Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
Category: BLOGS by guest authors
Guest blog – Short-eared Owls need your help by Jimmi Hill
Based on the Cheshire/Flintshire border. Founding trustee and Chair of Raptor Aid CIO a UK based charity with a focus on birds of prey and their conservation. A licensed ringer and field worker covering birds of prey as an active member of several raptor study groups across the UK. Twitter: @raptor_jimmi “You’re Joking – Not…
Guest blog – Creating Shrike Shrublands by Steve Jones
Steve Jones (stevecjones.uk) has worked in UK and international conservation for nearing three decades. He’s unusually fond of shrikes. In fact, he’s written a short book about how to create ’Shrike Shrublands’ in the UK (click here). Here, he summarises how we might go about creating species-rich grassland-shrubland mosaics. Twitter: @SteveCJJones ‘Scrub’ has…
Guest blog – Lead ammunition, the way forward by John Swift
Mark writes: John Swift is the former boss of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and from 2010 chaired the Lead Ammunition Group set up by the last Labour government which reported to government in 2015 and which was treated so shabbily by the outgoing Secretary of State for Environment, a certain Liz Truss,…
Stephen Moss’s 2023 Round-up of Nature Books
Stephen Moss is a naturalist, author and, until recently, a course leader of the MA in Travel & Nature Writing at Bath Spa University. Here is his annual round-up of books about wildlife, nature and the environment which was formerly published by The Guardian but this is the sixth year it has appeared on this…
Guest blog – The Geese will tell it in Autumn by Vanessa Wright
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Vanessa divides her time between Hertfordshire and the Hebrides and loves to write about birds, butterflies and beachcombing. She gave up corporate life during the pandemic, taking the plunge to follow her passion for wildlife. Recently finishing a Masters in Nature and Travel Writing, she has been announced as a Runner-Up in the BBC Countryfile…
Guest blog – Across The Pond: How ecological conservation differs between the US and the UK by Melusine Velde
Mélusine Velde is a franco-american ecologist and flower enthusiast from Chicago, Illinois. During her studies at the University of Chicago and Imperial College London, she supplemented her classroom studies with extensive exploration of the parks and trails around her campuses, and most importantly, the plants and animals that inhabit them. Her interests and passions in…
Guest blog – The SEA EAGLE: was its extinction justified? by John A. Love
Born and bred in Inverness, with a zoology degree from Aberdeen, I managed the reintroduction of Sea Eagles from Norway to Rum 1975 to 1985, for NCC, and remain on the UK Project Team as an independent. Moved to South Uist as Area Officer for SNH/NatureScot covering Uist, Barra and St Kilda 1992-2006. Retired to…
Guest blog – A Farewell by Twitcher in the Swamp
If you read British Wildlife, the subscription-only magazine that was launched back in 1989, and which has now reached its 35th volume, you may know my column Twitcher in the Swamp. It began halfway through Volume 1, and finally ended at the end of Volume 34. I have grown old with Twitcher. A single page…
Guest blog – Shooters’ ecological illiteracy on social media by Paul Irving
Now I’ve been a wildlife freak almost all of my 72 years and for much of my working life, it was part, even if sometimes tangentially of what I did. My main interest is/was raptors but not to the exclusion of anything else, if it flies, crawls, walks, swims, slithers or just flowers I’m interested…