I care deeply about the performance of Natural England – the government agency which is supposed to act in nature’s interests. That’s why I am taking a judicial review against their decision to license brood meddling (see here – we had two days in court last week but we need another day and we are…
Category: ME:
Southern Arizona remembered
I was in southern Arizona at the end of May, for a couple of days. Both days were with the excellent bird guide Richard Fray – see two previous blogs from 2013 where I also was shown loads of birds by Richard (here and here). The second day this year was rather similar to my…
Peak leaf-peeping time
I popped in to London a few days ago. Well, if you can call a journey which involved four trains and two tubes ‘popping in’ then I popped in. And two of the trains were cancelled and the other two were late so it was quite a slow ‘pop’. The 07:38 from Wellingborough was cancelled…
KOS it makes sense!
I spoke at the Kent Ornithological Society’s conference in Canterbury on Saturday. I’d like to thank the organisers for inviting me and laying on a great day for us all. The road to Canterbury passes too close to Rainham Marshes to ignore them (and a Cattle Egret or two), and too close to Gravesend not…
Today in London
Today was a good day. Yellow-browed warbler. Photo: Tim Melling I saw, but mostly heard, a Yellow-browed Warbler in London – one was calling loudly and often in the gardens at the back of the Athenaeum, Travellers and Reform Clubs and across the road from the Royal Society. It took me a while to work…
Upland Britain – a brighter, fairer future
Let us consider the uplands of the UK. My little essay in the Manifesto for Wildlife set out a list of 10 actions to rejuvenate the uplands and to make our hills better for wildlife and for people. It has attracted a lot of enthusiastic praise as being far-sighted and at the same time a…
A rather dull, not very technical, technical update.
This post explains some things that are going on behind the scenes of this blog and asks for your views. This blog has published almost 5,500 posts since it sprang into life in April 2011. I’ve written most of them although there have been plenty of guest blogs (see here for guidance if you would…
See you for a chat on Sunday (and Saturday looks good too!)
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Yorkshire Wildlife Trust have arranged a programme of events at Potteric Carr Saturday and Sunday 21st-22nd July in celebration of the reserve’s 50th birthday. Visitors can enjoy free entry to the site and trails, where there will be activities for all ages and reserve volunteers and wardens throughout, to help visitors spot wildlife and…
Northern Harriers
It was, perhaps appropriately enough, soon after I passed through Bird City, Cheyenne County, Kansas that I saw my first Northern Harrier on my recent visit to the USA. After that they were an almost daily presence which made me think of Hen Harrier issues back home frequently. Until recently this was regarded as a…
Scottish trip
Going to Scotland at the weekend served many purposes: I saw my son, I picked up many cases of whisky (not all mine) which were purchased years ago but have now matured, I escaped the heat of southern England for the relative coolness of central Scotland, I had a brief look at the Strathbraan Raven…