Rumour has it that the NT are under considerable pressure from shooting interests to back down from their much-welcomed and much-heralded proposed position on grouse shooting, heather burning and raptor persecution in the High Peak. I hope the rumours are wrong – they often are. The National Trust doesn’t currently have much to shout about…
Category: THE WILDLIFE NGOs – RSPB, Wildlife Trusts Wild Justice, BSBI etc
Our forests
The government published its response to the report of the report of the Independent Panel on Forestry last week. You will remember that 38 Degrees launched a campaign to Save our Forests and more than half a million people signed the petition worded as follows: The government is planning a massive sell off of our…
My BGBW results
I’ve just finished my hour-long Big Garden Birdwatch count – I didn’t need a long piece of paper to keep count. The total was four house sparrows and that’s the lowest species total, bird total and house sparrow total ever for my garden. Oh well – that’s the point of it – to count what…
Get ready for BGBW
This weekend is the annual Big Garden Birdwatch. BGBW has become a national institution and I love it. I’ll be sitting down to stare out at my garden for an hour next Sunday. The feeders are filled already. Will the usual house sparrows, collared doves, blackbirds, robin and goldfinches flock to or shun my garden…
Cartoon and bits and pieces
Apologies for the non-appearance of yesterday’s blog – I wrote it and then pushed the wrong button (and then spent a lot of time driving on snowy roads). Is it snowy enough for you? Imagine its impact on wildlife. A week tomorrow it is Big Garden Birdwatch – time to get those bird feeders filled…
Guest Blog – Not the BTO winter thrush survey by Hugh Brazier
Hugh Brazier was at school with Mark Avery a long time ago. He then spent many years in Ireland, where (among other things) he frequented seabird colonies off the west coast, ringed lots of puffins and storm petrels, and edited the journal Irish Birds. He is now based in York, where he works as a…
Our vanishing flora – new Plantlife report
Our Vanishing Flora is a new report from Plantlife. This report tells the awful story of how local losses of plants from our counties add up to a national disgrace. Over the reign of HM The Queen 10 plant species have become nationally extinct – hardly a subject for a jubilee celebration. Those…
Food for thought
I expect you have eaten well over the break and are probably, like me, a bit podgier than a couple of weeks ago – or maybe not? If there is anything that might put you off your food it is the sound of the President of the NFU going on about the need for greater…
BTO Winter Thrush Survey
Last week I did my Big Society thing for the BTO winter thrush survey. There was a spell of what we will have to call fine weather in the morning and I was out looking for blackbirds, song thrushes, mistle thrushes, redwings and fieldfares, and indeed waxwings and starlings, and indeed anything else that might…
Something for a rainy day
The weather forecast isn’t great for the next few days so you might find that you are stuck indoors when you would like to be out looking at waxwings or fieldfares (I must do some winter thrush recording) or geese or holly or ivy. Here are some new maps from the BTO to get your…