Oscar Dewhurst – Pheasant

Oscar writes: Outside where I was staying at Minsmere we had some birdfeeders, where two of the regular birds were a pair of pheasants. I lay down on the ground to get the diffuse foreground and background, and to give a more intimate perspective. Nikon D800, Nikon 600mm f4 AFS-II      

Cartoon by Ralph Underhill

  Ralph writes: “Consumer choice is too often only an option for those that can afford it (often a small proportion of sales, while buying better products is undoubtedly a good thing to do far too much emphasis is placed on the consumers role as a vehicle of change. Real environmental improvements will only come…

It’s the salty one

James Cross is the new Chief Exec of Natural England – he is the salty one. This represents a victory of the politicians and Andrew Sells, the NE Chair, over the Defra civil servants. Quite right too. But rumour has it that NE might have chosen a proper nature conservationist or two for their Board…

This blog has Klout

June was quite a busy month for this blog what with all that stuff about Hen Harriers and grouse moors and the ever-growing number of signatures on this e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting in England. However, it was the two blogs about Simon Barnes’s imminent departure from The Times that caused the biggest stir…

Four butterfly moments

Number 1: I spent five minutes in the garden, looking at my ‘meadow’ and ended up looking at a Meadow Brown (so it must be a meadow, mustn’t it?). Aren’t butterflies lovely? But wouldn’t they look quite ugly if they didn’t have such amazing wings? Have you ever looked at a butterfly’s face and body? …