If you are a large company seeking to spend lots of money on a large development which will earn you millions of pounds then here is some advice – treat European wildlife designations seriously. That’s all there is to it really, but history shows that companies tend not to behave as though ‘a few birds’,…
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Support Malta’s conservationists
Malta is a member of the EU but seems to think that it can break and bend the rules of the club by allowing spring hunting of migrant birds that pass across this Mediterranean island on their way north. Birds of all sorts are killed at this time of year. The other evening a party…
Happy Easter!
I had a look at the Pasque Flowers at Barnack last week – they were wonderful but should be much more numerous now. Happy Easter!
Time to be in favour of something…
You can go through life being against things. There are plenty of things that I am against, eg cruelty, unfairness, putting sultanas in apple pies, racism and illegal raptor persecution. You could spend a whole lifetime objecting to things but sometimes you have to be in favour of something. When it comes to climate change,…
Death toll rises in Ross-shire case
That’s right – 14 Red Kites. This case shows the power of poisons and the vulnerability of raptors that will feed on carrion. You don’t need many people to be putting poisons out in the countryside to make a hole in raptor populations. I saw…
If song were solid…
It was the snails that got me thinking… On my walks at Stanwick Lakes, at least on those fairly early in the morning, I am sometimes struck by the trails of snails, and the occasional slug, across the gritty tracks. Although almost all the molluscs are departed one can see where they have been on…
But me no buts
I haven’t seen many butterflies yet this year – a few Peacocks, lots of lovely Brimstones and some very welcome Small Tortoiseshells. But I am keeping my fingers crossed for a sunny, warm summer with lots of butterflies on the wing. Last year, do you remember?, consisted of a grotty spring and then a fine…
Spring – time for the British to kill some raptors
As well as those dozen dead Red Kites and four Buzzards in Ross-shire there has been a poisoned Peregrine found in southern Scotland and a Buzzard trapped in the Peak District. What is it with some land managers in this country? It’s spring, time to kill off some wildlife. At least these examples have come…
Malmesbury revisited
The last time I was in Malmesbury there was a Fieldfare looking over the building site; this time there was a Chiffchaff. Whether the Chiffchaff’s song was celebrating the activity on the site of what will be a new Waitrose store is difficult to know, but there was certainly a lot going on with around…
Why isn’t this even bigger news?
The poisoning of 12 Red Kites and four buzzards in Ross-shire is shocking. See here, here, here, here and here. How long do we have to put up with this type of carnage? Red Kites by Don Macauley via wikimedia commons Buzzard by Andreas Trepte via wikimedia commons