The burning of heather moorlands to create the right conditions for unnaturally high densities of Red Grouse may be harming the aquatic life in the rivers draining such uplands according to a new study. The authors, from Leeds University, studied the aquatic animals in 10 rivers in the north of England – five from burned…
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Golden Eagle – Scotland’s National Bird? Aye!
Golden Eagles occur all over the place – the USA, Spain and much of southern Europe and Scandinavia. Now the RSPB has launched a petition asking the Scottish Government to make the Golden Eagle Scotland’s National Bird. Who could disagree with that? Surely not those who manage grouse moors in eastern and southern Scotland? Vote…
Support Greenpeace’s Arctic 30
It’s no fun, I guess, to be stuck in a Russian jail. The fact that you are there because you were carrying out a peaceful protest because of your beliefs about the environment won’t make it any more fun. Ralph Underhill and I bring you these Christmas cards on environmental themes and any profits from…
A badger isn’t just for Christmas but…
Ralph Underhill and I have got together to bring you this set of three highly festive and wildlife-friendly Christmas cards. We thought that you might like to send them to the following people: Peter Kendall The National Farmers’ Union Agriculture House Stoneleigh Park Stoneleigh Warwickshire CV8 2TZ ————————————————————————————————————————————— Owen Paterson, Secretary of State George Eustice,…
Four tories
I was quite shocked by Owen Paterson’s performance on the Today programme on Tuesday in response to the Nature Check report (click here to listen, at 01:34 and 17 seconds). That is, shocked in the sense of outraged rather than surprised. The gist of Paterson’s comments was that the views of the 41 organisations signing…
Not such a bad idea…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Atlas – is launched!
The official launch of the Bird Atlas 2007-2011 was yesterday evening at the Royal Society. The room was packed with past and current BTO staff, partners from Birdwatch Ireland and the SOC, former Atlas organisers including Tim Sharrock, Peter Lack and David Gibbons, sponsors, BTO Regional Representatives (including the excellent Northants BTO RR), the editor…
50 years
I spend a lot of my time these days trying to persuade those who love nature to become more politically active. I’m often told that all politicians are the same: they are not. They never were, and they never will be. …
Adverts
Have a look at these two advertisements – they are very different in what they say about nature. Toys ‘R’ Us advertisment. Chipotle advert. Which did you like best? You may have noticed that adverts have appeared in the right hand sidebar of this webpage. I’ve not been terribly keen on the idea of having…