A few days ago Natural England put the list of 20 short-listed areas that have been proposed as Nature Improvement Areas onto their website and apparently didn’t tell anyone. And Defra didn’t tell anyone either it seems. How odd? It’s like not mentioning the penultimate episode of Strictly Come Dancing. Perhaps it’s because this is…
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Birdwatch column
My column in the November Birdwatch magazine is on the subject of hen harriers and their persecution by grouse moor managers. Rather than tell you what it says I’d like to tell you that Birdwatch is asking your opinion on the subject. Is it time for a change of tack by the wildlife conservation organisations…
Blogging for Nature review in Birds magazine
The latest RSPB BIRDS magazine, the one with two long-tailed tits on the cover, has a review of my book Blogging for Nature. If you aren’t an RSPB member (why not?) then I can tell you that the review tells you to go out and buy 20 copies now for all your relatives’ Christmas presents…
Raptor haters (?) nominated for Fields Medal
In their most recent outburst of anti-raptor letters the Daily Telegraph publishes a mathematical breakthrough deserving recognition. A letter states ‘ There are an estimated 80,000 sparrowhawks in Britain. They require at least one kill per day. The arithmetic is simple and compelling: 80,000 multiplied by 365 equals more than 29 million dead birds a year.‘….
Another membership
Last week I went to a trustees’ meeting of Pond Conservation and felt guilty that I hadn’t yet got around actually to joining. So now I have. I am a fully paid up member of an excellent but small conservation organisation. It’s interesting that we use (actually, I don’t) pond life as a term of…