I’ve now heard my first chiffchaff and seen a common tern too (both on Friday). This weekend should deliver lots of migrants – I hope! The cuckoos are coming with Scottish Chance on the right side of the Sahara, English Chris is keen as mustard near Dijon although the Welsh David and Lloyd are still…
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Ralph Underhill cartoon
National Trust worryingly quiet
This blog praised the National Trust for its consultation on land management in the High Peak. Time is ticking away and there is a worrying silence. No doubt the Trust has come under pressure from the shooting community, but those of us who are ordinary paying members of NT are also waiting to see whether…
Wuthering Moors – 30
Blogs entitled ‘Wuthering Moors’ form a series of articles about the Walshaw Moor Estate and its relationship with Natural England and Defra. Dear Defra I understand that you have sent your response to the EU Commission following the complaint by the RSPB about the way that matters at Walshaw Moor were handled by Natural England…
Lydd – bad news
Earlier today the Secretaries of State for Local Government and Transport approved the planning application for an airport at Lydd. The Secretaries of the State have found that there is development plan support for the proposals from LP policy TR15 and that, in an area where the prospects of significant regeneration remain precarious, the proposals…
Tilting at the RSPB
That James Delingpole – he’s a bit of a card isn’t he? His latest rant, which resembles quite a few of his previous rants, is about the RSPB supporting carefully-sited wind turbines. It’s well worth a read to see how thin the arguments are. The RSPB is making ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds a year’…
DC on the plane to Cyprus
David Cameron is hopping around Europe in the vain hope of persuading other European countries to support his wish that more of the EU rules should be made voluntary rather than mandatory. He is expected to get short shrift in Madrid, Paris and Berlin but then maybe he should be heading to Nicosia and Valetta…
There is no evidence that there is no evidence.
I’ve had a bout of man-flu recently, so I have been feeling sorry for myself and listening to lots of Radio 4 (and I’ve discovered more of the pleasures of Radio 4Extra). One of the stories that played through the last week or so was the temporary closure of Leeds General Infirmary for heart surgery. …
– quite some time ago I mentioned a joint statement by the GWCT and the RSPB on the results of the study of raptors gobbling up red grouse which took place at Langholm. I’m grateful to GWCT for putting this report on their website where anyone can now refresh their memories of the results…
Cartoon by Ralph Underhill
A couple of weekends ago I was driving down to Surrey. There was snow in the fields and snow and ice on the branches of the trees. The wind had been consistently from the east for days. It was a grey and chill day. As I drove south down the M1 I passed through several…