Argyll farmers want something to be done about White-tailed Eagles. White-tailed Eagles do eat dead lambs and they probably eat a few live ones too – particularly sickly ones. It;s also true that White -tailed Eagles are likely to reduce Golden Eagle numbers in coastal areas. However, this is a magnificent native bird whose contribution…
BLOG POSTS
The week in birding – by Jonnie Fisk
You don’t know what a Stejneger’s Scoter might be? Neither did I – click here. I notice that a Lesser Whitethroat was seen in Northampton this week. Grey Phal at Hove – more here.
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Why are we counting?
…asks the GWCT website. And it’s a good question which certainly isn’t answered by the following text. GWCT are organising a Big Farmland Bird Count (yes, really) for early February in case we all get bored after we can’t shoot pheasants any longer. What next? The NFU Even Bigger Farmland Bird Count and the CLA…
Peter Kendall again
We’ll miss him when he is gone won’t we? I am grateful to Martin Harper’s blog (always worth reading) for pointing me in the direction of Peter Kendall’s last speech as NFU President at an Oxford Farming Conference. He couldn’t resist having a badly-judged dig at the RSPB, which should bring home the message to…
Arise Sir John
The recently knighted Sir John Randall MP is a birder. Having stepped down from being Deputy Chief Whip he is now enjoying the freedom of the backbenches and the freedom to speak up for nature (note this speech he made in the Christmas adjournment debate from 1:40pm onwards where he touches on various subjects including…
Offputting offsetting
Our main wildlife conservation organisations seem to have swallowed the idea of biodiversity offsetting and are all at pains to point out that it might work (RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and the Woodland Trust (which isn’t really a main wildlife conservation organisation (but let’s just pretend it is)). It is perhaps a mean thought to imagine…
Sanctuary
There has been a great upwelling of concern and anger over the proposal to destroy the Sanctuary LNR in Derby (see Guest Blog and this blog). Objections out number comments received in favour of the proposal (309 to 300 when last I looked, so it is close). You have until the end of tomorrow (16th)…
Wrapping up
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…
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. …