Standing up for Nature
I’ve never been to a striptease show (doesn’t really appeal) but there were two at Stanwick Lakes this morning. When I got into my car at 0730 the windscreen was frozen up – an unusual experience over the last several months. As I drove the few miles to the lakes I could see that…
You can go through life being against things. There are plenty of things that I am against, eg cruelty, unfairness, putting sultanas in apple pies, racism and illegal raptor persecution. You could spend a whole lifetime objecting to things but sometimes you have to be in favour of something. When it comes to climate change,…
If you read my column, the Political Birder, in Birdwatch (and if not – why not?) then in the current issue you will see that there will be a peaceful protest in the north of England against Hen Harrier persecution on or around the 12 August this year. That article has prompted a steady trickle…
Danny Heptinstall is a 24 year old birder, naturalist and aspiring conservationist currently researching Red Kites at the University of Aberdeen (and recent Guest Blogger here). He attended the public protest in Inverness on Saturday afternoon about the recent poisoning incident in Ross-shire. You will already have read here (and here and here) about the…
Oscar writes: while I was in Iceland on holiday in October I was very keen to see and photograph Ptarmigan, having never seen them before, and had been told you could find them all the way down to sea level. I hadn’t had any luck until one day when I spotted one flying from my…
For early risers, the few moments at around 6am on BBC Radio 4 for several months has been a date with nature. More specifically, a 90 second date with the song or call of a species of British bird. The birds were the stars, they always are, but a range of well-known birders and naturalists,…
Mark writes: I’ve been lucky enough to see a few spring migrants this week, whilst hearing almost every day that the death toll on Red Kites and Buzzards keeps rising in Ross-shire. This week I added Sedge Warbler, Ring Ousel (in a rabbit-grazed field in east Northamptonshire) and Garganey (in nearby Cambs) to my list…
What is the UK’s most unfairly ignored bird? Well according to you, and your votes, it is the Stock Dove (and I agree with you)! This wasn’t the most popular poll on this blog, but nearly 150 of you responded and this was the result: Stock Dove – 33% Little Grebe – 21% Reed…
Peter Rafferty is a poet and sometime geomorphologist, and possibly for something done in a past life, a Carlisle United season ticket holder who has even stood, well sat, in the away end at Nene Park. He is also one of the translators for the LIPU UK English newsletter. E L’upupa piano…