Which of these signs of spring have you seen or heard? Singing birds: song thrush, chaffinch,greenfinch, great tit, robin, dunnock, blackbird – what else? Flowering plants: snowdrop, aconite, primrose – what else? Flying insects – brimstone, bumblebee – what else? At my local patch of Stanwick Lakes there are still plenty of signs of winter;…
BLOG POSTS
Who runs your NGOs?
This blog follows on from yesterday’s. If there are too many wildlife NGOs (as I believe, and as some of you believe) then how will mergers or closer working come about? There are four major stakeholders involved: the senior staff in the NGOs, their trustees and their members – oh yes, and the Nature whose…
Winds of change?
I’m not the best person to write about organisational structures because this is a subject that sometimes makes my eyes glaze over. Sometimes, but not always, and so this blog deals with just that subject and on three different levels. Martin Harper has been dealing with the 3-card trick in his blog recently (here and…
Four hours from home
When your kids leave home it’s a big relief – although I find that leaving home, that was an ‘event’ for me when I went to university, is just a gradual change of emphasis for my daughter and son. But it still opens up the opportunity to re-live the joys of spending money on your…
Cartoon by Ralph Underhill (and an odd NFU story)
I don’t have a great deal of admiration for the NFU’s grip on science and so when I was sent a link to them advertising a job (but please read to the end of this post) for a scientific adviser and spokesperson I was quite sceptical – you might even say, cynical. When I read…
The price of food
We come back to the price of food every now and again in this blog. It’s not a subject I know that much about but I’m happy to go along with the general consensus that we have cheap food and that food has become cheaper over the last 40 years or so. I read in…
Raptors
1. The Bowland Betty story from the BBC – well worth a look. Nice to see Tim Melling, Jude Lane, Stephen Murphy, Paul Irving, Des Thompson and others being so sensible. Martin Gillibrand, on the other hand, speaking for the Moorland Association, just looks foolish – have a look. It is difficult to see why…
Where were you?
On Monday I met a mermaid who was no mere maid, saw that bloke off the telly and spotted the most unlikely revolutionary journalist – and it was jolly cold. It was probably jolly cold everywhere, but it was cold walking across Westminster Bridge with hundreds of others calling on the government (that means you…
Michael McCarthy
In a month’s time, on 26 March, Michael McCarthy leaves The Independent newspaper as their Environment Editor. With his departure I will no longer hesitate over which newspaper to buy – I can just pick up the Guardian every time knowing that I won’t be missing a McCarthy article in The Indie. Many nature conservationists’…
A better deal for our seas
I’m heading for the London Eye to meet up with hundreds of other folk to express our disappointment with the English government’s feeble (lack of) progress on Marine Conservation Zones and marine protection in general. Will I see you there at 11am? I hope so – say hello if you see me. I’ll blog about…