This is a bit like an i-Spy book for grown-ups, or semi-grown-ups. It’s an anthology of interesting things to look out for in the countryside, grouped in three sections; field, wood and seashore. The seashore section is short and felt a bit like a refreshing dessert after a sizeable starter in the fields and a…
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A normal couple of days for my friend, Chris?
Yesterday my mate Chris Packham was handing in a petition to Buckingham Palace asking the Royal Family to rewild their extensive land holdings as a tangible and visible token of their support for UK nature conservation. It’s the type of thing Chris does – he’s a campaigner, he’s an advocate and he puts himself about…
Sunday book review – The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees by Steve Cracknell
I’ve written several times that rewilding isn’t all about letting wolves and bears loose in the countryside, it’s about habitat restoration and letting nature take its course rather more. But this book is about the impacts of top predators on the pastoral communities in the Pyrenees (mainly) to which they have returned on foot or…
Guest blog – How to quadruple your donation to World Land Trust by Andy Langley
Andy Langley is a wildlife enthusiast and supporter of World Land Trust (WLT), who will be doing a sponsored birdwatch this October to raise money for WLT’s Guardians of Nimla Ha’ appeal, saving rainforest all around a network of near-pristine lagoons, wetlands and mangroves in Caribbean Guatemala. For a fourth year my employer Ecclesiastical Insurance…
Guest blog – Blocking motorways by Ian Carter
Ian Carter worked as an ornithologist for 25 years before retiring early to spend more time writing about wildlife. He wrote The Red Kite’s Year with artist Dan Powell and a sister volume The Hen Harrier’s Year will be out next spring. His recent book Human, Nature is about our relationship with the natural world…
Guest blog – Holding back the Beaver by Derek Gow
Derek Gow is a farmer. His first guest blog here, about rewilding his farm (and much else besides), Winds of Change 4 February 2019, was one of the most popular posts on this blog in all time. He has written other blogs here (click here) and I reviewed his book Bringing Back the Beavers –…
Sunday book review – Flight from Grace by Richard Pope
This is a finely produced and beautiful book about birds in history. Even if you didn’t read the words between the pictures you’d get a lot out of it. And, that was how I started with this book – I flicked through it, was caught up by an image, read the caption and then looked…
Sunday book review – Birding in an Age of Extinction by Martin Painter.
This is a good read if you are a birder or if you’ve ever chased after a rare bird anywhere in the world. The author has done a bit of that, with what appears to be the usual mixture of success and failure. He has travelled widely and visited such places as remote Norfolk Island…
Sunday book review – Wild Mull by Stephen Littlewood and Martin Jones
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This is a very attractive book which deals with a very attractive place which is rich in wildlife. If you are a naturalist visiting Mull then you should read this book, luxuriate in the images, imagine you’ll see all the wildlife and plan your trip ahead of setting off, and take the book with you…
Sunday book review – Lost Animals by Errol Fuller
This is a book of photographs of extinct species, so it’s a bit like looking through a very old family album whose subjects you’ve never met but with whom you feel somehow linked through time. All the species are either mammals or birds. Some of the photographs are of poor quality, and many are unsurprisingly…