Sunday book review – My Year with Hares by Martin Hayward Smith

This book is lovely. There are lots of photographs, very good photographs, the author is a professional cameraman and photographer, and some pretty good words. It’s the story of a year spent looking at Brown Hares in North Norfolk, in the part of the world that birders and people with boats, both drive through quickly,…

Round up

Just a few things that might interest you: the photo above shows an ancient god and goddess – it’s nice to see Athena joining in on behalf of Hen Harriers and thank you to Ron Kinrade for the photo from the Naples Archeological Museum. Athena was (and still is, I guess), of course, quite keen…

A few quiet moments

I wouldn’t have gone to Oundle just to look for a Black Redstart but since I had a reason for going anyway (getting a Robert Gillmor print (the cover of the 2013 Bird Fair programme in fact) framed) then I did go.  And I needed a break. I’m writing two books at the moment, and…

Join the online rally for nature

On 9 December, the day before the close of the grouse shooting season, some of us are going to gather together at a rally to ask politicians to do more for nature. One of the things that I will be asking my MP is ‘What will the Labour Party do, if it forms part of…

Vote – for your national bird

We are getting close to the end of the first round of voting in this poll for the National Bird– organised by David Lindo (The Urban Birder). There have been over 60,000 votes so far – but things are quite tight at the top. You’ve got until the end of the month to influence the…

I’ll be at the North West Birdwatching Festival on Saturday

I’ve never been to the North West Birdwatching Festival before and I’m looking forward to it. I’m giving a talk in the middle of the day which will start with Passenger Pigeons and end with Hen Harriers. But I am also looking forward to seeing a few birds – there will be birds won’t there?…

Rochester and Strood by election

Tomorrow’s Rochester and Strood by election will see a victory for UKIP and an absolute trouncing of the Labour candidate. That’s a shame (for we Labour party members). However, this result will signal a wake-up call for all politicians in the UK. It is pretty tricky for David Cameron and the Conservative party. I’m not…

NERF 2

Sunday’s North of England Raptor Forum meeting was excellent.  There’s something considerably comforting about being surrounded by glum northerners with accents. All the talks were good (even the one I missed by chatting outside, I was told) and it would take the length of the day for me to tell all of you all about…