Standing up for Nature
09:30 Bats in churches Diana Spencer (Merlin) 10:15 Rebirding – rewilding Britain and its birds Ben Macdonald (Authors’ Forum) 11:30 Wild Justice the first 6 months Mark Avery (Osprey) 12:00 Nature Calls Mark Carwardine (Events) 13:00 A tabloid history of birdwatching Paul Thomas (Authors’ Forum) 13:30 Hen Harrier LIFE Cathleen Thomas (Harrier) 15:30 our flyway…
09:30 Champagne and birds Keith Betton (Hobby) 10:00 Making an impact – using film to help stop illegal bird persecution Ruth Peacey (Osprey) OR Wild women do Amy-Jane Beer (Hobby) or Wilding – the return of nature to a British farm Isabella Tree (Authors’ Forum) 12:00 Chris Packham (Events) 13:45 Bird Therapy Joe Harkness (Authors’…
09:30 Wild Justice the first six months – Ruth Tingay (Harrier) 11:30 Wild China – Sichuan’s Birds – Tim Melling (Harrier) 13:00 Best days ever: the World Series chaired by Chris Goodie (Events Marquee) OR The Red Kite – Ian Carter and Dan Powell (Authors’ Forum) 13:30 Swifts and biodiversity Edward Meyer (Merlin) 14:00 Wilding…
Chris Packham and I were invited to the Game Fair today to face questions, in front of a Game Fair audience, from Charlie Jacoby of the Fieldsports Channel – and then the invitation was rudely withdrawn by the likes of the Countryside Alliance, BASC and GWCT (see here, here, here). After a bit of fixing…
Today the Game Fair opens under a cloud – however sunny a day it might be in Hertfordshire. From the top to the bottom those involved in shooting have, by their words and actions, lowered the reputation of game-shooting as a legitimate pastime. And yes, I recognise that there are many decent and honourable people…
I still haven’t heard from the Game Fair directly – that’s a bit rude of them. And I haven’t heard from BASC yet on whether they regard me as an extremist – and on what grounds. I was interested to see the tweet above from Kerry McCarthy MP about a Defra minister going to the…
Back in 2017 I wrote this blog post – it’s worth a re-read I think because I was surprised (I’d forgotten, these things don’t stay with me very long) how vitriolic the shooting industry can get. In that blog, I wrote this; Some in the shooting industry think that I have broken that promise but…
You’ll be missing out on a treat if you don’t attend the 2019 Bird Fair which kicks off six weeks today. Laughingly called the Birders’ Glastonbury (Tim Appleton plays the Michael Eavis role) it has less music, fewer people, less campaigning and more wildlife. It’s an event that everyone should try once – and that…
I shall be at the 2019 Bird Fair on all three days – at least that is my intention. The Bird Fair has been a part of my life for decades and it is a great, although imperfect, part of the year. I rashly predicted that the Bird Fair would raise less money in 2018…
Yesterday I spent some time at the Student Conference on Conservation Science at Cambridge. It started yesterday in the lecture theatre in which I had many of my first year undergraduate lectures 42 years ago. Nice to see the lecture theatre has had a lick of paint since then. I think I was wheeled out…
