Last week I was early, I’m always early, for my interview with Martha Kearney on the World at One and so I watched a protest march set off from outside the BBC near Oxford Circus. There were firefighters and teachers from the NUT. I recognised the strains of Billy Bragg’s rendition of The Internationale playing…
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Looking forward to being at the Game Fair at the weekend
e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. Hen Harrier Day with Chris Packham. A grouse with M&S and more in today’s Telegraph City Diary Lead poisons children.
This is a scandal and yet no-one seems to want to expose it
The shooting industry is poisoning thousands of children and has known it is for years – and yet it still promotes wild-shot, lead-shot game meat as a healthy option. See the minutes of the meeting of the Lead Ammunition Group of 16 April 2014 which say: The survey estimated in UK that 5,500 – 12,500…
Buzzing
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Did you watch Hive Alive last night. I started watching it just because I know quite a few of the people involved in making it – Chris Packham, Martha Kearney, Stephen Moss and Brett Westwood. But then I found myself enjoying it! And then I was hooked. A cut above most wildlife programmes. A great…
Eats, shoots and leaves – Owen Paterson
When the news of Owen Paterson’s sacking from the Cabinet was announced there was great cheering above and below ground by badgers and friends of badgers alike. It’s unseemly to take pleasure in another’s misfortune but… His term of office at Defra was short and undistinguished – 22 months dominated by floods (where he spoke…
What they say 9:
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Andre Farrar of the RSPB talks to BAWC’s Charlie Moores in the latest of these excellent podcasts: ‘Back then we had double figures pairs of hen harriers [in the Forest of Bowland]’ ‘It was quite a shock…the visceral loathing that gamekeepers had for Hen Harriers’ ‘Little’s changed over the intervening 30 years – except…
Pretending to be a botanist
I did the second visit to ‘my’ Wildflowers Count survey square recently. It was a nice walk on a hot sunny day with a pub at the far side of the square – what’s not to like about that? I am now much better acquainted with black horehound and marsh woundwort than previously. Because this…
Hen Harrier Day update
Hen Harrier Day, 10 August 2014 – general information (see below for info specifically on the Peak District ‘event’) Due to circumstances beyond their control, and rather frustratingly for them, Birders Against Wildlife Crime have had to cancel the planned Yorkshire Hen Harrier day event. Things are also looking doubtful for Cumbria, I believe. But…
Guest blog – Hookpods by David Agombar
David Agombar is Major Donors Manager at RSPB where he has worked for the last 12 years inspiring individuals to fund many vital conservation projects. Not the least of these is the Albatross Task Force. He is a bit of a seabird enthusiast having worked on the Farne Islands in his younger days. He is…
Oscar Dewhurst – Great Thrush
Oscar writes: Great Thrush: I took this from just outside my room at Wayqecha Biological Research Station in Peru, just outside Manu National Park. Great Thrushes were one of the most common birds up there and were regularly seen around the buildings. I had been hoping that something would land on this lichen-encrusted branch, so…