It would be perfectly possible to write about birds of prey, how wonderful they are and their troubled and shortened lives, every day on this blog. I try not to do that because there are other sites that do it so well (raptor politics and raptor persecution Scotland) and because there are other big issues…
Category: Z SMALLER CATEGORIES
It’s about TB
After the decision to delay the badger-cull pilot study it might be that badgers are breathing a sigh of relief. Except they won’t be because we don’t have in place effective measures to limit the spread of bovine TB in badgers and cattle and from one to the other (both ways!). One huge problem with…
Catfield
I have sent the following to PSC-WaterResources@environment-agency.gov.uk referring to applications Mr A W Alston NPS/WR/007223 & NPS/WR/007224. You could too and the closing date for receipt of such views is Wednesday. Catfield Fen is drying out, and has been for several years. There doesn’t seem to be any doubt about that. Catfield Fen is…
Catfield – jewel in the crown, for how much longer?
Nature conservation needs systems and processes and, yes, bureaucracy, and forms and meetings and all the paraphernalia of decision making and due diligence. But, as we all know, sometimes the means can take over from the ends, and sometimes people can lose sight of what the processes are there to deliver. I recently visited Catfield…
Is the answer blowing in the wind?
I’m glad to see that the RSPB is hoping to have a wind turbine at its Bedfordshire HQ – this has been a long-running hope and I wish the plans well. And it is a sensible thing to do for an organisation that supports a move to renewable energy. Martin Harper, RSPB Conservation Director said:…
Nature of Harming update
There is a clear leader in this poll but it’s nip and tuck for second place. But comments keep accruing – there are well over 100 already.
Week 1
Tuesday’s blog was the most-read ever on this site – which surprised me a bit – but if you missed it, here it is. Wednesday’s blog was the fifth most-read ever – but if you missed it, here it is. Thursday was a very enjoyable day in Cambridge. I have only seen red kites on…
A year in blogs
Here is my review of the year in blogs – the first four of which were written whilst I was still working at the RSPB and the last eight whilst ‘just me’. January Our forests- the small sell-off and big lease-off. One of the dangers of writing a daily blog is that you might shoot…
Badgers – slow Paice
On Wednesday, Defra announced their next slow pace towards a large amount of badger-bothering. What they said wasn’t very much and wasn’t very clear. It seems that some time in the autumn, that’s autumn 2012, there will be a six-week trial of farmer-led badger killing in two ‘pilot’ areas of southwest England which are yet…
Various again
I went out for a walk on 1 December – it’s one of the things I can do now I am self-employed. There were fresh worm casts on the lawn and quite a lot of insects in the air – it hardly felt like December. At my local patch of Stanwick Lakes there were golden…