Regular readers of this blog will remember the mystery of the dying hedge near where I live in Northamptonshire (see here, here and all the comments on the blogs). Local artist , and designer of the jacket for A Message from Martha, Carry Akroyd, once painted this hedge because it was so beautiful (see below)….
BLOG POSTS
Guest blog – Where green objectives clash by Peter Marren
Peter Marren is the first person to have their third Guest Blog on this site (see here and here for his previous Guest Blogs). Peter used to work for an excellent organisation called the Nature Conservancy Council (who remembers them? – and yes we didn’t always think they were excellent at the time but how…
Oscar Dewhurst – Coots fighting
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Oscar writes: On the day I took this, most of the water on my local nature reserve was frozen, forcing the majority of the ducks to congregate on the small areas of open water remaining. The coots, one of the most territorial of the birds there, kept getting into scraps with each other but they never…
My BGBW #BGBW
I’ve just finished my Big Garden Birdwatch. I started at 1030 but then was on the phone for quite a while. Whose ears were burning? It was a good BGBW – no cats and lots of birds! Blackbird 4 Chaffinch 2 Reed Bunting 1 House Sparrow 4 Great Tit 1 Starling 5…
A lovely email from the USA
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Still writing to an end-January deadline so little time for reading. Here instead is an email from America, forwarded to me by my publisher: Hello, Mark I just finished reading A MESSAGE FROM MARTHA…I have overwhelming sadness at the destruction of such a prolific bird, and I have anger mixed with sadness for the ignorance…
Countryside Alliance
You’ll remember, perhaps, that the Countryside Alliance complained about the RSPB to the Charity Commission and got told to sling their hooks? ‘Your central complaint is that the RSPB has misused data and made unfounded allegations in their Birdcrime Report. Having examined the issues raised and met with the trustees, we have concluded that we…
Bit by bit, answers are emerging…
I’m grateful to the Chair of the Hawk and Owl Trust for some attempts to answer some queries posted here yesterday (see comment by Philip Merricks on this blog and an abridged version copied with my comments below). The Hawk and Owl Trust is, of course, under no obligation to answer questions on this blog…
Don’t forget…?
Mark writes: I’ll be doing the Big Garden Birdwatch on Sunday – probably while listening to Desert Island Discs, drinking tea and eating a Digestive Biscuit or two. The garden has been quite bird-filled recently with occasional Reed Buntings as well as the more usual Starlings, Blue and Great Tits, Robin, Blackbirds, House Sparrows,…
Just tell us how it could work
There are, it seems, several strong proponents for a Hen Harrier brood management scheme, which seem to number the GWCT, BASC, the Moorland Association, the National Gamekeepers Organisation and the Hawk and Owl Trust. There are some people who are dead against the very idea of a brood management scheme, although not, as best I…
Defra – what are you for? 3
Defra – where’s the report of the Lead Ammunition Group, please? The group will be convened for an initial 12-month period…. It’s only been going for five years. Hello? Is there anybody there? Hello??? How long does it take to write ‘We’re heading for a lead-free future as quickly as possible’?