RSPB AGM on Saturday

  The RSPB AGM is on Saturday morning in the QEII Centre (opposite Westminster Abbey). It is open to members – and the actual AGM (not nearly as dull as it might sound) is free.  

Butterfly Conservation – flying high!

  The autumn issue of Butterfly came through the door yesterday, and with it Butterfly Conservation’s Annual Review for 2012/13.  Both are so well-produced and interesting that I have read them already. I highlighted the last issue of the magazine as being superb, and I’m not going to do it three times a year (though…

National Trust – looking good!

The National Trust has just issued a press release on its plans for the High Peak Moors. This has been a subject of concern and hope on this blog for quite some time (see here, here, here, here, and here). The text of the press release is reproduced below (with some good bits highlighted by…

NGO Watch

Have you noticed a breeze of change blowing through the NGO world?   At Plantlife, their much-loved Chief Executive, Victoria Chester, is moving on to a higher vocation and so they are looking for a new leader.     The Freshwater Habitats Trust has emerged, like a dragonfly, from the waters of Pond Conservation –…

A tangled bank

        If you subscribe to the excellent British Wildlife then you may have seen my article praising the wildlife NGOs for the State of Nature report which came out in June. I didn’t get the impression at the Bird Fair last week that any follow up is planned.  Maybe I’m wrong, but…

BBS

The BBS report covering 2012 is out – here is the link. The results: the results are the most important part of the report.  You should look at them, but here are some of the things that struck me, mostly concerning the long-term trends rather than the 2011-12 changes: there are a lot more greylag…

National Trust – well done! Now hold your nerve, please.

I say again – well done National Trust! The long-awaited NT response to the responses to their consultation document on management of the High Peak is out (click here). Despite being under lots of pressure from men in tweed the NT have, so far, held their nerve and make a robust response to people’s views. …

Support WWF’s new campaign – Virunga

I spent some time working with WWF at the beginning of this year.  They are a great bunch of campaigners and environmentalists and I had a good time making or renewing friendships whilst I was there. It slightly pains me that WWF-UK is spending less and less time involved in UK conservation issues because the…

Uncomfortable results for the RSPB

An overwhelming proportion of the respondents to the poll on this website do not approve of the planned change of the name of BIRDS magazine to ‘Nature’s Home’. The final results were 66 (12%) in favour and 497 (88%) against the change . When the poll started, the first 13 votes were ‘no’, and I…

What’s in a name?

I’m quite happy being called Mark.  It’s nice and short, easy to say and comes from the Roman god of war – Mark was one of the three commonest male names in Ancient Rome.  And seems fitting given that I was born in March too. My surname, Avery, is of uncertain origin.  I had a…