Standing up for Nature
We set off from West Bay with high hopes – Skipper Ian, Diver Dave, Biologist Tom and Ballast Mark. Huntress II passed the beach on which Reginald Perrin stripped and headed into the waves but we were going out into Lyme Bay in search of marine life – which was appropriate since I was getting…
Given the scale of illegal killing of raptors associated with driven grouse shooting it would be fair enough, in my opinion, for conservation organisations to campaign for the abolition of grouse shooting – but none of them yet does. Instead, conservationists are putting their members’ money into trying to find a legal way out for…
Today is the traditional start of the grouse shooting season – the Glorious 12th. Few red grouse will be shot today, but between now and the 10 December the season will be on, and guns will be willing to pay upwards of £1500 a day for shooting their share of 200,000 red grouse shot in…
One of the most exciting developments of recent years has been the ability to track birds with satellite tags – and the technology allows smaller and smaller birds to be tagged all the time. One of the most exciting current examples is that of cuckoos being tracked by the BTO as they make their way to…?…
The BBC has confirmed its intention to close the BBC Wildlife Fund. Chief axe-man, George Entwistle, appears unbending to the arguments of those who point out that this move will not save the BBC appreciable money – it will simply cost nature conservation appreciable money. In its first week, 7000 people signed the petition appealing…
I really enjoyed being interviewed by Charlie Moores in the garden of a Luton pub, and I really enjoyed listening to the interview again now it is online. We discussed farmers, grouse moors, the BTO, how I got into the RSPB and how I got out of it and I was asked to disclose the identity of…
I’m sure we all share the sentiments of Bob Neill, the CLG Minister, who attacked the National Trust for being a den of lefties. It has long been a worry to me that the National Trust has been such an anarchic and, frankly, revolutionary body, always championing underdogs, speaking out loudly on environmental issues and…
A reader of this blog contacted the Chair of the National Trust, Sir Simon Jenkins, over his apparent views on raptors as referred to in my blog on 9 July. And having been in contact with Sir Simon myself he writes ‘The piece was written before I had any link to the National Trust and certainly now…
Good to see that the RSPB has had a response to Max Hastings’s article of last week published in the Financial Times, a rather moderately worded response given the poor nature of the original article. It is always a bit of a lottery whether newspapers publish responses or not. It’s frustrating if errors go unchallenged…
Sparrow Survival, a wholly mythical NGO, reacted calmly to the news revealed in the erudite Sun ‘newspaper’ that one whole blue tit was eaten by a carnivorous plant, with the following statement: ‘We love plants but they’ll all have to die. This is proof-positive that plants are the cause of all songbird declines and they’ll just…