Those at the Game Fair who were baying for the removal of government-imposed red tape may just pause for thought now that Eric Pickles’s Department aims to remove much of the red tape that protects the beauty of the countryside to allow development to proceed more easily and to put economic growth ahead of protecting…
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Songbird Survival
I did say that the Game Fair might keep this blog going for ages! In one of his very amusing and entertaining, though not convincing, rants, Robin Page voiced the views that Songbird Survival was a very good organisation and that it was obvious that sparrowhawks and other predators were part of the reason for…
Bird Fair – gentle reminder
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Having enjoyed the Game Fair, and I really do, I can now look forward to the Bird Fair. I have just ordered a 3-day ticket and I’ll be looking forward to seeing lots of friends and colleagues over those three days, 19-21 August at Rutland Water. Will I see you there? And would you like…
Game Fair snippets
Wouldn’t you be p*ssed off?: I have noticed that there are some differences between men and women but those organising toilet facilities appear not to have twigged these. At an all day event there comes a time when nature calls and you look for the loos. On Saturday afternoon I strolled briskly into the gents…
Game Fair
I was at the CLA Game Fair on Friday and Saturday. In a previous existence I used to spend three days there but I’ve given myself Sunday off for good behaviour. A couple of days at the Game Fair could provide the inspiration for a year’s blogs, and much of this coming week’s blogging will…
Readers’ offer
I am at the Game Fair (Fri and Sat). I’m pretty sure this will provide bloggable material for a while! But while I am away – why not buy this excellent book which is a fully updated and enlarged edition of an earlier work? Oliver Prys-Jones and Sarah Corbet are old friends and colleagues from…
Tosh
I do wonder about vets sometimes. In the Sunday Telegraph a ‘report’ (which has not yet been published) is featured under the sensational headline ‘The extinct species back from the brink and causing mayhem’. Crikey! Which species are these? Well, the article doesn’t give any actual examples of mayhem being caused unless you count the red kite which…
Shooting in the dark
This is probably the last word on this blog on badgers for a while – but who knows? Today the Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman made the long-awaited announcement on badger culling in a House of Commons more interested in what was about to happen across the road in Portcullis House where phone-hacking would be the…
Brocks and Brooks
Twitter is buzzing today with suggestions that the English Government will announce its decision on badger culling tomorrow. We’ll see – but I’d keep your ears open at around 1230 or so if I were you (unless you are a badger in which case I’d run down a hole, put your paws over your ears…
Butterflies, Sir David, Ingrams, Waitrose and windfalls
I’ve done my bit for Butterfly Conservation this weekend and carried out a Big Butterfly Count in the back garden. This very serious survey was postponed as when the rain fell this morning I nipped in to Waitrose in Rushden to stock up on cheap white wine and found that my local Waitrose store was…