You must remember all that fuss about forests? We all fought to keep our forests didn’t we? Here is an update from FC England on the implementation plan. It’s not a document to quicken the pulse. When you eventually get to the bits about wildlife then Commitment 22 has an unhealthy obsession with pesky deer…
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Do, please, remember to…
1. Complete the readers’ survey for this blog. Over 700 responses so far. 2. Sign this e-petition asking for grouse moors to be licensed which passed 8,600 signatures today.
Them and us, and what you want
There has been a lot of nonsense talked about the non-reappointment of Baroness Morgan to Ofsted. Once a political party is in power then it is likely, and well-advised, to appoint like-thinking people to positions of power and influence. They need to be hard-working and able people, and people with other qualities than simply ‘one…
Readers’ survey
I’d be very grateful if you would take this readers’ survey – which is partly a repeat of a previous survey just over a year ago. Your answers will be anonymous – I won’t know (and frankly, I’m not interested in knowing) what named individuals answered. Last year I asked 12 questions, this year 11…
It’s wet in my ‘back yard’
It was a bit of a toss-up whether to go out for a walk this morning or not. I’d been up since 5am and got quite a lot of work done – I’d written 700 words on Stanwick Lakes for a book that is being compiled about the Nene Valley so I felt pretty good. …
Doves of peace
When the ecological Pope Francis released some white doves as a sign of peace they were attacked by a corvid and a larid see here, here, here. How metaphorical can you get? My reactions were varied: 1. The nerdy birder: it’s not a ‘seagull’ – it looks like Larus michahellis to me with those yellow…
Those dark eyes
I looked into her dark eyes in a way I never had before – they were so beautiful. Why hadn’t I noticed? Her rounded breast swelled and…she burst into song, because she (or maybe he, but I prefer to think she) was a Robin. It was near the end of one of my regular walks…
Why are we counting?
…asks the GWCT website. And it’s a good question which certainly isn’t answered by the following text. GWCT are organising a Big Farmland Bird Count (yes, really) for early February in case we all get bored after we can’t shoot pheasants any longer. What next? The NFU Even Bigger Farmland Bird Count and the CLA…
Peter Kendall again
We’ll miss him when he is gone won’t we? I am grateful to Martin Harper’s blog (always worth reading) for pointing me in the direction of Peter Kendall’s last speech as NFU President at an Oxford Farming Conference. He couldn’t resist having a badly-judged dig at the RSPB, which should bring home the message to…
Wrapping up
In the streets around where I live, before Christmas, there were teams of workmen renovating the ‘council’ houses. Sometimes these groups had eastern European accents, sometimes they were from the foreign land of Wales, and sometimes the Northamptonshire accent was playing across the pot-holed streets of my neighbourhood. There was quite a lot going on…