The November issue of The Field, that’s the one with a man in tweed with a gun and a couple of dogs (doesn’t necessarily narrow it down that much?) has some excellent articles in it. You can get some tips on brushing up your ability to bring down high pheasants and then how to cook…
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A grain of truth
The dry spring weather in England (while I was driving through the rain in the USA) prompted fears about the grain harvest which, it is good to record here, have proved to be largely unfounded. As in any year there have been winners and losers across the country but the UK wheat yield is estimated…
Raptor haters (?) nominated for Fields Medal
In their most recent outburst of anti-raptor letters the Daily Telegraph publishes a mathematical breakthrough deserving recognition. A letter states ‘ There are an estimated 80,000 sparrowhawks in Britain. They require at least one kill per day. The arithmetic is simple and compelling: 80,000 multiplied by 365 equals more than 29 million dead birds a year.‘….
Importing diseases
The government is about to spend a pittance on a very serious problem – but it should be celebrated as a start. Our trees are under threat from imported diseases – perhaps from some diseases that stand a better chance of becoming established under new climate scenarios. So Defra and the (unreconstructed) Forestry Commission have…
A tale of three warblers
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I find that I carry British Birds around with me for ages before I get around to reading it and so this blog is about the September issue which contains the report of the Rare Breeding Bird Panel. The contrasting fortunes of three warblers struck me as I read through the text; Cetti’s, Savi’s and…
How social is your charity?
A fairly recent ranking of how UK charities use social media makes interesting reading. There is a league table – we all love league tables – which puts the Royal Airforces Association as the 100th charity and Cancer Research as number one. On this list the National Trust is #7, the RSPB is #13, WWF…
Chaos theory – what happens when a butterfly doesn’t flap its wing?
The government and opposition argue about how to manage the economy. They agree that cuts are needed (although the size of the cuts is at issue) but the route to growth is in dispute. If you cut and cut will the economy stagnate? Many small businesses, including small NGOs, are worrying about how public spending…
That explains it
Back in the spring, while I was driving across the USA, when I got to the eastern side of South Dakota, to Sioux Falls, I found that I was about half way across the continent. And over the next few days it became obvious that there were some new birds turning up. The eastern meadowlarks…
Checking out
It’s better to be wildlife abroad than at home if you are relying on the English government for help; that appears to be the message from the report card issued by 29 environmental groups on the government’s progress. Defra gets green lights for whales and elephants but seven ambers and seven reds for everything else….
Not to everybody’s liking
The proposals for a new Common Agricultural Policy have not been welcomed with uniform approval. The existing system is not simple and understanding the changes is not simple either. It will take time before all the implications are thought through but here is a rather good summary (it’s a good summary but it isn’t light…