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…
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Oscar Dewhurst – Red Deer
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
Sunday book review – the Nature Magpie by Daniel Allen
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…
This week
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. …
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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…
Talking, talking, talking
Comments Off on Talking, talking, talking
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…
Win a copy of A Sparrowhawk’s Lament
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…
2013 BBS report – better together?
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…
Conferences – 2
On Friday, as on Saturday, I was on a panel with Tony Juniper. This time it was the first AFON conference in Cambridge. We, with Matt Shardlow from Buglife and Donal McCarthy (RSPB), chatted around valuation of nature. If you don’t put a value on it, is it equivalent to valuing it as worthless? If…
You couldn’t make this up
The new EU Environment Commissioner is from Malta (and I’m told is a hunter (does anybody know whether this is true please?), and is certainly a former Tourism Minister) named Karmenu Vella. His role could have been written by George Osborne – ‘Protecting the environment and maintaining our competitiveness have to go hand-in-hand’. The new…