As a BTO member I recently got an email full of interesting information about that excellent organisation and including a link on the differences between the BTO and the RSPB. The impression you might get from this is that the BTO does the science and the RSPB uses the BTO’s science to change the world. …
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All at sea over planning
Today you get two blogs for the price of none – this one’s about planning, the other is about being at sea (or they might both be about being at sea…) Government is talking tough about its contentious proposals for changing the planning system. In a joint article in yesterday’s Financial Times, the Communities and…
The war on biodiversity loss, cuts and bank voles
Last week the biodiversity (and many other things) Minister, Richard Benyon, was quoted on the matter of the recovering bittern population. The Minister said “To see a species that was once extinct in the UK rise to a population of over one hundred is a real achievement. This is largely down to the work of the…
No longer a passenger on our planet
Thursday was the 97th anniversary of the extinction of the passenger pigeon – once the commonest bird in the world and now a distant memory. The Independent newspaper published an article by me on the subject (click here) and regular readers will know I have a bit of a thing about passenger pigeons (click here,…
Last day to vote…
…for your favourite wildlife friendly farmer. Rob Law – see what Jordan’s Cereals say about him here Robert Kynaston – see what Open Farm Sunday says about this LEAF farmer here Somerset and Carolyne Charrington – see what Wild Scotland says about them here David White – see what the Countryside Alliance says about him…
Don’t bank on it, 2
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And we pick up yesterday’s blog on a boat to the Isle of May with gannets fishing around us… The sun had gone and I was glad that I had opted for a combination of short-sleeved shirt and jacket as an each-way bet on the weather. You can’t bank on the weather over a five-hour…
Don’t bank on it, 1
Having seen a rosefinch at Fife Ness on Tuesday, a trip to the Isle of May on Wednesday seemed a good bet. The May is famous for its seabirds, and the studies of them which have been carried out there, and as a place for seeing migrants. Just as Fife Ness reaches out to tired…
It’s Winter all over the world – readers’ offer.
My summer holidays are beginning to fall into a familiar pattern. We book an attractive cottage in the West Country which is every bit as nice as it looked on the internet when we arrive and see it in reality. The weather is a bit English, the phone reception is appalling, there’s a nice pub…
Beautiful butterflies were missing
Adonis was the subject of a tug of love between Aphrodite and Persephone because of his great beauty. The Adonis blue is pretty good-looking too and restricted to chalk grassland sites such as are to be found in Dorset, so Wednesday, after being stood up by white-beaked dolphins, was Adonis blue day. Butterflies are pretty…
Going cuckoo!
One of the most exciting developments of recent years has been the ability to track birds with satellite tags – and the technology allows smaller and smaller birds to be tagged all the time. One of the most exciting current examples is that of cuckoos being tracked by the BTO as they make their way to…?…