It made me smile anyway…

I don’t know much about art but I know what I like – and I like giant hen harriers crushing rangerovers. Did you see this – it happened over a month ago while I was in upper New York state. Well, it made me smile anyway. Other coverage: more Guardian, BBC, dazeddigital, London Evening Standard….

Lancashire’s ‘Bowland Betty’ bites the Yorkshire dust

A female hen harrier raised in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, last year, and fitted with a satellite tag, was found dead on a grouse moor in the Yorkshire Dales in June this year.  I hadn’t realised the trans-Pennine rivalry was so strong that the War of the Roses included shooting each other’s hen harriers….

Raptor round up

It would be perfectly possible to write about birds of prey, how wonderful they are and their troubled and shortened lives, every day on this blog.  I try not to do that because there are other sites that do it so well (raptor politics and raptor persecution Scotland) and because there are other big issues…

A burning question for the National Trust

This blog has been a bit critical of the National Trust in the past, suggesting that it isn’t taking its nature conservation work sufficiently seriously, and so  it gives me great pleasure to highlight an excellent piece of work, nearing fruition, by NT.  It’s such good news it is worth being the second blog of…

Guest Blog – response to Mark Avery by Magnus Linklater

Magnus Linklater is a former editor of The Scotsman and Scottish Editor of The Times. He is trustee of an estate in Perthshire, and a regular commentator on rural affairs.   I knew that taking on the RSPB would be nothing but trouble. But I was not quite prepared for the volume and ferocity of…