Heaven only knows where grouse shooting gets its public relations advice but I hope it isn’t paying much for it because it certainly isn’t working with the outside world. Grouse shooting is bound to be an emotive issue. Grouse shooting is about killing wild animals for fun, and it is a ‘sport’ that is mostly…
BLOG POSTS
Hen Harrier Day – sign up to join me in the Peak District on 10 August
Hen Harriers are killed illegally by game shooting interests to protect Red Grouse until the grouse can be shot for ‘sport’. There should be over 300 pairs of Hen Harriers in the English uplands but last year there were just two pairs. The Peak District should have several pairs of this beautiful bird but most…
An e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting.
If you aren’t interested in Hen Harriers then you’d be best to skip this blog for a few days and come back on Saturday – I wonder whether Ralph could do a Hen Harrier cartoon? We’ll see. Last week I launched an e-petition calling on Defra to ban driven grouse shooting in England. It wasn’t…
Oscar Dewhurst – Foxes
Oscar writes: One evening as I was walking out to go home I spotted these two foxes together. I walked to about 40m from them and then lay down, crawling towards them until I was near enough for some photos. Nikon D300s, Nikon 200-400mm f4 VR Mark writes: Awww! Don’t you just want to…
Sunday Book review – Birds of a Feather by Colin Rees and Derek Thomas
This is a lovely book – written by two ornithologists about the changing seasons on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a simple idea but it works very well. I don’t know Colin Rees at all, and I really only know Derek a little – he posed me an identification challenge in Ohio once….
Cartoon by Ralph Underhill
The right Spot
I did almost the same thing two years ago – almost to the day. It was sunnier in 2012, though. I headed off to Achurch churchyard to look for Spotted Flycatchers. Isn’t it awful that I have to have a special trip to see them in my part of the world? Churchyards seem to be…
A peculiarly Scottish butterfly
The Chequered Skipper is perhaps the British butterfly with the least expected UK range. Given that this butterfly is found over much of Europe where would you expect its UK range to be centred? Just over the Channel in southeast England? Maybe the New Forest or Dorset heaths? Think again! The Chequered Skipper is found…
Make something happen
I’ve already supported this idea with just a few quid – it won’t take many more people to copy me to get this idea off the ground. See what you think of ‘Go Find It’ – sensory outdoor treasure hunt card game (of all things!) which is allegedly for children but I can imagine some…
Oh…and by the way…
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/65627 More on this later, and often, I guess.