Yesterday’s blog was about the media coverage of the GWCT’s farmland bird survey. I was struck by the quotes, in The Times, of Jim Egan saying that the survey had been set up ‘partly to counter claims by green groups that farmers were doing little to protect birds‘. Ben Webster’s piece also said that Jim…
BLOG POSTS
Cut!
The ‘lawn’ has been cut for the first time since the autumn. You can see that this end of the garden is a bit rough and ready. I think I might have preferred it uncut! I’ve left a strip of unmown grass on one side to participate in…
Nonsense
I did, kind of, tell you so… In The Times, once a dull but reliable newspaper, a few days ago there was a headline thus ‘Farmers praised as Skylarks soar again’ (click here but you need a subscription). The piece by Ben Webster was a write-up of the GWCT ‘survey’ of farmland birds by farmers…
Striptease at Stanwick
Comments Off on Striptease at Stanwick
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…
Time to be in favour of something…
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,…
Peaceful protest against Hen Harrier persecution in August
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…
Guest blog – A very RSPB protest by Danny Heptinstall
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 Dewhurst – Ptarmigan
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…
Sunday book review – Tweet of the Day by Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss
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,…
The week in birding by Jonnie Fisk @jonniefisk
Comments Off on The week in birding by Jonnie Fisk @jonniefisk
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…