General Licence response

If you wish to respond to the consultation on the General Licence (in England) then you have until the end of next Monday to do it. The General Licence does what it sounds like it does. Instead of having to apply for an individual licence to kill some wildlife, and justify it on a case…

Catfield Fen – again

I have previously blogged about Catfield Fen on 30 May 2012, 22 August 2012, 10 September 2012, 30 September 2012 and 6 August 2013.  These things do drag on don’t they?  Many readers of this blog emailed the EA on this subject last year – for which I thank you, and for which I have…

Oscar Dewhurst – Red-legged Partridge

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…

A Message from Martha

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…

BBC Wildlife – Hen Harriers, Buzzards and Red Grouse

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…

BBC Wildlife – the landowners speak

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 – I have a small grouse

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…

Wales

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…