If you are keeping water on a wetland for the benefit of wetland wildlife then it occupies some of the volume that could otherwise have been used for flood storage. This can give rise to the claim that the schemes that benefit wetland wildlife that have exacerbated flood impacts. To some extent this is bound…
BLOG POSTS
Tug! Tug!
My blog of yesterday, about what Labour could do to win back some green voters, seems to have struck a chord. Or actually, I think it is just yet another example of social media showing me (and others) that there are plenty of others out there in the big, wide world who are thinking similarly…
So much to say
Mountain Hares – make your wills! Greater love hath no Mountain Hare than he lay down his life for someone else’s grouse shooting. Please help to put an end to driven grouse shooting.
Why Labour is doing badly – and how it could do better
It’s a matter of head and heart isn’t it? I am not terribly tribal in my politics. I have been too pragmatic in my life to believe that one side has all the good guys, all the wisdom and all the solutions. That can’t possibly be the case, can it? There are plenty of politicians…
Nearly six months
On Thursday morning our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting will be only six months old and yet it has gathered over 19,500 signatures. Thank you to all who have signed. I think it is perfectly possible that we will pass the 20,000 barrier by Christmas Day, maybe much earlier, and every added signature sends…
North West Birdwatching Fair
It was better than fair – it was good. I spoke to lots of nice people, and the very nicest ones bought copies of A Message from Martha too! That included the very nice Mike Dilger. He was speaking at Martin Mere before my talk on Saturday and you couldn’t ask for a better warm-up…
First day of winter
I’m regarding today as the first day of winter because there was a decent frost. You couldn’t call it a hard frost, more a soft frost, but a proper frost all the same. When I parked at Stanwick Lakes a little after 0730 it was cold and frosty. It felt cold as I took off…
This could be a very useful list
The latest in the ‘You Forgot the Facts, Sir Ian’ campaign is reaching out to the farming community. Farmers are being asked to sign up to an error-riddled anti-RSPB letter, and when 100 of them do, then their names will be published. I’ve always wanted a list of the 100 most ecologically illiterate and rabid…
I do like Mondays
I like every day. This Saturday I was talking at Martin Mere at the North West Birdwatching Fair – that was fun – and I’ll write about it. And yesterday I was having a look at a few grouse moors in the North of England – and I’ll write about that too (though not necessarily…
Oscar Dewhurst – Common Tern
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Oscar writes: This bird was repeatedly fishing from in front of the hide I was sitting it. The usual problem with birds is that they’re too far away, but it certainly didn’t apply here! Instead the bird often plunged into the water so close to the hide that it was too close to focus…