In the streets around where I live, before Christmas, there were teams of workmen renovating the ‘council’ houses. Sometimes these groups had eastern European accents, sometimes they were from the foreign land of Wales, and sometimes the Northamptonshire accent was playing across the pot-holed streets of my neighbourhood. There was quite a lot going on…
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Leadhills plus
This news item is interesting – a potential community buy-out at Leadhills brought to us by Raptor Persecution Scotland. I’d chip in £50 to the community, as would many other birders I guess. John Armitage’s e-petition has taken a bit of a leap forward in the last few days and is now at 7596 signatures. …
A letter from Rupert
I am grateful to my MP, Andy Sawford, for writing to Defra on my behalf to ask them about the continuing declines in farmland birds. And I am grateful to Lord de Mauley (or Rupert) the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Natural Environment and Science at Defra for his reply. Rupert mentions that this…
First Chiffchaff of 2014 for me
I saw my first Chiffchaff of the year at Stanwick Lakes this morning. And a nice sunny morning it was too. I was walking along a path before the sun had actually risen above the horizon. The Chiffchaff turned up a little later on my walk, in a wet area which seemed to have a…
Does Labour have a rural agenda?
It’s frustrating being a member of the Labour Party. I share Labour’s values but they just don’t seem to be applied to rural issues, and, as you have probably noticed, I live in a rural area and care about the countryside and its wildlife. Labour is, for my liking, far too dominated by urban intellectuals …
Oscar Dewhurst – Jay
Oscar writes: In my local park last Autumn there were large numbers of Jays caching food. I wanted to photograph one with Autumn colours, so put some acorns down on the yellow leaves and lay down to wait. Before long I had 3 species of corvid in front of me: Magpies, Crows and this lovely…
Hardly started 2014…
Have you seen any birds yet in 2014? Of course you have! That’s one of the best things about birds – they are everywhere and with us all the time. According to the excellent Birdtrack I have seen 62 species so far this year but the true total is somewhere in the low 70s as…
This week in birding by Jonnie Fisk
Did you see that story about the Red-necked Phalarope, tagged by the RSPB on Shetland, which wintered off Peru in the Pacific? Amazing! Aren’t birds brilliant? Here is an excellent account of identification of Buff-bellied Pipit. I wonder how long that diver will stay in Devon – I’ll be down there in the not-too-distant future.
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
And more campaigning, but a bit more zeal needed
John Armitage’s e-petition on licensing of grouse moors has about 6 weeks to run. In approximately 46 weeks it has achieved a highly commendable 7453 signatures (including my own). John’s aim was to raise the issue of illegal killing of raptors and suggest some ways in which the businesses and individuals caught breaking wildlife law…