Natural England – for people, for places, for nature. NE, you have been studying Hen Harriers through satellite-tagging for 12 years and yet despite a hard-hitting report A Future for the Hen Harrier in England (2008) you have remained strangely silent about the worsening status of the Hen Harrier in England for six years. In…
Category: THE STATUTORY AGENCIES: NE, EA, FE etc
What’s up at Natural England?
This blog has learned that the new Chair of Natural England, Andrew Sells, has been taking a strong line on the consultation over the General Licence. He doesn’t seem terribly keen on the consultation at all – or is it the views of the public in response to the consultation that he dislikes? Or is…
Scapa flaw
This is a great letter from a former colleague of mine, Steve Sankey, to the SNP Scottish Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Paul Wheelhouse. It’s about a change in policy by Orkney Islands Council on ballast water management. Yawn? How dull? Not at all – quite interesting because it is very important! Here’s…
Who’s the favourite?
Two weeks tomorrow the Cheltenham Festival starts and the big race on Day 1 is the Champion Hurdle. There are many multiple winners of this race and Hurricane Fly tries to win the race for the third time (following 2011 and 2013). His main rival may be The New One who (appropriately enough) is having…
A question for Natural England
‘Our studies of the movements of satellite tagged birds are continuing, as they are yielding much useful information on the movements, habitat use, and ecology of Hen Harriers. But they are also raising questions about their ultimate fate. We have, for instance, been looking into the disappearance of six Hen Harriers at an autumn roost…
I blame the Environment Agency
It’s raining – I blame the Environment Agency. And while we are at it, I blame them for the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, toothache, late buses, cancer, the Great Fire of London, Eric Pickles, Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal, the Countryside Alliance, potholes, Judas Iscariot, the wreck of the Torrey Canyon, plagues of locusts,…
Maybe no harriers in England? Lead poisoning suspected. And a bit of wuthering.
The news that there may be no hen harriers nesting in England this year is sad but this day, if it has come, was going to come soon. Of course, extinction in England is a bit of an odd thing as England is ‘just’ a line on a map and on other sides of that…