Yesterday, in London, I spent my time with an Indian conservationist, a former colleague from the RSPB, a former Labour Minister, a Turner Prize winner, an expert on marine conservation, a former Greenpeace director, a Hen Harrier enthusiast, a journalist, an employee of WWF-UK and a talented singer. Sounds like I had a busy day…
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SWLA exhibition
Last week I visited the annual SWLA exhibition. I enjoyed it as much as ever and I recommend it to you if you have a spare half an hour or more in central London over the next few days. Of course, there were some works that I liked a lot more than others – the…
19000 signatures – thank you.
Another milestone passed – our (for there are 18,999 of you and only one of me) e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting today passed the 19,000 signature mark. I would like to thank all who have signed and all who have promoted this e-petition. This latest 1000 has taken just under a month to achieve…
New Wildlife Trust report
Today a new report, Save Our Ocean Giants – the protected areas we need for dolphins, whales and basking sharks, identifies 17 important ‘megafauna hotspots’ around our shores for the first time and highlights the need to protect them. Farnes East, Coquet to St Marys – notable for white-beaked dolphin, harbour porpoise and minke whale….
Broadcast on Passenger Pigeons
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This is a good science programme – from Canada – Quirks and Quarks. I guess I was a quirk. Have a listen to the last 10 minutes of the programme to hear me (although the whole show is interesting) talking about Passenger Pigeons, and remember, A Message from Martha would make a good Christmas present…
More vegetables please and less Beefy
I’m vegetarian four days a week and so I get a bit annoyed if I have beefy rammed down my throat all the time. It’s a bit unclear what the beef is that Ian Botham has with the RSPB except for the fact that they exist. He thinks they should tell the world that they…
Sunday book review – 100 Things that Caught My Eye by Chris Packham
I’ve spent some time with Chris Packham this year. We both talked at the Hampshire Ornithological Society AGM on my birthday in March, and chatted about Hen Harriers on that day and wound each other up on the subject. We stood together as part of the ‘Sodden 570’ on Hen Harrier Day in the Peak…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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Note from Mark: apologies to Ralph and all of his fans (in which number I include myself) for the non-appearance of a cartoon last weekend. The cartoon was sent by Ralph but did not arrive with me.
What they say
I’ve had a reasonable, in an unreasonable sort of way, amount of abuse over my position that we should ban driven grouse shooting. Most of it is anonymous, most of it on Twitter, and almost all of it from people who have a tiny Twitter following. This reassures me that the people who don’t like…
A really lovely review for A Message from Martha
A review of A Message from Martha in the Guardian. This book has had mostly good reviews, and some very good reviews, and a couple of stinkers. Obviously, as an author one tries to believe the good reviews and tries to dismiss the bad ones, but the bad ones tend to stick in one’s mind…