Importing diseases

The government is about to spend a pittance on a very serious problem – but it should be celebrated as a start. Our trees are under threat from imported diseases – perhaps from some diseases that stand a better chance of becoming established under new climate scenarios. So Defra and the (unreconstructed) Forestry Commission have…

A tale of three warblers

I find that I carry British Birds around with me for ages before I get around to reading it and so this blog is about the September issue which contains the report of the Rare Breeding Bird Panel. The contrasting fortunes of three warblers struck me as I read through the text; Cetti’s, Savi’s and…

How social is your charity?

A fairly recent ranking of how UK charities use social media makes interesting reading. There is a league table – we all love league tables – which puts the Royal Airforces Association as the 100th charity and Cancer Research as number one. On this list the National Trust is #7, the RSPB is #13, WWF…

Checking out

It’s better to be wildlife abroad than at home if you are relying on the English government for help; that appears to be the message from the report card issued by 29 environmental groups on the government’s progress. Defra gets green lights for whales and elephants but seven ambers and seven reds for everything else….