I am a professor of Zoology at the University of Sheffield and a life-longer birder. I study reproduction – mainly infidelity in birds – and have kept a study of guillemots on Skomer Island going since the 1970s. I’m passionate about research and teaching undergraduates; I also enjoy communicating science to the public and have…
Category: BLOGS by guest authors
Guest Blog – There is nothing Green about these Country ‘Sports’ by Caroline Allen of the Green Party
Caroline Allen is a practising vet and the Green Party Spokesperson on Animals as well as Co-Chair of London Green Party. Caroline has worked on many animal-protection issues, most recently campaigning against the badger cull, expansion of factory farming and the overuse of antibiotics in animal farming. Shooting birds such as grouse and pheasants is…
Guest blog – Crunch time for Britain’s bees by Joan Walley MP
As MPs return to parliament from party conference season, leading MP Joan Walley, says the Government’s plans for bees ‘fail to offer’ the solution bees need. The decline in bee and other pollinators’ populations is a very real threat not just to the pollinators themselves but also to the world…
Guest blog – What Martha Means to Me by Emma Websdale
Emma Websdale is a Conservation Biologist and Writer. Working as the Communications Support Officer for The Wildlife Trusts, she is particularly motivated in engaging younger audiences, helping them make sure that nature doesn’t drop off their agenda. I sit on a train that’s heading to London, September’s issue of BBC Wildlife in my hands….
Guest blog – The Sunken Garden by ‘filbert cobb’
Filbert cobb is a regular contributor of comments to this blog. Sometimes he seems a bit nutty. He is often witty but gets very serious about climate change. I encouraged him to write a Guest Blog for us and I was not disappointed, in fact I was delighted, by what he sent. Boyhood, nature and…
Guest blog – Real life bugs, or a living planet..? A response by Max Barclay
Max Barclay is Collection Manager of Beetles at the Natural History Museum in London, where he manages a dedicated team of curators, and some 10 million specimens going back to the voyages of Charles Darwin, Captain Cook and beyond, consulted each year by hundreds of scientists from all over the world. A life-long naturalist, Max…
Guest Blog – It’s bee-hind you! by Teresa Verney-Brookes
I have spent many years in the conservation field and have worked for various national organisations including The Wildlife Trust and more recently as Education Officer for the RSPB. I now run my own Outdoor Education /Forest School business called Green-Trees. I feel passionately about the need connect children with the wonders of the wildlife…
Guest Blog – Real life bugs or a living planet? – by Pip Howard
Pip Howard is a British forester who lives and works in France. He worked with Save Our Woods and now at Forestcomms working on the pan European landscape research project HERCULES. Do Children Really Want Real Life Bugs or a Living Planet? All discussion on the environment will at some point, quite rightly, centre…
Guest Blog – Conservation bursaries by Oliver Simms
Oliver Simms has recently graduated from Durham University with a Classics degree and is about to start work as an accountant at the National Audit Office. He is a keen birder, hill walker and passionate conservationist, who has volunteered extensively including at Raptor Camp in Malta. He has served as Trip and Partnerships Officer for…
Guest Blog – a reply on Hen Harriers and grouse shooting from the Chair of RSPB Council
Professor Steve Ormerod is Chair of RSPB Council and Professor of Ecology in Cardiff School of Biosciences. Here he replies to an open letter from me that was posted on 4 June where I asked the RSPB to clarify its position on the Hen Harrier and grouse shooting issue. I’m grateful to Steve for his…