Standing up for Nature
Oscar writes: Red Deer in golden mist: Just before I headed off to Durham to start university last week, I paid a couple of visits to Richmond Park. On one of the mornings there was a thick layer of mist covering the ground and by shooting into the rising sun it gave it a lovely…
This book is illustrated by, and written by, Martin Bradley, as was the book on the Peregrine also reviewed here (in April). Colin Shawyer’s foreword includes this hope: ‘Martin has, without doubt, written and produced an outstanding book which now needs to find its way to our children’s hearts, through their parents,…
Selfridges have confirmed to their customers that they will not stock Red Grouse in their Food Hall. Good for them! Looks like I’ll have to get out my credit card. This was in response to an excellent letter from a reader of this blog which quoted from the Ethical Consumer report ‘Turn your back on…
Local knowledge is sincerely to be prized, and who could know a National Park better than its Chief Executive? Jim Dixon, the outgoing Chief Executive of the Peak District National Park (famed for its raptors, like all our National Parks) took me to task, just a little, on what I wrote about the recently departed…
Yorkshire Water supported the study released on Wednesday which looked at the impacts of heather burning on the wider environment. I contacted Yorkshire Water and was impressed by their speed of reply. My first contact was with a young lady called Brook with whom I was allowed to chat online – this was an excellent…
Last week was apparently Sea Otter Awareness Week – I wish I had noticed at the time. I spent an unforgettable time watching a Sea Otter in June 2013 – he or she was sooooo cute! I will never, ever forget those moments. Almost all of those who comment on this blog are cute too…
The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust blog is reeling. Yesterday they were in a complete spin over the Leeds University study showing impacts of heather burning on soils, waters, emissions and biota – a pretty clean sweep of physics, chemistry, biology and backed up by quite a lot of maths. They got themselves into a…
Yesterday a gamekeeper in Norfolk was found guilty of poisoning 10 Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk. It’s hardly news except that this is England’s worst single case of bird of prey poisoning. But ‘Well done!’ to Norfolk Police and to the RSPB. And District Judge Peter Veits said some interesting things too. If this had been…
The Turtle Dove is a lovely bird but is declining dramatically in the UK but also in many other parts of Europe. Although one of the more dramatic problems it faces is being shot by hunters on migration, particularly unsportingly (and illegally) on spring migration, this has never seemed to me to be likely to…