Regular readers of this blog will remember the mystery of the dying hedge near where I live in Northamptonshire (see here, here and all the comments on the blogs). Local artist , and designer of the jacket for A Message from Martha, Carry Akroyd, once painted this hedge because it was so beautiful (see below)….
Category: FARMING
The benighted Peter Kendall
Congratulations to Sir Peter Ashley (it’s always fun to discover people’s middle names) Kendall for his appearance in the New Year Honours List. See here, here, here, here for some examples of Peter’s contributions. Other recipients of honours that either do, or seem to, have a wildlife link, that I spotted, are as follows: Allan…
Just someone’s anecdote
You remember that the NFU President was quoted by Farmers Weekly as saying that there are ‘10 times more ground-nesting birds in the Gloucestershire area since the cull started‘? Well, I ‘phoned up the NFU Press Office and what sounded like a nice young man told me that this was based on anecdotal evidence. No,…
Vaccination of badgers
The good thing about this strange statement from the NFU is that they are wanting more vaccination of badgers. One of the strange things is that they seem to think that it is the job of wildlife charities to provide it rather than their own industry or government. This represents, it appears, quite a lurch…
This could be a very useful list
The latest in the ‘You Forgot the Facts, Sir Ian’ campaign is reaching out to the farming community. Farmers are being asked to sign up to an error-riddled anti-RSPB letter, and when 100 of them do, then their names will be published. I’ve always wanted a list of the 100 most ecologically illiterate and rabid…
We’re all farmers now
It must be terribly difficult being the Prince of Wales – but perhaps a little less difficult than being many of his potential future subjects. HRH writes in Country Life magazine this week about why we must put a value on the countryside. It is in these wide-ranging thought pieces that HRH seems least thoughtful…
Liz Truss – do one good thing
The continuing decline of farmland birds in our countryside (red line) is a clear sign that we are farming unsustainably (there are plenty of other signs – but this is a pretty good one). Yes 2012-13 was a pretty bad period for resident birds (and we are mostly talking residents here) but hardly one out…
Hope continues to rise
Every picture tells a story – and this one tells a big story. This graph shows the farmland bird index at the RSPB’s Hope Farm and in England as a whole. It shows a slow, steady decline in England altogether (blue line) but a massive overall rise (red line) at Hope Farm. Read more about…
Disease implicated as a cause of Turtle Dove decline – a bit.
The Turtle Dove is a lovely bird but is declining dramatically in the UK but also in many other parts of Europe. Although one of the more dramatic problems it faces is being shot by hunters on migration, particularly unsportingly (and illegally) on spring migration, this has never seemed to me to be likely to…
Last day to vote
…for the Fair to Nature farmer. I voted for Graham Birch but all these farmers look very good to me.