I haven’t been out much recently but yesterday morning I had a walk around my local patch of Stanwick Lakes and the star bird was the Sand Martin – there were hundreds of them! Sand Martin – in flight meal. Photo: Tim Melling In fact, a local birder who gets out earlier than I, said…
Category: Uncategorized
Wind turbines – what do you think?
I do notice them, but they have become familiar now, whereas ten years ago they seemed strange and new. I can see this bunch from my house, although it requires a bit of neck-stretching and straining to do so. This morning they were whizzing round in the wind (apart from one of them – there’s…
Thinking of subscribing…
The current Shooting Times magazine is so full of interesting and puzzling articles I am seriously considering taking out a subscription. And it’s nearly time for the next weekly offering. Lindsay Waddell, retired gamekeeper from the Raby estate, writes about the new rules governing heather without actually telling us what they are. I assume he…
What will Glover review make of our environmental glories?
Our uplands are one of our environmental glories Michael Gove, Hansard 28 March In contrast, RSPB Chair, Kevin Cox, said National parks are not delivering for wildlife and are often in worse condition than areas outside the park . They aren’t being monitored, lack funding and have no clear purpose. Farming – plus grouse shooting…
What’s with the Irish butter?
Pure Irish butter in Scotland. Over the past few weeks I’ve been in far-flung parts of Scotland, England and Wales – but not Ireland (north or south). I keep coming across this Lakeland Dairies butter at my breakfast tables. I haven’t found anything wrong with this butter but I am a bit puzzled as to…
A good weekend
We gathered at Parkgate on The Wirral for the high tide at midday on Friday. As the tide comes in, particularly the highest tides (and this was an equinoctial high tide with a super moon!) the voles and mice on the saltmarsh swim for their lives and the predators gather for the feast (as do…
Operation Yellow Hammer
The petition Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU is poised just below 5 million signatures and the Prime Minister is lacking poise on the edge of a precipice. A Yellowhammer from Tim Melling in West Yorkshire
Coul Links crowdfunder is boosted by Walshaw Moor success
The campaign to protect Coul Links is important to me. I know the site and the thought of it becoming yet another golf course when it is so important for wildlife is abhorrent and, in many ways, sums up the ways in which wildlife is so often pushed aside in the modern age. And I…
Countryfile makes a comeback
It is worth watching the piece on moorland burning that went out on Countryfile last night. (Click here from 14mins – 25mins in) There are claims that the system designed to protect [blanket bog] is not fit for purpose https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0002tww/countryfile-gloucestershire Well done to Guy Shrubsole and Friends of the Earth! That dossier of burning on…
Licensed to kill
Yesterday’s Guardian story about the scale of licenses given out by Natural England for killing otherwise protected birds builds on the earlier revelations in the blog of Jason Endfield. The number of birds, eggs and nests involved (170,000) does look eye-wateringly large and the public reaction has been similarly large. My view, as expressed here…