I’ve never seen a Snowy Owl. I’d really like to see one. Even more would I like to see loads of them. And there have been loads and loads of them further south than usual in North America this winter. The latest Birdwatch has an article on Snowy Owls and a beautiful male on the…
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English SSSIs
The government aims for the proportion of SSSIs that are in favourable condition to be over 50% by 2020. Year ending March 2011 – 36.7% in favourable condition Year ending March 2012 – 37.4% in favourable condition Year ending March 2013 – 37.5% in favourable condition That doesn’t look like a trajectory that is going…
Did you see Elmley on Countryfile yesterday evening?
Philip Merricks has done a very good job, on the whole, at Elmley NNR. It looked jolly wet on the TV last night didn’t it? Let’s hope lots of Lapwings and Redshank will be nesting successfully there this spring as usual. You have to go back as far as 28 April 1987 to find this…
Thank you BTO, Berks and Oxon
Saturday was a very enjoyable day. I attended a BTO conference for the Berkshire and Oxfordshire region (at Benson just south of Oxford). It seemed the right place to be as the first talk was given by Ian Newton (whose latest excellent book was reviewed here), another talk was about the birds of the ‘heart…
Oscar Dewhurst – Siskin at WWT Wetland Centre, Barnes
Mark writes: this photo reminds me of walks alongside the River Chew in north Somerset, as a teenage boy, where I saw my first ever Siskins and Redpolls. They were usually in Alder trees – just like this one. I’ve seen a Redpoll already this year – but, rather surprisingly, not a Siskin. I’m quite…
Sunday Book Review – Ten Thousand Birds: ornithology since Darwin by Tim Birkhead, Jo Wimpenny and Bob Montgomerie
This is a wonderful book. It might not appeal to everybody but it is right up my street and it will be a book to which I return, often, over many years. It’s about the study of birds, and the contribution made by ornithologists (and birds!) to our understanding of evolution, population regulation, sexual selection,…
The week in birding by Jonnie Fisk
I was all ready to set off to the north Norfolk coast yesterday – not to see birds but to see northern lights – but it was cloudy. The previous night there had been a great show of northern lights. They are on my British list – but not for years – dipped again! Can…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Wild beavers have been filmed in Devon – the first sightings in the wild in England for around 500 years. I wonder where they came from…
Badgers and bTB
Here’s a head-ache for the new NFU President and his team, and also for Owen Paterson; one man in the first few days of his job and the other, if rumours are to be believed, in the last few weeks of his. An Independent Expert Panel was appointed by Defra to help evaluate the effectiveness,…
The new Clint Eastwood film
The NFU elections provided us with a the possibility of a new Clint Eastwood film but whether it is a remake of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, or the Good, the Good and the Good, or simply the Bad, the Bad and the Bad remains to be seen. I will try, very hard,…