Standing up for Nature
Oscar writes: While I was in Suffolk I wanted to photograph a Bittern against a backdrop of reed heads in nice light. On my third morning I was waiting for a female to pass by me on one of her feeding flights. I’d been standing there since dawn, and it was only an hour before…
This book is not all about nature but there is quite a lot of nature dispersed through its pages, which is to be expected since one of its authors is a former Guest Blogger here. And so, it comes as no great surprise, but a delight nonetheless, to find mentions of Passenger Pigeons, California Condors…
By the time you read this there will probably be just over a month left until Christmas. That’s not long. And it might not be long until Hen Harriers are extinct in England. So if you are thinking about Christmas shopping, you might think about one of these special Hen Harrier Christmas cards. Now you…
Yesterday the RSPB issued a toughly worded statement: The RSPB is (today) urging Defra to publish the workable elements of the Hen Harrier Action Plan, which we believe could bring about the recovery of one of England’s most beleaguered birds of prey. However, we’re also highlighting our rejection of one point of the six-point plan,…
It must be terribly difficult being the Prince of Wales – but perhaps a little less difficult than being many of his potential future subjects. HRH writes in Country Life magazine this week about why we must put a value on the countryside. It is in these wide-ranging thought pieces that HRH seems least thoughtful…
I spoke at a BTO regional meeting in Nottinghamshire on Sunday, but so did many other people and I enjoy learning new things and being reminded of old things. Chas Holt gave an excellent talk about WeBS (that’s WeBS not Webs, WEBS, WEbs or any other combination!). Have you looked at the excellent WeBS online…
There is a local issue of national importance in next week’s Rochester and Strood by election: nature protection. Will masses of Nightingales disappear under masses of concrete? Lodge Hill, Chattenden Woods is the only SSSI in the country specifically notified for its Nightingales – it’s an important site. A very important site. Mark Reckless used…
Yesterday I made a quick visit to the poppies filling the moat of the Tower of London. Apparently yesterday the last of the 888,246 was added, to commemorate the lives of British and Colonial forces lost in the First World War. It seemed appropriate to be there on 11 November. About 200 years ago, a…
Peter Cosgrove carried out the first national pearl mussel survey and wrote about pearl mussels as a Guest Blog here in October 2012. I have been watching the raptor haters’ tactics since Hen Harrier Day and I think they might have secret list of 10 do’s and 10 don’ts,…