Reading the minutes of other people’s meetings is not my natural habitat or habit. However, you never know what you might find. The trouble is, most minutes are written to hide rather than expose any interesting parts of the meetings they purport to summarise. What might we find out if we had the energy to…
Category: Uncategorized
Children’s Eyes on Earth
You have a few days to vote in this international photographic competition for children and young people up to the age of 17. Voting closes at midnight on 25 September but why not vote now, otherwise you’ll forget won’t you? There are 50 photographs from around the world and some of them are stunning –…
Montreal
25 years ago, that’s all, the Montreal Protocol was signed. The ozone hole is healing. International agreements can be agreements and can make a difference. Let’s have some more please.
For all that’s sacred…
I had a brief and pleasant walk at Stanwick Lakes one lunchtime this week. The sun shone and there were lots of birds around. A common sandpiper meant that it was either autumn or spring. An adult yellow-legged gull made it more likely that it was late summer as that is when I see most…
For heaven on Earth’s sake
An interesting poll was reported yesterday. Young people are more likely to cite ‘caring for the environment’ as their top moral issue than ‘having a religious faith’. Admittedly there wasn’t much in it, and both of those answers were way below ‘looking after your family’ which headed the list. There is a strong moral element…
Mmmmm! Yummy!
I tell the story in Fighting for Birds of staying at the house of a grouse moor manager and being given grouse to eat for dinner. I quite like grouse but I prefer pheasant on my plate. There was a bit of an expectant hush as my host and some other guests waited to see…
Thank you WWT
Comments Off on Thank you WWT
Thank you to the staff, visitors, volunteers and wildlife of the WWT London Wetland Centre for giving me a good day yesterday. An audience of 45-50 folk heard me talk about nature conservation issues from reintroductions to raptor persecution, and from protected areas to farmland birds. The talk seemed to go well and there was…
Fancy a new job?
A little bird tells me that Songbird Survival is looking for a Chief Executive to work a few days a week running the charity. The little bird seemed to have this on very reliable authority so I attempted to ask Songbird Survival through their website for details and an application form as I may have…
What’s in a name? New Poll.
In Chapter 15 of Fighting for Birds I ponder the future of the RSPB and that leads me on to wonder whether it is time to change the name of the organisation. The RSPB is searching for a Fundraising and Communications Director, a new post combining two existing roles, and whoever is successful in that…
Saturday 6
You do know what day it is don’t you? In my ‘political birder’ column in this month’s Birdwatch magazine I discuss whether nature conservationists should be causing a few more problems for the fieldsports community in response to the lack of hen harriers, buzzardgate and the call to put goosander and cormorant on the general…