On Monday I did an interview for the BBC Farming Today programme, with the NFU’s Guy Smith. If you want to listen to that interview you can but you won’t learn anything new from it as the NFU is still in denial over the loss of farmland wildlife and the role that farming has played…
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Pot pourri
It seems to have been raining for two weeks – please stop. I want to see some butterflies and more spring migrants. The summer of 1976 was a hot dry summer – and my gap year before university. When a Drought Minister was appointed the heavens opened and my first month at Cambridge seemed to…
St Mark’s Day – 25 April
I’m no saint but it is St Mark’s Day. Keep an eye open for St Mark’s Flies – with their black hairy bodies and dangling legs – not like me at all. Although before we mucked about with the calendar this would have been around 4 May rather than now – but with global warming…
April non-showers
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Last spring it was hot and dry – do you remember that? At the moment we seem to be getting drizzly days which aren’t ideal for butterflies. But last year was good for spring butterflies, even though not so good for summer-flying butterflies because the weather turned cold, according to Butterfly Conservation. Last year’s warm…
Today’s post will appear at 0930 – it’s embargoed until then
Things peregrines do
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Fight – amazing footage (look at the 15 April clip) Eat – you’ll be surprised at what it is eating
Kids stuff?
A couple of weeks ago Stephen Moss wrote a guest blog here about the National Trust report, Natural Childhood, (which he wrote) which discusses the lack of connection between children and nature. Did you read the full report – it’s well worth it if you didn’t and it is quite short. Now the National Trust…
Pieces and bits
A titanic beetle? And my earlier words on this subject. Sunnyhillboy was a whisker away from winning. I enjoyed reading this. I am writing occasional blogs for this site – but it has many good bloggers contributing too. And here is something slightly different from me on another site. I saw my first common tern…
Bits and pieces
Wuthering Moors: I’m grateful to Defra for their acknowledgement of my FOI requests – watch this space. NGOs – love ’em or hate ’em?: Over 400 of you have voted in this poll in four days. Thank you and the results so far are fascinating. I’m surprised at some of the organisations that you don’t…
Are you going out looking for nature this weekend?
Last weekend was a bit of a disappointment nature-wise so I am experiencing nature-deficit grumpiness. Most of my nature watching is within 10 miles of where I live but an occasional trip further afield adds variety now and again. Living as far from the coast, almost, as it is possible to be, a trip east…