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…
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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…?…
Film it then forget it?
The BBC has confirmed its intention to close the BBC Wildlife Fund. Chief axe-man, George Entwistle, appears unbending to the arguments of those who point out that this move will not save the BBC appreciable money – it will simply cost nature conservation appreciable money. In its first week, 7000 people signed the petition appealing…
3.6 million reds under the bed!
I’m sure we all share the sentiments of Bob Neill, the CLG Minister, who attacked the National Trust for being a den of lefties. It has long been a worry to me that the National Trust has been such an anarchic and, frankly, revolutionary body, always championing underdogs, speaking out loudly on environmental issues and…
TMS caught out by Batesian mimic?
England won the second test match yesterday on a very warm day. After listening to see whether Bresnan would get a hat-trick (he didn’t) I nipped out to post some copies of my book to very astute purchasers. This is becoming a regular afternoon outing and that’s fine by me. My route takes me through…
Do let it grow under your feet
I am quite busy in my post-RSPB life but I do find I have more time to read things that I would have meant to read in the past, but around to which I would not have got. This report, Nature’s Tapestry, is a good example of something which I am glad that I can…
Save the BBC Wildlife Fund – and help it save wildlife
Have a look at this and see what you think. There were just over 300 signatures a few moments ago – let’s see how many we can sign up by the end of today as a start. As a former Environment Secretary Lord Patten should be sufficiently naturally cultured to know that this is a…
Mark Avery is working hard…
Comments Off on Mark Avery is working hard…
Mark Avery is working hard for someone else right now – today’s blog will appear later in the day. Blogging for Nature is my book of blogs from my RSPB days. It contains 143 blogs out of over 700 which I wrote during my last two years as the RSPB’s Conservation Director. The last blog…