Today, the voting for Britain’s national bird starts in earnest. The 10 shortlisted species, on the basis of 70,000 votes cast last autumn are (in alphabetical order): Barn Owl Blackbird Blue Tit Hen Harrier Kingfisher Mute Swan Puffin Red Kite Robin Wren You can vote now and right up until after the polls close in…
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Oscar Dewhurst – Red Deer
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Oscar writes: I only live 15 minute’s drive from Richmond Park, so find myself there fairly regularly each Autumn for the Red Deer rut. It’s not uncommon to come across over 100 photographers on a weekend, but on the morning this was taken it was considerably quieter. I found this stag strutting his stuff in an…
Sunday book review – Britain’s Habitats by Lake et al.
Everybody loves a habitat don’t they? Well, up to a point, Lord Copper. This book is subtitled ‘A Guide to the Wildlife Habitats of Britain and Ireland‘ and that’s very much what it is. There is a lot of good stuff in here but somehow it’s not a book that I can imagine being on…
Various
Things that caught my eye: a Chiffchaff caught my eye at Stanwick Lakes this morning. It also caught my ear – but with a call not a song (despite everything else being in song) so I am putting it down as a late winter visitor rather than an early spring arrival – though, who knows?!…
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!
It’s World Sleep Day. Swifts sleep on the wing, half their brain at a time, it is thought. I’m going to dream of doing that… Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
My friends the birds
Tuesday provided my first Brimstones of the year but was otherwise the opposite of profitable. Wednesday was a day of a singing Blackcap, a Raven and a decent profit. On the way to the races the conversation turned somewhat surreal. ‘If you could befriend a bird which would then help you through life, which would you…
Guest blog – The case against the EU by Richard Wayre
After twenty-some years pursuing a career in marketing and management consultancy I jumped ship and returned to academia, initially to study Countryside Management and then moving on to read for a degree in Ecology. The marriage of my old world and new is not a comfortable one. From the dual perspectives of environment and economy,…
Martha – the play!
I didn’t expect to get an email like this one – how wonderful! Dear Mark, First off I hope you don’t mind a stranger contacting you out of the blue. I’d like to tell you how much I enjoyed my now well-worn copy of A Message From Martha. It was not only an astonishingly well…
Barry, Eilidh and Natalie
At yesterday evening’s Environmental Question Time, as well as Kate Parminter, William Cash and Rupert de Mauley, there was also Barry Gardiner, Eilidh Whiteford and Natalie Bennett. Natalie Bennett, performed well: supports a nature and Well-being Bill would reform the CAP would repeal bad bits of NPPF is against fracking realises we need to tackle…
Smooth, very smooth
At yesterday evening’s Environmental Question time, the unelected Etonian, Rupert de Mauley was smooth, very smooth. Quite how he emerged relatively unscathed on this government’s dreadful environmental record is hard to figure. It was a mixture of partial admission of failure, partial avoidance of the question, partially making the most of a few potential successes…