Last week, the latest UK Biodiversity Indicators were published. Did you see the government press release about them? Did you hear Defra ministers quizzed about them on every news bulletin through the day? This is the second blog post of the day on this report, and deals with the marine environment where there seems to…
Category: MARINE PROTECTION
Tim Melling – Brown Skua
Tim writes: skuas are closely related to gulls but differ in their bill structure. In summer a lid develops from the base of the bill covering the nostrils. In fact, the old name Pomatorhine for Pomarine Skua translates from Greek as lidded nose, and that lid is visible here in the sitting bird. These are…
Westminster update
Did you notice that we have a new Prime Minister? That’s not the only movement… Michael Gove goes (to Cabinet Office) – I’m sorry to see him go because I would have liked to see him deliver on some of his best promises. All bets are off on everything – is that any way to…
Guest blog – I must tell you something of the Beaver by Derek Gow
“I must tell you something of the Beaver”. When William Harrison the Canon of Windsor wrote those words in 1577 he presented his description of the beaver he knew in the following fashion “Certes the tail of this beast is like unto a thin whetstone, as the bodie unto a monstrous rat: the beast also…
Guest blog – A Diet of Worms by Paul Sterry
Paul Sterry has an academic background in freshwater biology and is a passionate conservationist. He has been writing about natural history and photographing wildlife for the last 40 years, with an emphasis on the British scene. Vermin. One way and another, it’s a familiar word these days but one where meaning and interpretation have morphed…
Sunday book review – Rocky Shores by John Archer-Thomson and Julian Cremona
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This is a lovely book and makes me wish that my adopted county of Northamptonshire had some coastline, and rocky shores at that, to which I could rush to explore some rockpools with my newly gained knowledge. The Bloomsbury Wildlife series might possibly be seen as a competing series of books to the Collins New…
Guest blog – Please help protect seahorses by Neil Garrick-Maidment
I am the founder and executive Director of The Seahorse Trust and have worked with seahorses from around the world for 42 years and I have concentrated on British seahorses since the early 1990s. Prior to my research, seahorses were not considered to be a native species but just an accidental visitor, however having an…
Coul Links crowdfunder
I like it when conservation organisations work together on important issues – here’s one. The Save Coul Links Conservation Coalition was formed by Buglife, Butterfly Conservation Scotland, Marine Conservation Society, National Trust for Scotland, Plantlife, RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust to help save Coul Links – an internationally important wildlife site, protected by…
National Trust press release
Puffin. Photo: ©National Trust Images/Paul Kingston Farnes puffin numbers rally after initial concern in five-yearly survey results Results from a five-yearly survey reveal puffin numbers are stable on the remote Northumberland Farne Islands, cared for by the National Trust. Last May concerned rangers speculated that the initial low numbers from the outlying islands of this…
Guest blog series, A Break from Humanity (12) by Ian Carter.
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Continued from last Saturday A few days later I went back to the north-east of the island, this time with my fishing rod, threading it through the tall stems of Bracken as I walked, or even hoisting it over my head, above the dense canopy of fronds. I’d not managed to find anywhere else on…