BLOG POSTS
Saturday Cartoons from Ralph Underhill – two of them
Give as You Live
I have been using Give as You Live for over a year. After the usual amount of clicking and filling in fields you can open an account which allows you automatically to donate some of what you spend to a charity of your choice – and there is a big choice! Now I know that…
Announcing another artist for this blog – Jonnie Fisk
From Saturday lunchtime I will be featuring, every week, the artwork of Jonnie Fisk. Jonnie says “I’m a 18 year old birder, insect-enthusiast and frustrated artist from North Yorkshire, having been held in rapture by nature for most of my life. My birding is split between the moors around my house, Beaver Dyke Reservoir and…
Red Kites are normal now
Yesterday I took the train into London to meet the publishers of ‘A Message from Martha‘ for a chat. I added Great Spotted Woodpecker to my Wellingborough Station list but looked in vain for Red Kites. It was a dull day but they are usually mooching around the valley in which Wellingborough Station and the…
Return to Swanwick
I’ve been attending BTO Conferences at Swanwick in Derbyshire, off and on, for about 35 years. Over the years some things have changed and others haven’t. Hardly changed at all: there are always some inspiring talks – Ellie Owen’s was a highlight for me this year there is always a feeling of comradeship amongst…
Sad
The State of the UK’s Birds 2013 was published yesterday. It’s packed with beautiful photographs, clear graphs and maps and lots of information. It’s not all bad news – but there is quite a lot of bad news there. This is how the story was covered by the Guardian, Independent, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mirror, Express….
Caroline Lucas – Wildlife MP of 2013
Through gaining over 600 of the 1546 votes cast, Caroline Lucas was far and away the choice of readers of this blog as the MP who had done most for wildlife in 2013. Here are a few lessons that might come out of this poll. First place: Caroline Lucas, Green Party, 39% of the votes…
The Standing up for Nature Blog’s Wildlife MP of 2013 is…
…the only Green Party MP at Westminster, Caroline Lucas. Caroline secured a little under 40% of the 1546 votes cast. The full results were: Caroline Lucas MP 602 (39%) Owen Paterson MP 363 (23.5%) Barry Gardiner MP 209 (13.5%) Zac Goldsmith MP 183 (11.8%) ‘None of the above’ 80 (5.2%) Joan Walley MP 70…
The Passenger Pigeon centenary – talk available
The last Passenger Pigeon on Earth died on 1 September 1914 in Cincinnati Zoo. 100 years earlier this was the commonest bird on Earth – with a population of billions. Why did this abundant species die out? Should we care? What are the lessons for today? Book Mark Avery to speak to your Bird…