Standing up for Nature
I’d just like to thank the Bournemouth Natural Science Society for being lovely to me. First, they were the first organisation who invited me to talk about Passenger Pigeons. Then they were understanding and allowed me to switch dates so that I could attend the Green Party Conference. Then they were understanding when I arrived…
I’m heading up to Scotland tomorrow to give a talk in Edinburgh, and I’ll be scurrying home on Wednesday before the independence vote on Thursday. I’m an Englishman born of an English father and Welsh mother but I had my first job in nature conservation in Scotland (before university), met my wife in Scotland, changed…
Butterfly Conservation say: One of the UK’s favourite butterflies – the Small Tortoiseshell, continued its fight back this summer after years of decline, despite enduring the coldest August since 1993, results from the Big Butterfly Count have revealed. The Small Tortoiseshell, whose population has declined by 78% since the 1970s, saw numbers rise by almost…
Oscar writes: While walking into Minsmere one morning from Eastbridge I spotted this Red Deer standing by the reeds in the mist. The light levels were so low that it took me about 100 images before one was sharp! Nikon D800, Nikon 600mm f4 AFS-II
This is a book to keep in the loo and dip into when you have a few moments. Or put in your bag and dip into on your commute to work or in your lunch break. It’s not a story – it’s a well-chosen miscellany of nature facts, stories and history. I liked it. It…
The weather has been so lovely this week – and I’ve been able to make the most of it. I’ve gone for walks, I’ve sat in the garden reading and writing, I’ve had breakfast and dinner sitting outside. I sat outside a pub with a friend enjoying the conversation and a decent pint of beer. …
Mark writes: Wildlife in movies is a rich source of comment (see here and here). In some of those western films there ought, by rights, to be enormous flocks of Passenger Pigeons darkening the sky and scaring the horses – but somehow they aren’t there! And the wildlife that does appear in films, often…
I enjoyed speaking to the Oxford Ornithological Society on Wednesday evening – a good turn out and lots of good questions. Tomorrow it’s the Bournemouth Natural Science Society – 39 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3NS at 14:30 – on the subject of Passenger Pigeons. Next week I am in Edinburgh on Tuesday evening and in…
Here’s an opportunity for you to win a copy of David Cobham’s book on raptors (reviewed here). It’s a good book and this is a test of your luck and a little bit of your ornithological nous. In the Indian summer of the last few days I have made five morning visits to my local…
The most recent BBS report from the BTO, JNCC and RSPB isn’t very interesting. By which, I mean not a jot of criticism. It’s just that it seems to be telling me very much the same as last year’s report. That’s what monitoring is like sometimes – nothing much changes. But that doesn’t mean that…