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…
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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…
Brooks and badgers
Thinking about next week’s Game Fair at Blenheim, I remember a few years ago sitting next to the Telegraph columnist Charlie Brooks at lunch on the Friday. Mr Brooks had just recently written a piece slagging off the RSPB so we had a few things to chat about and the conversation roamed over the usual…
Thinking about ponds
Comments Off on Thinking about ponds
I spent Wednesday mostly thinking about ponds. This wasn’t just a reverie – I am a trustee of the excellent small conservation charity ‘Pond Conservation’. They certainly didn’t choose me because of my great knowledge of ponds, but I said ‘yes’ to Pond Conservation because I admire what they are doing, and at their AGM…
Fair point
I recently received in the post my tickets for the CLA Game Fair. This year it is at Blenheim at the end of next week. The last time the Game Fair was at Blenheim the queues into the car park were horrendous so if you come next week, my advice is to set off early –…
I’d like to be ‘rurban’ please
The furthest you can get away from the sea in the UK is about 70 miles and it is up a hill in Derbyshire. I wonder what is the furthest place away from the countryside? I am guessing that it will be some point in central London – maybe the House of Commons itself? –…
Badgers
Let’s be clear about one thing right from the start – badgers play an important role in spreading bovine tuberculosis (bTB) to cattle herds. But we’ll come back to that. This week should see an English government announcement on badger culling. The announcement must come very soon if it is to happen before the Parliamentary…
Bears, condors, kites and foxes – not for cuddling
The recent killing of a male hiker by a grizzly bear is the first such death in Yellowstone National Park for 25 years and seems to be a highly unfortunate case where walkers accidentally disturb a bear with young and the mother bear defends her cubs. A month ago I had my own close encounter…
The raptor haters – Simon Jenkins
The raptor haters is an occasional series of articles on people who slag off birds of prey. Sir Simon Jenkins is an amazingly gifted writer and obviously a very clever man. I love the way he writes and I read his articles for pleasure as well as for education. Back in May 2008, when the…