Guest blog – ELS/HLS madness by Andrew Carter

Andrew Carter is a farmer in South Wilts with a pedigree Aberdeen-Angus herd which is making use of both chalk downland and meadows in the Hampshire Avon valley – much within the current Higher Level Stewardship scheme. He practices conventional arable farming, but with a high quantity of environmental balancing. A lifelong interest in natural…

BREAKING: A new species discovered on grouse moors (by Alan Cranston)

BREAKING NEWS: Scientists have been astounded by the discovery of a new species on Britain’s uplands. Given the scientific name Apodemus loricatorum aprilis asinus, it is found only on driven grouse moors. Research has shown that it can survive only in that specialised environment and scientists are excited by its extraordinarily rapid evolutionary development. Professor…

Guest blog – Balls by Olaf Lipor and Ian Parsons

We hear so much about the introduction of the government’s new ‘Fat Tax’ that we no longer really listen to the detail. But, as birdwatchers, we really should be listening, because this new tax is going to hit us very hard financially. The new tax will substantially increase the price of foods that are high…

Guest blog – A Natural Tree Line? by Douglas Gooday

I work as a Ranger in Aberdeenshire, where much of my time is spent delivering environmental education programmes in which I take school children out into semi-natural habitats (we don’t really have any natural habitats in the UK, hence we use the term semi-natural) and teach them about different aspects of Scotland’s ecology. In the…

Guest blog – Bookends by Tim Bidie

I am a 63 year old retired British and Sultan of Oman’s Army Officer living overseas, in Oman, running a small business advisory consultancy in Muscat, helping small to medium sized British and European Companies achieve business there. I am a salt water (mainly) catch and release fly fisherman who occasionally shoots for the pot (with…