I’m sorry I missed the launch of the State of Nature report by a large group of NGOs as I think it would have been a very enjoyable event. A bit like a gathering of old friends at the deathbed of UK wildlife – determined to have a good time, mention what a great person…
Tag: BTO
BBS
I got up early on Sunday morning in order to do the last visits to my two BBS squares. The Rolling Stones had kept me up the night before which was a bit mean of them – at their age they should know better. It’s a whitethroat year for sure – there weren’t many warblers…
Happy Birthday BTO
Apparently the BTO is 80 today – Happy Birthday! Personally I wouldn’t have said that Andy Clements was a day over 65 but you never can tell can you? There’s quite a lot of interesting stuff about the BTO’s past on their website – click here. However, unlike for most people in their 80s, it…
Guest Blog – BTO & CLO by Andy Clements
BTO recently hosted a visit from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO), Ithaca, NY, USA marking the exciting culmination of a year’s discussions to set up a long-term collaboration between our two organisations. It is thanks to Mark for initiating contact between myself and John Fitzpatrick, CEO at Cornell Lab, following Mark’s US road…
Guest Blog – Not the BTO winter thrush survey by Hugh Brazier
Hugh Brazier was at school with Mark Avery a long time ago. He then spent many years in Ireland, where (among other things) he frequented seabird colonies off the west coast, ringed lots of puffins and storm petrels, and edited the journal Irish Birds. He is now based in York, where he works as a…
Patch work
The natural world is a source of great wonder to me. I enjoy being out there with my wellies on and binoculars around my neck. I enjoy thinking about species I may see or learn about in future. And I like re-living those special wildlife experiences. And I like having a local patch, Stanwick Lakes,…
BTO Winter Thrush Survey
Last week I did my Big Society thing for the BTO winter thrush survey. There was a spell of what we will have to call fine weather in the morning and I was out looking for blackbirds, song thrushes, mistle thrushes, redwings and fieldfares, and indeed waxwings and starlings, and indeed anything else that might…
Something for a rainy day
The weather forecast isn’t great for the next few days so you might find that you are stuck indoors when you would like to be out looking at waxwings or fieldfares (I must do some winter thrush recording) or geese or holly or ivy. Here are some new maps from the BTO to get your…
Guest blog – BTO science by Andy Clements
Dr Andy Clements was trained as a scientist with a PhD in animal behaviour from the University of Wales, and has spent 30 years as a professional nature conservationist. He is currently the Chief Executive of the BTO. It was great to see science for nature conservation discussed in Mark’s blog last week, and…
Whose science counts? Don’t droop your ‘h’s!
I remember attending a Game Fair, in fact it was the last one in 2011 (rained off this year) when in the space of two days I heard people say that we British have the ‘best farmers in the world’, the ‘best foresters in the world’ and the’ best shooters in the world’ – and…