Standing up for Nature
This March Birdwatch has a theme – kids’ engagement with birds and nature. Don’t worry! There are still lots of photos of unidentifiable gulls, and some cracking Siberian Rubythroats too. Are we, all of us, doing our bit, and doing the right things, to bring on the next generation of birders and naturalists? Read Rebecca…
This is the review of the second half of 2015 through the writings of this blog (for Jan-June) – click here for first half of year. July: The Committee on Climate Change criticise the intensive management of grouse moors because of carbon emissions (see here and here). NGOs across the EU rally together to defend…
January: I saw a Great Grey Shrike locally (I’d forgotten until I looked back), Defra were hopeless (hardly news, I know), David Harsent won the TS Eliot prize for poetry for a book which included a poem about a killed Hen Harrier, a Scottish gamekeeper was jailed for killing raptors, SNH was put under pressure…
The readers and non-readers of Birdwatch magazine have voted this blog their Blog of the Year. What a lovely Christmas present! Later today, two summaries of the year through what was covered in this blog (Jan-Jun at 1230; Jul-Dec at 1800). You will have to rush down to your local newsagent, or await the arrival…
I’ve just spent some of the evening at the NT’s Wicken Fen and seen some harriers coming in to roost – and a marvellous Barn Owl going out to feed too. Bearded Tits ‘ping!’-ed in the reeds and Starlings did a small amount of murmurating in the distance. We saw several Marsh Harriers and a…
It doesn’t appear that this winter will be a Waxwing winter. If it is going to be one of those years when Tesco car parks are flooded with Rowan-eating visitors from Scandinavia then large numbers have usually been seen on the east coast and Fair Isle by now. But you can keep track of sightings…
In the latest volume of Bird Study there are papers reporting on two UK national surveys of waders: Woodcock and Dotterel. You could hardly pick two more different species, with Woodcock being largely nocturnal and living in wooded areas, and Dotterels living on the peaks of the highest mountains in Scotland (mostly). But the messages…
It comes to something when four species of birds I have seen this year in the UK are added to the list of globally threatened bird species. The IUCN Red List is updated periodically, after much sucking of teeth and poring over the data (some of which are a bit ropy) and Birdlife International are…
Birdwatch magazine has excelled itself in this year’s Birders’ awards. There are 10 categories in which you can vote (whether you consider yourself a birder or not). I can imagine the voting being pretty close in some categories – in particular the ‘Guano Award for Environmental Harm’ category. The four ‘contenders’ are the Countryside Alliance,…
I’ve been driving around a lot over the last week and you see things as you travel. I’ve seen moor-burning on or near Walshaw Moor, I’ve seen a rutting Red Deer stag with a harem of hinds near Otley, I’ve seen Red Kites in several places where they wouldn’t have been in the fairly recent…