This morning’s discussion about the Northern Bald Ibis on the Today programme was a bit pathetic and maybe exemplifies the BBC’s inability to deal accurately and seriously with wildlife stories. Jim Naughtie couldn’t pronounce ‘ibis’ properly and neither he nor the reporter could manage to say ‘ornithologist’. Hardly the worst crime in the world, even…
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Henry in Bowland 3
Henry’s ears should have been burning last night because he kept coming up in conversation at the launch of Michael McCarthy’s book, The Moth Snowstorm, in the Linnaean Society in Piccadilly. This was a gathering of the friends of one of the country’s finest writers about environmental matters and the natural world – it was…
Lord Gardiner
I had hoped there would be a Gardiner in Defra after the election, but I had hoped it would be Barry Gardiner MP. What has happened is that Lord Rupert de Mauley has gone and he hasn’t been replaced as a full minister (and as far as I can see he hasn’t got another job…
Really?
The Defra Press Office has just confirmed to me that Lord Gardiner has been appointed as their Lords minister. I phoned them just now. The Defra Press Officer seemed surprised I should ask, and seemed to think the appointment was made last Thursday. But the government website does not mention his name. Lord Gardiner is…
Tomorrow
I’m doing a couple of things in Norfolk tomorrow. First the Norfolk Bird Fair at Mannington Hall, north of Norwich. I’ll be giving a talk at 1345 which will encompass Passenger Pigeons and Hen Harriers. Looks like it will be a fun event with lots of stands. Maybe Songbird Survival will be able to tell…
A week is a long time…
Humour me, this post is about where we are politically, it has very little to do with nature – I just wanted to get it out of my system. And it’s mostly about the Labour Party – remember them? There are two people, either of whom I would be keen to see as leader of…
You might hear a Nightingale tonight
Comments Off on You might hear a Nightingale tonight
This evening there will be an attempt to broadcast the song of a nightingale, live, from Norfolk at 1015 tonight. This is part of a campaign to persuade the BBC to make live Nightingale song a part of every spring.
Good news and bad news
The good news is, I hope, that the irritating ‘Viagra in the US’ words at the top of this page should have gone. If you could see them before, can you see them now? The bad news is, although I can see all your comments, stretching back years, they don’t seem to be displaying at…
Nature alert
Now is the time to show that you are a European. For some strange reason, and the reason is fairly shrouded in mystery, the EU has decided to review the Birds Directive and the Habitats and Species Directive. The Dutch government was, it seems, one of the prime movers behind this and by chance will…
Looking forward to …
Can anyone spot anything wrong with the following sentence? ‘I’m looking forward to a rational discussion with Robin Page at the ‘Tooth and Claw’ debate on Saturday in Norwich based on his well-argued and wholly accurate piece in the Daily Mail.’