Big Garden Birdwatch 2018

I did the RSPB  Big Garden Birdwatch on Sunday morning while listening to Broadcasting House on Radio 4 and eating toast and Marmite. As I heard my former colleague Derek Niemann talking about his Nazi grandfather (see his moving and interesting book) I reached 5 species: Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Dunnock, Blackbird and Blue Tit. The…

Guest blog – Independent greens by Marina Pacheco

Marina Pacheco has always been keen on wildlife especially of an urban kind and graduated with a zoology degree in South Africa. She then spent four years on a squirrel introduction project in Lisbon’s first urban ecology park before relocating to London. Over the last twenty years she was the London Area Manager for BTCV, the…

We are 11,650 ahead

Here is an update on three e-petitions about grouse shooting: Gavin Gamble’s e-petition in favour of banning driven grouse shooting – c26,550 signatures Jane Griggs’s e-petition supporting grouse shooting – c14,900 signatures Ed Hutchings’s e-petition in favour of licensing grouse shooting – c6,100 signatures Last week saw the ‘Gamble-ban’ e-petition adding another 450+ signatures and…

PM’s environment speech

Having spoken to several people who were present at Theresa May’s environment speech (when will we hear Jeremy Corbyn on the subject?) they all say that a striking feature of the speech was that it gained an enthusiastic reception from the environmentalists in the room and the Prime Minister visibly looked happier, more confident and…