Peter Cooper is a 20 year old amateur naturalist, writer, zoology student at the University of Exeter Cornwall Campus and avid badger watcher. He has written both whimsical nature writing and ‘proper’ environmental journalism on his personal blog and for The Independent, and is also the editor in chief of his university’s nature magazine ‘Life’….
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Oscar Dewhurst – Ringed Plover
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Oscar writes: I came across this adult on the beach at Minsmere. It was running along the top of a ridge so I got ahead of it and took this as it came past me. Nikon D800, Nikon 600mm f4 AFS-II, Nikon 1.4x TC
Sunday book review – Meadowland by John Lewis-Stempel
There is grass, and there are meadows. They aren’t the same. As you travel around the countryside, particularly in the west of Britain (although, as in other respects, the country used to be less polarised than it now is), you will see a lot of grass. It looks pretty, or, at least, quite pretty, but…
One month down – eleven more to go!
At 08:34 this morning my (our!) e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting completed its first month and had accumulated 5880 signatures. That is really good progress – and there are 11 months to go. Our e-petition is in the top 1.5% of most-signed of all e-petitions, on all subjects, on the government website and still…
Saturday cartoon – how the media work by Ralph Underhill
Last week when I did a short piece on the Today programme I was thinking something similar to Ralph – along the lines of wildlife stories are the fluffy ones. The media coverage of environmental issues seems to have declined in quality over recent years and that must be partly because there are fewer and…
A Swift lunch
I met up with local(-ish) artist Carry Akroyd today to give her a copy of Martha – her artwork is the most striking aspect of the book, after all! On my way there I saw an amazing number of Swifts over one single field of oilseed rape. There must have been c500 of them –…
Be an ethical consumer – turn your back on grouse!
In a week of grouse-related, Hen Harrier-related, moor manager-related, news – this is the latest, and potentially most important. Following the announcement of the location for the Derbyshire Hen Harrier Day event and the attendance of Chris Packham, and the sacking of Simon Barnes from The Times (which may or may not be related to…
I’ve given Martha a cuddle
I have a copy of my forthcoming new book, A Message from Martha, in my hands. Unlike its author it looks both classy and beautiful. There is something about a book isn’t there? Review copies have been sent out so I will soon know how the book is received. You can hold a copy of…
Heroes and no villains
Last week I attended the World Land Trust summer do and was elected as a council member. I try to avoid getting roped in to too many wildlife NGOs just because I don’t really have the time to devote to them and it is invidious to choose one over any others. But I made an…
Simon Barnes again
My blog, yesterday, about Simon Barnes’s departure from The Times caused quite a stir. It was read by more than 4000 people and received comments here but also mainly on Twitter. Opinions were divided as to whether Simon’s departure (and yes, I should have called a sacking a sacking, not a redundancy – but sacking…