Those at the Game Fair who were baying for the removal of government-imposed red tape may just pause for thought now that Eric Pickles’s Department aims to remove much of the red tape that protects the beauty of the countryside to allow development to proceed more easily and to put economic growth ahead of protecting…
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Readers’ offer
I am at the Game Fair (Fri and Sat). I’m pretty sure this will provide bloggable material for a while! But while I am away – why not buy this excellent book which is a fully updated and enlarged edition of an earlier work? Oliver Prys-Jones and Sarah Corbet are old friends and colleagues from…
Tosh
I do wonder about vets sometimes. In the Sunday Telegraph a ‘report’ (which has not yet been published) is featured under the sensational headline ‘The extinct species back from the brink and causing mayhem’. Crikey! Which species are these? Well, the article doesn’t give any actual examples of mayhem being caused unless you count the red kite which…
Butterflies, Sir David, Ingrams, Waitrose and windfalls
I’ve done my bit for Butterfly Conservation this weekend and carried out a Big Butterfly Count in the back garden. This very serious survey was postponed as when the rain fell this morning I nipped in to Waitrose in Rushden to stock up on cheap white wine and found that my local Waitrose store was…
Thinking about ponds
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I spent Wednesday mostly thinking about ponds. This wasn’t just a reverie – I am a trustee of the excellent small conservation charity ‘Pond Conservation’. They certainly didn’t choose me because of my great knowledge of ponds, but I said ‘yes’ to Pond Conservation because I admire what they are doing, and at their AGM…
Fair point
I recently received in the post my tickets for the CLA Game Fair. This year it is at Blenheim at the end of next week. The last time the Game Fair was at Blenheim the queues into the car park were horrendous so if you come next week, my advice is to set off early –…
I’d like to be ‘rurban’ please
The furthest you can get away from the sea in the UK is about 70 miles and it is up a hill in Derbyshire. I wonder what is the furthest place away from the countryside? I am guessing that it will be some point in central London – maybe the House of Commons itself? –…
Bears, condors, kites and foxes – not for cuddling
The recent killing of a male hiker by a grizzly bear is the first such death in Yellowstone National Park for 25 years and seems to be a highly unfortunate case where walkers accidentally disturb a bear with young and the mother bear defends her cubs. A month ago I had my own close encounter…
The raptor haters – Simon Jenkins
The raptor haters is an occasional series of articles on people who slag off birds of prey. Sir Simon Jenkins is an amazingly gifted writer and obviously a very clever man. I love the way he writes and I read his articles for pleasure as well as for education. Back in May 2008, when the…
East Africa drought – two things we can all do
The worst drought in East Africa for 60 years is causing famine in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Heart-rending images cross our TV screens as they have in previous years – do we react with action or by switching channels? The easier, but important, way to react is to send money to cope with the current…