George Monbiot backing the ban on driven grouse shooting

George Monbiot’s Twitter account, @GeorgeMonbiot, is echoing the feelings of many readers of this blog when he comes out strongly in support of a ban on driven grouse shooting.   And as a result of widespread support after Fred the eagle took to the seas, some Twitter activity by Chris Packham and George Monbiot’s intervention,…

Sustainable dilemmas (6) – more milk

My milk comes from a milkman (or milkperson) and arrives on my doorstep.  But it comes from cows before then. Which cows? When my house was built in 1899 I imagine there were milk deliveries (were there?) but of a very different nature. I imagine that the distance between my house and the cow that…

Tim Melling – Little Forktail

Forktails are a family of birds native to SE Asia that inhabit rivers and streams.  I have seen several different species (always a treat to see) but the Little Forktail surprised me by being really tiny.  Also it does not have the exaggeratedly forked tail that the others have.  In fact its scientific name Enicurus…

Tracking the Midhope moor case – Peak District

  Long-term readers of this blog may remember this case in the Peak District National Park from May 2016. This track was constructed in 2015 without planning permission but funded by Natural England despite it being in an SPA, SAC and SSSI. In 2016 the estate applied for retrospective planning permission and over 180 of…

An eagle called Fred

  Press release: Golden eagle persecution 7 miles from Scotland’s Parliament? A young satellite-tagged golden eagle has disappeared in highly suspicious circumstances in the Pentland Hills, just seven miles from the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh. The eagle had hatched at a nest site in the Scottish Borders in 2017 and last June, in cooperation…