On Monday I went to the Linking Environment and Farming President’s conference in the headquarters of HSBC in Canary Wharf. I have a lot of time for LEAF, although there were a few moments on Monday when I thought I might have stumbled into an NFU conference instead of a LEAF one. How long should…
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Fighting for Birds – French review
Review from Ornithos, the magazine of the French Birdlife partner (soon to be known as ‘donnant une maison a la nature‘ – peut-etre? ‘Vivant, concret, souvent instructif et parfois captivant‘. 21 5-star reviews on Amazon – still makes a great Christmas present for the committed birdwatcher, nature conservationist or environmentalist. Buy here. All comments on…
WOS
Last Saturday I drove into Wales, to Monmouth, to spend the day at the meeting of the Welsh Ornithological Society. I gave a talk and listened to lots of others. This year is the 50th anniversary of the Gwent Ornithological Society so it was fitting that we were in Monmouth. I enjoyed hearing from Al…
Golden Eagle – Scotland’s favourite animal (but not on grouse moors)
The Golden Eagle is Scotland’s favourite wild animal – by quite a long way according to the voting. It claimed the top spot ahead of four lovely mammals; Red Squirrel, Red Deer, Otter and Harbour Seal. What a shame then that so many places ideally suited to Golden Eagles lack their presence. Only three of…
Sunday Book Review – Winging It: birding for low flyers by Andrew Fallan
This book is another one about being an ‘avid’ birder in a world of experts who are better at identifying birds than are you. It’s a somewhat engaging journey around well-known birding localities seeing and missing birds. I was pleased every time that Andrew Fallan saw his target species and he does collect a…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
Wildlife Crime – Westminster Hall debate
Westminster Hall debates are important ways by which Parliament can discuss matters of importance outside the House of Commons chamber. Earlier this month there was a Westminster Hall debate on Wildlife Crime sought by the members of the Environmental Audit Committee to give the Government a nudge after the EAC published their excellent report on…
Animal Aid on grouse shooting
Today Animal Aid is calling for public subsidies to be withdrawn from millionaire grouse shooters. In its new report on grouse shooting, Calling the Shots, the UK’s largest animal rights group sets out its case. It contains extensive reference to the Walshaw Moor affair as well as to persecution of birds of prey and the…
Your money, not theirs
Farmers Weekly has a poll on its website (a website not usually visited by huge numbers of non-farmers) about whether it is right to transfer money that goes to farming from subsidies to green schemes. The answer has to be ‘yes’ because subsidies represent untargetted income support to rich and poor farmers, good and bad…
A length of hedge
I have been exploring the area around Edinburgh. I’ve seen Velvet Scoter and Long-tailed Ducks (neither is a species I see often), and came across 110 Whooper Swans in a field, saw a Peregrine at Aberlady Bay and have seen a variety of waders (although no Purple Sandpipers so far), but the thing that I’ll…