Natural England in a new mess with Hen Harrier data

Natural England published a skeletal version of its Hen Harrier tracking dataset back in September 2017, after years of pressure from this blog and others. Last Saturday it updated that dataset by adding one extra column – of grid references of the last good fixes of Hen Harriers that were known to be dead or…

Study reveals reasons for huge decline of Arctic Skuas

RSPB press release: Lack of food driving loss of Arctic skuas Arctic skuas could become extinct as a breeding species in the UK a new study by the RSPB’s Centre for Conservation Science, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, has revealed. The study found that the main driver of an 81% population decline is…

Celebrity women speakers at the Bird Fair – who you want.

I asked you on this blog just over a week ago, who would be your preferred female celebrity speakers at the Bird Fair if some male speakers were to make way in the interest of gender balance. 290 of you responded (although there were some ‘don’t knows’ and some ‘don’t cares’).  Some of you responded…

Guest blog: pesticides and farmland birds by Gerald Collini

Gerald Collini was an arable agronomist for 43 years. For the latter 33 years he worked independently.     The declining numbers of some farm land birds and a possible contributing factor?   Several recent European and home studies suggest that insecticides may be implicated? The 1970s and the start of intensive arable farming appears to…