Iceland has had a general election and the results of it may have implications for whaling, climate change action and the composition of the EU. Iceland is a small country geographically with a very small population – its land area is just under half of that of the UK but its population is less than…
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Sunday book review – On Gallows Down by Nicola Chester
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This book, subtitled a memoir, is just that. It’s a series of remembrances of events, mostly to do with nature, place, and protest. I loved it. The ‘place’ is that area which includes the sites of the Greenham Common protest and the Newbury bypass protest. The author was involved in both of these, and the…
Wild Card event
If you signed the petition asking the Royals to Rewild then you might be interested in this event on 9 October.
It’s safe to subscribe
It’s now safe for all to subscribe to Birdwatch magazine – the best birders’ magazine in the UK – as I have written my last regular column after an unbroken 10-year stint. No longer might you turn the page and see my smiling and slightly sweaty face (from a photo taken at the Bird Fair…
Letter to my MP
Dear Mr Pursglove May I sincerely congratulate you on your appointment as a Parliamentary under Secretary of State to be shared between the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. I guess you will spend quite a bit of time walking between the very ugly building in Petty France (it’s hideous from the outside isn’t…
Sunday book review – Calls from the Wild by Alan Stewart
This is a crime novel – a wildlife crime novel – and the story skips along at a fair pace and made me want to keep turning the pages and discover what happened next. It’s not exactly a whodunnit, but more of a willtheygetdunforit. Alan Stewart is a prolific author on wildlife crime. As an…
Reshuffle
It is difficult to feel very worked up about the reshuffle. It is a reshuffle of a pack of knaves and jokers. At DEFRA, George Eustice remains – I feel more favourable to Mr Eustice than do many. It’s not as though I can imagine myself ever voting for him but he has served a…
Sunday book review – The Amazing Story of Montagu’s Harrier by Elvira Werkman
This is a fine book which I have enjoyed reading on my travels over the last few weeks. I knew I’d find it interesting because it deals with a couple of subjects which are really interesting scientifically and in terms of nature conservation; how wildlife fits in with modern agriculture and which part of a…
Pondering some shooting issues
The partridge shooting season opened on 1 September for both our native Grey Partridge and the non-native Red-legged Partridge. Nearly 12 million RLPs are released normally for recreational shooting puposes which is a phenomenal number and would attract far more attention if it weren’t a figure swamped and dwarfed by the 51 million Pheasants that…
Guillemots
I like a good Guillemot and there are lots of reports of high numbers of them being seen close onshore along the east coast this year. There are concerns that there is something amiss with these birds. Last weekend, on the Ythan Estuary north of Aberdeen, there were lots of Guillemots in the estuary itself…