Oscar writes: While I was Minsmere earlier this Spring I spent a lot of time standing on the boardwalk just outside the Island Mere hide waiting for a female Bittern. On one morning there was a large flock of Swifts flying just overhead, and the very strong wind meant that they would stall as they…
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Sunday book review – Norfolk Bird Sketches by Robert Gillmor
This attractive book of sketches will remind you, as it did me, of days spent on the north Norfolk coast, at places such as Holme, Titchwell and Cley, looking at birds. But I, and maybe you, look at birds in a different way from the way that Robert Gillmor has looked at birds for getting…
A few updates
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I’m really pleased that the Hookpods project got to its £100,000 crowd-funding target with days to spare. That is fantastic. With these things, it is all or nothing – £99,999 would not have been enough! Thank you to all readers of this blog who contributed – I’m told by David Agombar that his Guest Blog…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Syngenta do a good thing, albeit belatedly.
Readers of Jeremy Greenwood’s guest blog (4 August) will be glad to hear that he has been granted access to the data obtained in the study that he criticized (see here and here). Watch this space for more on this subject later in the autumn.
A Swift visit to Malmesbury
A couple of weeks ago I popped down to Malmesbury for the official opening of the Waitrose store there (see previous blogs here and here). I’d been down a week earlier too and the changes since the spring, and in that last week, were quite amazing. ‘Just in time’ hardly covers it! Whereas…
Four Bee-eater chicks fledge on Isle of Wight
Good news from the Isle of Wight – the pair of Bee-eaters (the first to nest successfully in the UK since 2002) have fledged four young. That’s pretty good going out of the seven eggs they normally lay. Let’s hope the next few weeks are sunny and insect-filled and they fuel-up for their journey south…
Why licensing of driven grouse shooting will not work
I am grateful to the RSPB Chair, Prof Steve Ormerod for his Guest Blog on licensing of grouse shooting. As always, the RSPB has a well thought-through position which could make a difference to the plight of the Hen Harrier. However, I don’t think they have the best thought-through position on this particular issue, especially…
A Damascene conversion?
It’s quite funny how the shooting community is falling over itself in its bid to express its love for the Hen Harrier these days. Anyone mentioning the phrase ‘rats wi’ wings’ is shushed severely. One of the more striking and welcome expressions of love for the Hen Harrier (a strong candidate for the shortlist for…
A national bird
David Lindo, the Urban Birder, has launched a vote, whose winner will be announced on election day next year, for Britain’s National Bird. Currently it is the Robin – a feisty little bird with a nice song that is familiar to almost all. There’s nothing wrong with Robins. On the long shortlist of 60 species…