Last night saw the first of this three-part series on primates, narrated by Chris Packham. The images were stunningly good showing the habitats occupied, whether a flooded Amazon rainforest, Madagascar or the temples of Kathmandu. But my favourite sequences were of Drills (similar to, but different from, Mandrills) from the tropical island of Bioko (formerly…
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And another week on…
Comments Off on And another week on…
Two weeks ago: Last week: This week: And yes, it’s still an utterly beautiful yet terrifying curve. Last week cases increased from 48,000 to 84,000 cases – an increase of 36,000. This week, cases increased from 84,000 to 120,000 – an increase of 36,000 cases. In other words, the same number of new cases but…
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
In yesterday’s Natural England blog on the licensing of taking Peregrines from the wild Natural England’s Director for wildlife licensing, Dave Slater, points out that Natural England can issue licences for a variety of purposes which include falconry. The legislation in question is the Wildlife and Countryside Act where the relevant section is, I think,…
More riches…
Remarkable Birds has been my highest-earning book to date – at least as far as payments from publishers are concerned (I never keep track of the sales I make of books at talks etc, at least not by title). Having been published in English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian that’s probably about it although there…
A week on…
Last week: This week: It’s still an utterly beautiful yet terrifying curve. In a week it has increased from 48,000 cases to 84,000 cases. The first case in the UK was in early February, about nine weeks ago. Exactly the same data on a log scale, a week ago: And on a log scale, now:…
Easter eggs?
This nest box, just outside our conservatory, had Blue Tits nesting in it in 2016, and Tree Bumblebees in 2017, and nothing in 2018 and 2019, but Blue Tits are back this year. They’ve been carrying huge beakfuls of moss and a few feathers into the nestbox for days. I guess the female has just…
Prospects for the shooting season?
Despite the shooting industry trying to put on a confident front that it will be unaffected by a global pandemic touching, heavily touching, every other aspect of human life, it seems that the reality is very different. Pheasant and partridge shooting are currently particularly affected because of their dependence on massive imports of eggs and…
Birds on the Brink
Another new charity… Although some charities have an image problem this one will not, funded as it is by the competiton Bird Photographer of the Year.
Magnus Linklater and old Times
Magnus Linklater‘s piece in Monday’s The Times reminds me of many of his previous pieces (but we all believe in recycling) in that he always forgets to mention his close personal interest in game management and he always gets it a bit wrong in my humble opinion. Where he is undoubtedly right is that farmland…
A bit of a slow start…
I was listening to George Osborne on The World This Weekend yesterday and heard him say (15m 43s into programme) that his personal opinion was that the current government had got off ‘to a bit of a slow start’ in dealing with coronavirus. I think that is what everybody probably thinks. And in times of…