On Wednesday evening I attended the launch, at the Royal Society, of the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. In answer to the question ‘Where is this centre?’ the answer is ‘nowhere and everywhere’ – it’s a virtual centre (click here). Have a walk around the virtual centre – I did and it’s a nice place,…
BLOG POSTS
Climate change is real – get used to it!
If you were getting poorer and poorer, but last year you got poorer a bit more slowly than in previous years – would you be happy? The climate is warming – the 2000s were warmer than the 1990s (but not as much warmer as the 1990s were than the 1980s). This is the link to…
John Armitage’s successful e-petition
There have been 1011 e-petitions directed to helping Defra find its way to the sunlit uplands of truth and sustainability, launched, supported and closed on the Number 10 website. John Armitage’s will, today, be the 1012th. You have until 10:36 to add your name to his e-petition. Only 10 of those e-petitions passed the 10,000…
Driving around in black and white
There was nothing wrong with the Darlington Premier Inn, although I won’t be rushing back there for the ambience and atmosphere. However, driving through the Pennine snow before dawn was more of an adventure. Sitting drinking coffee from a vacuum flask while watching three blackcock displaying was a delight. The males strutted with their…
Rewilding revisited – Guest Blog by Simon Phelps
Simon is a keen conservationist, wildlife photographer and naturalist. He currently works for the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and is also an active member of A Focus On Nature (AFON). He spends much of his free time out on nature reserves around the country watching and photographing any wildlife that he can find. All the views…
Peter Kendall – bye bye!
I’ll let you into a couple of secrets – although neither may come as a surprise to you. First, I’ll miss Peter Kendall (a bit). Everyone deserves to have a pantomime villain to boo and Peter has thrown himself into that role with gusto for eight years. We’ll have to see whether the new NFU…
Not the worst thing ever? But surely not the best.
There was a lot of discussion about the EA dropping their biodiversity role because of cuts last week. Everyone squealed (see here and here) that this was a bad thing – as they were meant to do because that makes the cuts more difficult. I’m not so sure. I’ve never really thought that the EA…
Breaking news: Sanctuary LNR – important stay of execution
Within the last few minutes the Derbyshire Wildife Trust has won a stay of execution for the Sanctuary Local Nature Reserve in the High Court. The court has · ruled that the temporary injunction stands and all equipment must be removed from the site · awarded the Derbyshire WT a Protective Cost Order · recommended…
Who’s the favourite?
Two weeks tomorrow the Cheltenham Festival starts and the big race on Day 1 is the Champion Hurdle. There are many multiple winners of this race and Hurricane Fly tries to win the race for the third time (following 2011 and 2013). His main rival may be The New One who (appropriately enough) is having…
Oscar Dewhurst – Bearded Tit in Hyde Park
Mark writes: I heard Bearded Tits at Cley last Sunday but I didn’t see them. And even if I had I wouldn’t have seen them as well as this. Oscar photographed this female in Hyde Park in February 2013. There were two of them there – both had been ringed in 2012 at Rye…