Standing up for Nature
The pigeon was known as Martha, and the species was the Passenger Pigeon. Amongst all extinctions, this example remains unusual in two respects: the precision with which the timing is known and the overwhelming abundance of the species just a few decades earlier – for, just a few decades before Martha died, the Passenger Pigeon…
I know I’m a tad biased, but I do think this is a good book and it’s just as good to read now as it was two years ago on publication day. The idea, launched in this book, of being a conservation investor rather than a ‘member’ or ‘supporter’ is a lasting one and many…
Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Geddington’s Green Fair, just a few miles away from home. I took some copies of Reflections and sold 10 of them – that was pretty good. I rarely go through Geddington but it is a pretty Northamptonshire village with a cricket pitch, village pub and church, stone cottages aplenty…
Rachel Hudson is a natural history illustrator gaining wider recognition for her collaborations with conservation partners to champion species at risk. In 2022 she graduated with an MA in Illustration with full distinctions from Falmouth University. Since then, she has worked with the National Trust, Iceberg Press and is currently illustrating a book about the…
I received the email in blue below a few days ago, but since I was looking at gentians on The Burren (I think that’s what they were) and seeing hundreds and hundreds of Whimbrel in Galway Bay (I’m sure about them), hearing my first Cuckoo of the year in Connemara (yep, that’s a positive identification)…
The pigeon was known as Martha, and the species was the Passenger Pigeon. Amongst all extinctions, this example remains unusual in two respects: the precision with which the timing is known and the overwhelming abundance of the species just a few decades earlier – for, just a few decades before Martha died, the Passenger Pigeon…
The media coverage of the Inglorious Twelfth is very muted this year. Daily Telegraph – a rambling piece as much about Pheasants and partridges as Red Grouse. At least it admits that game shooting is in crisis but says it is an ancient sport. That’s as ancient as the Victorian age as far as driven…
I occasionally tell you about the huge wealth that comes from writing books – well, my books anyway. I’ve just had a royalty payment from Bloomsbury for Birds and Forestry (1989, with Roderick Leslie), A Message from Martha (2014) and Inglorious (2015, 2nd edition 2016). In 2022 these three books, but basically Inglorious, earned me…
This paper is a mixture of the completely obvious and the quite important. It takes the oft-quoted suggestion by pro-grouse-shooting interests, that the only real alternative land uses to intensive driven grouse shooting are harmful agriculture and harmful afforestation, and says that isn’t true. It clearly isn’t, because what happens in terms of land use…
I’ve been away quite a lot over the last three weeks and it’s now good to be home but the time travelling for family, work and holiday were great too. I spoke, and listened, at a marvellous Book and Arts Festival in Strontian – the Three Lochs Festival. What a setting, what a friendly group…