The first day of the Cheltenham Festival. The Day of Hope! You’ve lost no money at all and there is everything to play for with plenty of time to add to wins or recoup losses (or indeed to plunge further and further down a slippery losing hill to financial oblivion – but this is the…
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Brrrr – that is cold!
This morning I went out for a walk. I usually do on the Monday before the Cheltenham Festival to get some healthy exercise and to see whether I can see any spring migrants before I disappear to the far side of the Cotswolds for four days of escapism. But today was so cold. So very…
Fat balls, horses, 5th place, lucidity, bat faeces, neonics and cockroaches.
it seemed like spring for a few days last week and two sand martins were seen on Saturday in the Nene Valley, but on Sunday morning I awoke to find a layer of snow on my car. this is an interesting study which tells you that what you are doing with your fat balls may…
Voting day in the Falklands – but not for penguins or albatrosses.
The human population of the Falklands Islands is voting today (and tomorrow) on their future – whether to remain British or not. It’s a foregone conclusion that the c1800 adult population of these islands in the south Atlantic will vote to remain British. The Falkland Islands government website has a few pretty photographs of penguins…
The Pope is a Catholic
The Catholic Church has over a billion members across the globe – that’s similar to the population of India and well over twice that of the EU. The next Pope will have considerable influence on the lives of those billion people and therefore the environmental infallibility of the Pope would be a matter of interest…
Winds of change?
I’m not the best person to write about organisational structures because this is a subject that sometimes makes my eyes glaze over. Sometimes, but not always, and so this blog deals with just that subject and on three different levels. Martin Harper has been dealing with the 3-card trick in his blog recently (here and…
Four hours from home
When your kids leave home it’s a big relief – although I find that leaving home, that was an ‘event’ for me when I went to university, is just a gradual change of emphasis for my daughter and son. But it still opens up the opportunity to re-live the joys of spending money on your…
Raptors
1. The Bowland Betty story from the BBC – well worth a look. Nice to see Tim Melling, Jude Lane, Stephen Murphy, Paul Irving, Des Thompson and others being so sensible. Martin Gillibrand, on the other hand, speaking for the Moorland Association, just looks foolish – have a look. It is difficult to see why…
Happy Birthday Norman Moore – and some snippets
Norman Moore is 90 today – Happy Birthday! Norman Moore has played a major role in nature conservation thinking and practice and his influence still endures. His work on heathlands, hedges, dragonflies, and much more, is still widely quoted. Norman is credited with coining the term ‘a birdwatcher’s insect’ for dragonflies. Norman is the last…
Quiz answers
Here are the answers to today’s quiz. 1. Which bird species has the largest UK breeding population? Wren 8,600,000 pairs. 2. How many UK breeding bird species have populations of over 1 million pairs? I think there are 21; pheasant, wood pigeon, jackdaw, carrion crow, blue tit, great tit, skylark, chiffchaff, willow warbler, blackcap,…