, and to meet international conservation obligations. The organisations are: Highland Foundation for Wildlife John Muir Trust National Trust for Scotland RSPB…
The curse of the Otter strikes again
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 Cambridge has lost all three men’s Boat Races since? And all three women’s Boat Races? And…