Standing up for Nature
Oscar writes: This was taken during the spring at RSPB Minsmere. I spotted a group of Red-legged Partridges in the long grasses. Taking my camera off its tripod, I lay down, and started to crawl towards them. I never really got into a position from which I had a completely clear view, but this was…
In two months’ time, A Message from Martha: the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and its relevance today will be published in the UK. Chris Packham is one of only about half a dozen people who has read it so far and he says: ‘This hugely thought provoking and important book is the kick up…
The article by Amy-Jane Beer in this month’s BBC Wildlife is certainly worth a read. It’s also worth a look – Laurie Campbell’s photographs are stunning. You should buy the magazine to see the images and read the words – and there is plenty more to enjoy in the magazine’s pages of course. The current…
In the same, current, issue of BBC Wildlife magazine in which I am ‘quoted’, so is Tim Baynes of the Scottish Land and Estates. He gets 50+ words to explain why we need grouse shoots. He gets off to a very bad start in a wildlife magazine by writing ‘The red grouse is the only…
BBC Wildlife is a pretty good magazine, but I have a bit of a grouse with them. In the current issue (May – a lion on the cover) there is an article on Hen Harriers (to which I shall return more fully later today) in which I am quoted (as is Tim Baynes of Scottish…
I’ve been in Wales for a few days on a ‘secret mission’. If this post appears it means I haven’t had time to write a second blog for today. I hope I have seen some Hen Harriers… …and some Pied Flys, Redstarts and Wood Warblers. But mostly Hen Harriers…
It’s two weeks until the EU elections take place in the UK (and in the rest of the EU over the next few days). Will you vote Lib Dem, Labour, Conservative, UKIP or the Greens? The EU manifestos are a bit of a laugh – clearly none of the political parties is taking us, the…
I’ve touched on the vulture/diclofenac story here before – and asked you to express your opinion that this veterinary drug needs to be banned from use in the EU anywhere it might kill vultures. Here is a new video from the Vulture Conservation Foundation and BirdLife International. Once you get past the very irritating American…
I inherited my ‘other’ BBS square a couple of years ago. I hope that choice of word wasn’t in bad taste as I don’t know whether the previous observer died, moved or gave up. But this is the third year I have counted birds here. It doesn’t feel like ‘my’ square – it feels like…