The first post on this blog was on 21 April 2011, a few days before I left the RSPB. Today saw the 1500th blog post here, and, by chance, the 20,000th comment on that blog too. Early on, I told you what this blog would do, and I’m glad to see that I have held…
BLOG POSTS
Just a Water Rail
If I hadn’t been with Lennox, I would have come home saying that I had had a nice toasted cheese sandwich but had seen just a Water Rail at Wicken Fen. As it was, because Len knows his dragonflies and damselflies, I could say that I’d seen about a quarter of the UK species. Most…
Game Fair 6: this blog, ‘overheards’ and en passant
‘Oh we all read your blog – don’t you worry‘ – a senior staff member of a pro-shooting organisation. Trimbush – was that you entering Churchills’s tent at around lunchtime on Saturday? ‘Ian Coghill out-Faraged Nigel Farage‘ – a back-handed compliment, if a compliment at all. ‘Nigerian Garage‘ – how the GWCT’s Chair was reported…
Game Fair 5 – missing my bison burger for breakfast
Of course, man cannot live by blasting birds out of the air alone. One has to eat. And although there are an awful lot of places to buy a bacon buttie at the Game Fair (including the one Indian Food stall that I spotted) other foods are available. Sloe Motion is run by a former…
Game Fair 4 – BASC, seriously nice people
I spent some time, on both Saturday and Sunday, talking to BASC people on their stand at the Game Fair. I’ve always thought that BASC was the serious and nice end of shooting with lots of wildfowlers and not many grouse shooters, and my conversations strengthened that view. They also plied me with cold drinks…
Hen Harrier Day updates
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Hen Harrier Day is now supported by RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, the National Trust, the Hawk and Owl Trust, the Peak District National Park, the League Against Cruel Sports, Birdwatch magazine, Rare Bird Alert, the Welsh Ornithological Society and Quaker Concern for Animals. Thank you to all who are supporting this day. Three events are…
August Birdwatch coming soon – Stop Killing Our Harriers!
Coming through your letterbox or to a newsagent near you very soon. There is a striking editorial by Dominic Mitchell and a couple of pages on the subject of Hen Harriers by yours truly. I just hope that many newsagents put this next to The Shooting Times and The Field on the shelves. Birdwatch is…
Game Fair 3 – in photos
This must be about my 20th Game Fair, so I realised that when it said that it opened at 9am this was just nonsense – soon after 8am I had parked, got a lift on a trailer from the car park to the entrance, paid to enter and then started walking down the hill where…
Oscar Dewhurst – Bluish-fronted Jacamar
Oscar writes: Bluish-fronted Jacamar: Bluish-fronted Jacamars were fairly common in the lowlands and I saw them most days around the station buildings. Luckily this one perched out in the open and gave me a nice clean background. It would sit on this branch before shooting up to snatch flies from the air and returning to…
Game Fair 2
What sort of people come to the Game Fair – you might (or might not) wonder? All sorts – although there is more tweed worn at the Game Fair than you will see at most July events with the temperature in the high 20sC. But judging from the cars parked near mine on my two…