Saturday was a very enjoyable day. I attended a BTO conference for the Berkshire and Oxfordshire region (at Benson just south of Oxford). It seemed the right place to be as the first talk was given by Ian Newton (whose latest excellent book was reviewed here), another talk was about the birds of the ‘heart…
Tag: BTO
Let’s have another warm summer please
Farmland butterflies had a good year in 2013 – benefiting from the best summer weather for seven years. I bet you noticed more butterflies in your garden – I certainly did – and my (our?) garden observations were reflected in a much better year for butterflies across the fields of farmland Britain. Common Blue, Small…
BTO thrushes coloured in my local picture
I went out over the Christmas period to count thrushes for the BTO. The winter thrush survey hasn’t really caught my imagination, and I don’t hold great hopes for it producing fascinating results, but the BTO asked me to do it and so I did it gladly. It wasn’t onerous – a bit of countryside…
Return to Swanwick
I’ve been attending BTO Conferences at Swanwick in Derbyshire, off and on, for about 35 years. Over the years some things have changed and others haven’t. Hardly changed at all: there are always some inspiring talks – Ellie Owen’s was a highlight for me this year there is always a feeling of comradeship amongst…
CAP consultation – here’s one I prepared earlier (and have updated slightly)
In each part of the UK, the governments are consulting on how the tweaked Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should be implemented. I have drafted my response to the Defra consultation and here it is for people to comment on. If you like it you can simply copy and paste it into the consultation and send…