In a way, this post follows on from Pip Howard’s Guest Blog this morning about once-alive invertebrates encased in perspex, except this post concerns actually-alive butterflies sold as extras for celebrations such as weddings etc. A reader of this blog alerted me to this and wrote that ‘I was at a wedding recently and was…
BLOG POSTS
Guest Blog – Real life bugs or a living planet? – by Pip Howard
Pip Howard is a British forester who lives and works in France. He worked with Save Our Woods and now at Forestcomms working on the pan European landscape research project HERCULES. Do Children Really Want Real Life Bugs or a Living Planet? All discussion on the environment will at some point, quite rightly, centre…
Nice and old-fashioned?
Ten days ago or so, I joined the Hawk and Owl Trust at the Bird Fair, and a while later an envelope full of interesting information arrived as a consequence of my membership. It included a car sticker, a membership card and badge. These things made me quite nostalgic. I can remember my kestrel-shaped YOC…
A late Swift
Yesterday morning, a Swift flew over the garden and put a smile on my face. It’s so difficult to know when you see your last bird of a particular species for the year (at the time) as there is always the possibility of seeing another a little later. My first Swift of the year is…
An extra pair of binoculars
I have bought an extra pair of binoculars and I’ve been trying them out. They are Pentax Papilio 8.5×25 Close Focus binoculars. As a birder, they look very twee and naff to me – not something you’d want to be seen staring through on the East Bank at Cley, on Tresco or getting off the…
Guest Blog – Conservation bursaries by Oliver Simms
Oliver Simms has recently graduated from Durham University with a Classics degree and is about to start work as an accountant at the National Audit Office. He is a keen birder, hill walker and passionate conservationist, who has volunteered extensively including at Raptor Camp in Malta. He has served as Trip and Partnerships Officer for…
A Message from Martha published in the USA today
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Today, A Message from Martha is published in the USA – six days before the exact centenary of Martha’s death in Cincinnati Zoo on 1 September 1914. Here are 10 reasons to buy and read my book if you are living in the USA or Canada: this was the most numerous bird in the world…
Reversing the trend – the future of meadows.
The following is a write-up, a personal one, that I did for Plantlife, the Wildlife Trusts and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust of a meeting to discuss meadow conservation which was held on 18 July this year. ’When people come to Highgrove and see the flower meadow there they often say that it reminds…
Keeping the wolf from the door
I’m lucky enough to get the chance to write for money sometimes and that helps to keep the wolf from the door – although I’d quite like to open the door here in east Northants and see a wolf trotting past. That would be quite a shock and a very nice surprise. Here are three…
E-petition passes 16,000 signatures – where is Defra’s response?
A little while before midday yesterday our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting passed the 16,000 signature mark. Thank you to all who have signed it already. This is already, inside three months, the 9th most-signed e-petition aimed at Defra. And there are another seven months to go (there would be nine if it weren’t…