I have come to the end of March and not seen or heard a single spring migrant. Amazing. Did you notice that Oxford won the Boat Race – and I think I may have seen an otter holding on to the back of the Cambridge boat… The editor of the Independent, Chris Blackhurst, writes a…
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Happy Easter
Birds’ eggs are very beautiful – there’s something about the perfect smooth oval shapes that is pleasing to the eye. Personally, I’m hopeless at identifying bird eggs – I am almost clueless about what different species’ eggs look like. This is very different from previous generations of birders and naturalists and conservationists, many of whom…
I hope they sink (II)
The Beds, Cambs and Northants Wildlife Trust has really got stuck in to the Cambridge University Boat Club issue – see their website here. A letter has been submitted to the Daily/Sunday Telegraph from prominent environmentalists asking the Cambridge University Boat Club to reconsider its position – if not published by Telegraph newspapers it will…
‘Protect creation’ says Pope Francis
This blog asked some time ago whether the choice of the new Pope would have any environmental importance – and my hopes weren’t that high, to be honest. Pope Francis mentioned the environment and the need to ‘protect creation’ in his first mass. That’s a good start (see coverage here, here, here but particularly…
Book Review – Bird Conservation by Williams et al
Bird Conservation – global evidence for the effects of interventions by David R Williams, Robert G Pople, David A Showler, Lynn V Dicks, Matthew F Child, Erasmus KHJ zu Ermgassen and William J Sutherland. Published by Pelagic Publishing. Paperback £34.99, Hardback £64.99, e-Book £19.99. 575 pages. This is a very useful reference book for conservation…
Well done Hawk and Owl Trust!
The Hawk and Owl Trust are throwing their support behind the e-petition on the licensing of grouse moors and gamekeepers. Well done! Let’s see what other bird conservation organisations do… But you can sign up here – it’s going well, so far.
Winter still
It’s not exactly spring-like is it? My chances of seeing/hearing chiffchaff, willow warbler, sand martin, swallow and wheatear in Northants by the end of March are virtually nil (and I haven’t troubled the scorer with any of them yet). There was, apparently, an arrival of wheatears on the south coast last Saturday, and one popped…
I hope they sink
I was an undergraduate at Cambridge but I hope that the Cambridge boat sinks in Sunday’s University Boat Race. Why? Because the Cambridge University Boat Club is planning to build a new boathouse (although it is far more than just a boathouse) on one of the best sites for otters in Cambridgeshire, and its impact…
Vote for Abernethy, please
Sometimes opportunities come along when you may make a difference that is far in excess of the effort that you expend. An example of such an opportunity is the public poll organised by the European Outdoor Conservation Association (of whom I had never heard before this week – so they have gained some good publicity)…
I’ll be turning off my lights…
…and computer at 2030 for WWF’s Earth Hour. Will you join me and hundreds of millions of others?