On Thursday, I headed down to Wiltshire (before heading up to the Peak District). I met up with Charlie Moores of Birders Against Wildlife Crime and recorded this podcast. Register for Hen Harrier day in the Peak District. Sign the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. Visit the Birders Against Wildlife Crime website.
BLOG POSTS
Sunday book review – A history of birdwatching in 100 objects by David Callahan
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This is a book worth reading. Before you do read it, play the game yourself. What would be your 100 objects that capture the history of birdwatching? That’s what I did, and I found it difficult to come up with a list and so I am grateful to the effort that David Callahan went to,…
A grouse with M&S
Dear Marc Bolland Last year you came under some pressure because of the stance of M&S on selling Red Grouse meat in your London stores. We are approaching the Inglorious Twelfth again, how time flies!, and I am writing to ask you to be more open and informative to your customers this year. I would…
Cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Ralph writes: “Consumer choice is too often only an option for those that can afford it (often a small proportion of sales, while buying better products is undoubtedly a good thing to do far too much emphasis is placed on the consumers role as a vehicle of change. Real environmental improvements will only come…
It’s the salty one
James Cross is the new Chief Exec of Natural England – he is the salty one. This represents a victory of the politicians and Andrew Sells, the NE Chair, over the Defra civil servants. Quite right too. But rumour has it that NE might have chosen a proper nature conservationist or two for their Board…
The Shooting Times – don’t you just love ’em?
I did break the habit of a lifetime and bought The ST yesterday because I had been told it was full of jokes – and it was! As I flicked through it I couldn’t help but notice that there were about ( I stress ‘about’ – my eyes did begin to glaze over) 150 blokes…
This blog has Klout
June was quite a busy month for this blog what with all that stuff about Hen Harriers and grouse moors and the ever-growing number of signatures on this e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting in England. However, it was the two blogs about Simon Barnes’s imminent departure from The Times that caused the biggest stir…
Two weeks until publication
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Just a brief reminder that A Message from Martha is published two weeks today. To order in advance of publication, and get this book as soon as possible, then click here.
Purrrrring with pleasure
I’m pleased to tell you that I have seen Turtle Dove in Northamptonshire this year. It was only just in Northants but it was a Turtle Dove. When I did a bird survey for my favourite local farmer, many years ago, I was delighted to find that there was a Turtle Dove purrrrrring on his…
Let’s be reasonable.
I don’t know how often readers of this blog go back a few days and read the comments that continue to accrue on earlier posts. And I don’t know whether I would recommend it either – sometimes a late post is the best of the lot, but not always. So, I have little idea how…