Standing up for Nature
I’m grateful to the Vulture Conservation Foundation for an update on situation with diclofenac (a medical drug that is a bit like aspirin for you but more like cyanide for vultures feeding on animal carcasses which contain it). A review of the evidence for the impact of diclofenac on European vultures has been produced by…
The removal of Simon Barnes from The Times disappointed many readers of this blog. I am still getting emails about it from people in response to these two blogs – here and here. I had lunch with Simon a few weeks ago and I’m looking forward to reading his new book, Ten Million Aliens, which…
To Andy Sawford MP Dear Andy I hope this finds you well. I am writing to enlist your support in getting some information out of Defra – in fact, I wonder whether you could check whether anyone is at home in that department. I have made several FOI requests to Defra via my…
Some people are being a bit sniffy about Bob the squirrel – being so open-minded I can see why, and I can see why they are wrong (in my humble opinion – as people say when they are anything but humble). The RSPB is using Bob to stand for nature and will simply use the…
I’m getting on a plane today for the first time since June 2013. I’m heading up to Aberdeen to give a talk about Passenger Pigeons (and a little bit about Hen Harriers) to the Aberdeen RSPB Group on their 40th anniversary. I’m looking forward to seeing Aberdeen again. It must be almost exactly 34 years…
I just happened to make a note a couple of weeks ago of the number of signatures attached to our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting and the e-petition for the non-joint non-plan. Ours stood at 17,608 signatures whereas the GWCT effort was at 10,414. Now, we were off the mark a while before the…
In a couple of weeks time there will be a meeting in Quito of the Convention on Migratory Species. Sounds terribly dull doesn’t it? Well maybe it will be – but maybe it won’t. One of the areas to be discussed is poisoning. I wonder what position our government will take on such issues that…
Oscar writes: I’d spent the earlier part of the morning at Richmond Park photographing the deer rut, and when the mist had cleared and the sun was too high I headed to the pen ponds where I heard that a couple of juvenile Hobbies were hunting low over the water and often flying right…
No book review this week – I’ve had rather little time for reading, I’m afraid. As I travelled down to London last week I kept an eye open for Red Kites on the stretch of line south of Luton station. The man of the couple opposite me may have been doing the same as he…
And here’s the video – click here! And please sign this e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting.