Feedback

When I sent out my short recent ‘newsblast’ to over 1300 people one of them replied as follows:   “No,don’t send me anymore of your crap.When you start considering all bird life instead of just raptors then by all means.I put a bird table up 30 yrs ago,had it full of garden birds untill (sic) the…

Miscellany

More birding bits and pieces: After my blog of last week I can now add peregrine to my M1 list (hunting over a field near Luton) and another ‘up-and-about-early’ red kite from the M1 somewhere in Hertfordshire (I think!). Birkbeck: I enjoyed giving a public lecture at Birkbeck on Friday evening – lots of good…

Ralph Underhill cartoon

    Did you see the last Attenborough programme of the series on Africa?  I missed it on Wednesday (being in an Edinburgh hotel which did not have BBC2 !!) so I’ll be watching Sunday’s repeat. Here are some links to the ivory trade: BBC (Gabon’s forest elephants), eleaid (Asian elephants), National Geographic, Bloodyivory, Centre…

All gummed up – chew on that IMO!

All those auks killed off the south coast of England over the last week or so have been killed by polyisobutene (or PIB) according to analyses done by scientists at the University of Plymouth and confirmed by the Environment Agency, says the RSPB. PIB is currently given one of the lowest hazard classifications under MARPOL…

Every picture tells a story

I recently reviewed the magnum opus by Tim Sands (Wildlife in Trust) which chronicles the first 100 years of the Wildlife Trusts for  BBC Wildlife magazine. I picked the book up again recently (which in itself is something of an achievement as it is very heavy) and made a rough note of the species illustrated…